Who He Is
Portuguese merchant, owner of the townhouse beside the grocery of João Romão, married to Dona Estela for a dowry that sustains his trading house, father of Zulmira without being certain he is. He moves to the neighborhood to keep his wife out of reach of the shop assistants, watches the tenement grow before his window, envies his neighbor, begins to dream of a title and receives that of Baron of Freixal from the Portuguese government. From then on the book shows him passing from envy to admiration and from irritation with the tenement to his daughter's marriage to his former rival.
Trajectory
He buys the townhouse and moves in with his wife and daughter. He has known of Dona Estela's adultery since the second year of their marriage and does not leave her because of the dowry; he doubts that Zulmira is his daughter. He wants to buy a piece of João Romão's lot for a backyard, and the neighbor refuses (chapter I).
a sua casa comercial garantia-se com o dote que ela trouxera, uns oitenta contos em prédios e ações da dívida pública, his trading house was secured by the dowry she had brought, some eighty contos in buildings and public debt securities
Prezava, acima de tudo, a sua posição social e tremia só com a ideia de ver-se novamente pobre, sem recursos e sem coragem para recomeçar a vida, above all he prized his social position and trembled at the very idea of finding himself poor again, without resources and without courage to begin life anew
Two years later he cannot bear the prosperity of his neighbor, who grew rich without marrying anyone, and concludes that he tied himself to his wife for the dowry. The baron's title becomes the ideal he lacks, and he affects social scruples and opens the house for parties (chapter II).
Foi da supuração fétida destas ideias que se formou no coração vazio do Miranda um novo ideal - o título, it was from the fetid suppuration of these ideas that a new ideal formed in Miranda's empty heart: the title
He extends to his daughter the hatred he feels for his wife.
a pobre criança nada mais representava que o documento vivo do ludíbrio materno, e o Miranda estendia até à inocentezinha o ódio que sustentava contra a esposa, the poor child represented nothing more than the living proof of the mother's deceit, and Miranda extended to the little innocent the hatred he harbored against his wife
At home he has Henrique, the son of a client farmer, and the old Botelho, who agrees with him against Estela and with Estela against him (chapter II). One Sunday, disturbed by the noise of the pagode, he appears at the window with a carving knife in hand and threatens to call the police, while his wife and the others pull him back inside (chapter VII).
Ah, canalhas! O que eu devia fazer era atirar-lhes daqui, como a cães danados!, Ah, scoundrels! What I should do is shoot at them from here, like mad dogs!
The newspaper carries the news of the title, and the house fills with preparations for the Sunday party; it is this news that keeps João Romão awake (chapter X). Three months later, when the neighbor remakes himself from the inside out, Miranda starts doffing his hat to him, and Botelho secures the invitation to the Baron's dinner (chapter XIII).
On the morning after the fire he arrives at the tenement, contrite and superior, congratulates João Romão because everything was insured, and comments on the homeless:
Nada têm que perder, They have nothing to lose
He hears the plan to rebuild with four or five hundred rooms and leaves with his envy converted into admiration, keeping only one reservation (chapter XVIII).
O que ainda lhe restava da primitiva inveja transformou-se nesse instante num entusiasmo ilimitado e cego., what remained to him of his original envy turned at that instant into a boundless and blind enthusiasm.
É um filho da mãe! resmungava ele pela rua, em caminho do seu armazém. É de muita força! Pena é estar metido com a peste daquela crioula! Nem sei como um homem tão esperto caiu em semelhante asneira!, He's a son of a bitch! he grumbled in the street, on his way to his store. He's a man of great strength! A pity he's mixed up with that pest of a black woman! I can't see how such a clever man could fall into such a blunder!
He receives the neighbor for Sunday dinner, goes with him to the theater, and watches João Romão's townhouse rise higher than his own (chapter XIX, chapter XX).
O prédio do Miranda parecia ter recuado alguns passos, perseguido pelo batalhão das casinhas da esquerda, Miranda's building seemed to have retreated a few steps, pursued by the battalion of little houses on the left
He confirms to João Romão that Zulmira accepts him and that Dona Estela will set the day (chapter XXI). At the confectionery on Rua do Ouvidor he tells a story about military discipline that Botelho follows along with others, and in Largo de São Francisco he offers his future son-in-law a seat in the carriage, which he declines (chapter XXIII).
Themes Embodied
The standard themes that run through him are Envy, Ambition, Marriage and Social Class. The symbol that accompanies him is the baron's title, which he receives and whose glow makes João Romão measure what he lacks, and the house he lives in, Miranda's townhouse, which the tenement surrounds and which the neighbor ends up surpassing.
Miranda and João Romão are the same question asked from two sides: what money buys and what is still missing. Miranda has a house, a marriage and a title, but lacks the neighbor's freedom; the neighbor has the money and wants the title. The book has each look at the other over the wall until Miranda's admiration ends in marriage: the neighbor becomes his son-in-law.
Miranda's envy in chapter II has two readings: the pursuit of position, so as not to be worse than the neighbor, or the refuge of a man with no other desire. The carving-knife scene, the reservation about Bertoleza and the "nada têm que perder" (they have nothing to lose) show a man who reacts to the scene he sees from the window more than he decides, and his daughter's marriage reaches him as an arrangement between two men who size each other up, in which Zulmira is not consulted on stage.
Relationships
- João Romão: the neighbor he envies, then admires, and finally accepts as a son-in-law.
- Dona Estela: the wife of the dowry, whose adultery he knows and with whom, after the catch, he began sleeping in a separate room.
- Zulmira: the daughter he doubts and who agrees to marry the shopkeeper.
- Botelho: the parasite of the house who hears the complaints of both and brings João Romão the marriage proposal.