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The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas

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Character Map

Who is who, and who belongs to whom. Click a name to open the character page.

Brás Cubas Narrator and protagonist of The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, born October 20, 1805, a law graduate of Coimbra, heir to a family that grew rich and then invented a noble origin for itself, a deputy who never rises to minister, and the lover of a married... Virgília Woman who crosses the life of Brás Cubas in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas: the bride the father chooses for him, the wife of Lobo Neves, the lover of the little house in Gamboa, and the visitor who finds him ill. The narrator portrays her at fifteen or... Lobo Neves Husband of Virgília and rival of Brás Cubas in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, who takes his bride and his candidacy within a few weeks. A declared ambitious man, a deputy and orator, he wants public glory and promises his wife the title of marquise. He... Marcela The Spanish woman whom Brás Cubas loves at seventeen in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, the "pretty Marcela" of the young men, luxurious, impatient, fond of money and of young men, and the first affair that costs him dearly. The book gives two versions... Eugênia Daughter of Dona Eusébia, the sixteen-year-old whom Brás Cubas meets in Tijuca in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, pretty and lame from birth, whom he takes for an illegitimate daughter, born of love and contempt. She answers without hesitation the... Quincas Borba Childhood schoolmate of Brás Cubas in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, son of a widow with some means, who, in school days, played emperor at the Holy Spirit festivals. He reappears as an adult, a beggar in the Passeio Público, then as heir to an uncle... Dona Plácida Seamstress and former dependent of Virgília's family, to whom Brás Cubas entrusts the keeping of the little house in Gamboa in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. The natural daughter of a sacristan of the Sé cathedral and a confectioner, she supported her... Prudêncio Household boy of the Cubas family whom young Brás Cubas turned into his daily horse, and who reappears, freed by Brás's father, whipping an enslaved man of his own in the Valongo. The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas shows him only a few times and hardly... Bento Cubas Father of Brás Cubas in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, a man of imagination who escaped the cooperage, as his son says, with an invented noble origin, and who spent his life wanting to see his son placed high. He displays the boy to the city, admires... Sabina Brás Cubas's sister and Cotrim's wife, present at his deathbed in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. She appears in family scenes, in the inheritance, in the truce, and in the marriage she decrees for her brother; the book leaves open whether the affection... Cotrim Brás Cubas's brother-in-law, husband of Sabina and father of the niece Venância in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas. The book presents him first as a family figure and only later portrays him full length (chapter CXXIII): fiercely honorable, accused of... Nhã-loló Daughter of Damasceno, chosen by Sabina to marry Brás Cubas in The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, a young woman with proud eyes and a dainty voice. The book shows her by a nickname, Nhã-loló, and only the tombstone gives her name, Dona Eulália Damascena de...

Other characters

Dona Eusébia: a lady present at the 1814 dinner, whom Brás, as a boy, catches kissing Dr. Vilaça at the country house (ch. XII); years later, his neighbor in Tijuca, she receives Brás and introduces him to her daughter, Eugênia (ch. XXIX, ch. XXX).
Dr. Vilaça: the commentator at the 1814 dinner, whose remarks delay the dessert and whose kiss on Dona Eusébia the boy exposes (ch. XII).
Uncle João: a military uncle, who sees in the newborn a look of Bonaparte, tells his nephew obscene anecdotes and takes him to supper at Marcela's house (ch. X, ch. XI, ch. XIV).
Uncle Ildefonso: the priest uncle, later a canon, who predicts a bishopric for the boy and watches over the ceremonies without the power to enforce virtue; he dies around the time of Virgília's departure (ch. X, ch. XI, ch. CXVI).
Brás's mother: weak and pious, she helps her son divert money to Marcela and dies of stomach cancer, the first death Brás sees up close (ch. XV, ch. XXIII).
Councilor Dutra: Virgília's father, "a political influence," who finds Brás's candidacy legitimate but asks him to wait (ch. XXVIII, ch. XXXVII, ch. XLIII).
Luís Dutra: Virgília's cousin and a poet, whose verses were worth more than Brás's; it is he who tells Brás that Virgília has come back married (ch. XLVIII, ch. L).
Viegas: an old, miserly relative of Virgília, from whom she hopes for a bequest for her son; he dies haggling over the sale of a house and leaves nothing (ch. LXXXVIII, ch. LXXXIX, ch. XC).
Damasceno: Cotrim's brother-in-law and the father of Nhã-loló, who claims to have made the revolution of 1831 and is lost in a cockfight (ch. XCII, ch. CXXI, ch. CXXVI).
Nhonhô: the son of Virgília and Lobo Neves, whom Brás calls "my accomplice and my enemy" (ch. VI, ch. LXIII, ch. LXVII).
Jacó Tavares: the most upright man Brás ever knew, who lies four times to get rid of a pest and defends social lying (ch. LXXXVII).