What It Is
The house of the Portuguese merchant Miranda, next to João Romão's tenement and separated from it by a wall (chapter I). It is the family house of name, with windows open over the courtyard, from which one sees, hears, and gives orders. In The Slum it forms the class counterpoint to the tenement: up there, the dowry, the title, and the champagne; down here, the samba and the tubs. Over time the townhouse gives way before the neighboring building and in the end hands its daughter over to him (chapter XX and chapter XXI).
Where It Appears
In chapter I Miranda buys the townhouse and moves in with Dona Estela and Zulmira to keep his wife out of reach of the shop clerks. He wants a piece of Romão's land for the backyard, and Romão refuses.
In chapter II, two years later, the tenement is what Miranda sees growing under his windows, and the noise of the courtyard reaches him even inside the house.
aterrado defronte daquela floresta implacável que lhe crescia junto da casa, por debaixo das janelas, terrified before that implacable forest that grew beside his house, beneath his windows
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
In chapter III Estela and Zulmira file their nails at the window, oblivious to the noise rising from the courtyard.
In chapter VII Miranda appears at the window against the pagode and threatens to call the police, and he is pulled back inside by Estela, Zulmira, Henrique, and Botelho.
O Miranda apareceu furioso à janela, com o seu tipo de comendador, a barriga empinada para a frente, de paletó branco, um guardanapo ao pescoço e um trinchante empunhado na destra, como uma espada, Miranda appeared furious at the window, with his air of a comendador, belly thrust forward, in a white jacket, a napkin at his neck, and a carving knife raised in his right hand like a sword
In chapter X the house starts preparations for a party, with servants and suppliers, and the tenement watches from the townhouse's windows as the owner's title becomes an event.
In chapter XIII Botelho sells Romão the bridge to the house for twenty contos, and Romão dines there: he breaks into a sweat, slips, and makes Zulmira laugh.
Botelho queria vinte contos de réis, e com papel passado a prazo de casamento; o outro oferecia dez., Botelho wanted twenty contos de réis, with the paperwork drawn up as a marriage settlement; the other offered ten.
In chapter XIV it is Romão who appears at the townhouse window, in light worsted, talking with Zulmira and looking down.
lançava para baixo olhares de desprezo sobre aquela gentalha sensual, que o enriquecera, e que continuava a mourejar estupidamente, de sol a sol, sem outro ideal senão comer, dormir e procriar, he cast looks of contempt down on that sensual rabble, which had enriched him and which went on toiling stupidly from sunup to sundown, with no ideal other than eating, sleeping, and breeding
In chapter XVI Miranda's family watches from the window the fight between Piedade and Rita, indifferent. In chapter XVII Botelho, at the Baron's window, applauds the battle of the two maltas, and from the house come Zulmira's shrieks as she joins the attack.
In chapter XVIII Miranda comes in the morning to the burned tenement, contrite and superior, congratulates Romão on the insurance, and leaves with unreserved admiration for the plan to rebuild. In chapter XIX the works begin on the townhouse side, and Romão starts dining there on Sundays and spoiling Zulmira and the family.
In chapter XX the rebuilt tenement pushes the townhouse back in the eyes of anyone looking at it.
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
In chapter XXI Miranda confirms that Zulmira accepts Romão and that Estela will set the day, and Estela turns up her nose at the rumor about the crioula. In chapter XXIII Romão waits at a confectioner's on the Rua do Ouvidor for Miranda's family, who arrive with Zulmira and Estela and receive him with courtesies.
What It Means
The townhouse works as an observation post in both directions. From above, Miranda, the family, and Botelho look at the tenement as a threat or as a spectacle (chapter II, chapter VII, chapter XVI, chapter XVII); from below, the tenement watches the preparations for the baron's party (chapter X). The distance between the two houses shrinks until it reverses: Romão enters the townhouse as a guest (chapter XIII), begins to look down from the townhouse window (chapter XIV), and ends up with the taller building (chapter XX). The text leaves open whether the townhouse loses because of its owner's weakness or because the house of name is worth less than the tenement growing beside it.
Relationships
- Work: The Slum, by Aluísio Azevedo.
- Standard themes: Social Class, Ambition.
- Characters: Miranda, Dona Estela, Zulmira, Botelho, João Romão.
- Neighboring symbols: the São Romão tenement, which lies on the other side of the wall, and the baron's title, which the townhouse's owner pursues.