Chapter XXI: João Romão Decides to Get Rid of Bertoleza
Section summary
On the night Miranda confirms to him that Zulmira accepts him and that Dona Estela will set the date, João Romão paces the new room without knowing what to do with Bertoleza, who sleeps downstairs in a recess under the stairs. The marriage gives him a family name, a dowry, and the neighbor's inheritance, and opens the way to the viscount's title he dreams of having before Miranda; she, who helped him rise, is what remains of his past behind the counter and over the stove. At midnight he goes down with a candle, thinking of strangling her, but she lifts her head with her eyes open and he backs off with an excuse. In the morning the tenement is thrown into an uproar by the death of the Machona's son, Agostinho, who fell from the quarry. Then Botelho appears, announcing that at the house of Miranda Dona Estela turns up her nose at the rumor about the crioula, and advises giving her a greengrocery in another neighborhood. Bertoleza, who has heard it all, enters the room and demands to stay by his side and have her share of what the two of them earned. Outside the house, Botelho asks whether she was a slave, and João Romão sees the way out he lacked: return her to her owner, a certain Freitas de Melo, and hands the job over to Botelho for two hundred milreis.
Analysis
Bertoleza had to be crushed, had to be suppressed, because she was everything bad in his life!
João Romão does not want her dead out of hatred, but because she is the visible remnant of what he was, and the new life he desires (the silks, the piano, tea in porcelain) has no room for that remnant. The reason given is that the woman who worked at his side is "all his evil," and the haste comes from fear of the scandal that would cost him the marriage. The retreat before the candle, meanwhile, shows that the desire to be rid of her has not yet become courage.
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Chapter XXII: The São Romão Prospers and Pombinha Falls
Section summary
Bertoleza lives on edge, eats only what she herself prepares, and locks her door at night, while the store of João Romão becomes the supplier for Botafogo and the tenement is cleaned up: he demands a letter of guarantee, raises prices, loses washerwomen and Italians to the "Cabeça-de-Gato" and gains a tailor, a watchmaker, a painter, and a cigar maker. The Machona softens after her son's death, Alexandre becomes a sergeant, and Rita Baiana has an imitator in Florinda. Léonie keeps visiting the tenement and, one Saturday afternoon, takes Pombinha with her, who has thrown herself into the world and lives with her. Pombinha, after two years of marriage, can no longer bear a husband without ideals; she tries everything to be the wife he wanted, but slides toward a bohemian poet, then toward an actor, is abandoned, goes to live with Léonie and becomes a cocotte, supporting her mother Dona Isabel until the mother's death. By contrast, Piedade, the wife of Jerônimo, sinks to the bottom: drunk, without work, she is evicted and takes refuge with her daughter in the Cabeça-de-Gato, the tenement that sinks into degradation as the São Romão grows grander. Pombinha, for her part, protects Piedade's daughter with the same kindness Léonie once showed her.
Analysis
Chapter XXIII: The Returned Slave and the Abolitionists
Section summary
In a confectioner's on Rua do Ouvidor, João Romão waits for the family of Miranda with Zulmira and Dona Estela, who receive him with courtesies and a question about the opera company that unsettles him. Botelho arrives with the news that the owner of Bertoleza is coming to the house that afternoon with the police, and insists that Romão be present because without him the plan may fall apart; he even advises giving the man five hundred milreis as a balance, "to do the thing in fine style." On Largo da Carioca, a carriage passes them with Pombinha and Henrique. After a cold dinner, a man comes down with two soldiers. Bertoleza, squatting and scaling fish, recognizes the eldest son of her former master, understands everything, and before they can seize her, plunges the knife into her belly. João Romão flees to the dark corner of the store. At that moment, a delegation of abolitionists arrives to present him with the diploma of honorary member, and he orders them shown into the parlor.
Analysis
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Analysis