The Theme in the Work
João Romão arrives in the book already accumulating: in chapter I he lives on privation, hides from Bertoleza that her letter of freedom is forged, and builds the tenement with her money. The ambition to rise in station appears only later, when the baron's title of his neighbor Miranda gives it an object (ch. X). From then on the novel tells it in stages: the refinement of clothes and habits (ch. XIII), the building works and the courtship of Zulmira (ch. XIX), the viscount plan and the decision about Bertoleza (ch. XXI), and the honor that closes the book (ch. XXIII).
In Miranda and in Jerônimo ambition takes another form. Miranda forms the ideal of the title out of envy of his neighbor (ch. II). Jerônimo arrives as an immigrant farmhand who wants work that pays (ch. V) and, as he becomes Brazilian, forgets his dreams of ambition (ch. IX).
Romão's ambition is also measured by what it allows him to do to others. He yields to the salary of Jerônimo only after calculating that the money will come back to him through the shop (ch. IV), and he refuses to settle accounts with the clerk Domingos (ch. IX). He takes the bottles from Libório and uses the rest on the building works (ch. XVIII), and the new townhouse ends up taller than Miranda's, with the signboard changed to Avenida São Romão (ch. XX).
The narrator separates what Romão feels at the start from ambition proper: he calls the desperation to accumulate a nervous illness (ch. I). Ambition gains an object when Miranda's title appears (ch. X), and comes to have stages and a cost, which the book collects from Bertoleza (ch. XXI, ch. XXIII). In Jerônimo the same word runs the other way, from the farmhand who came to earn to the man who stops saving. The text does not say whether the difference between the two men is one of character or of place.
Where It Appears
- Chapter I: Romão sells the egg he likes and keeps the vegetable nobody would buy, and the narrator says that this was no longer ambition, it was desperation to accumulate.
- Chapter II: Miranda, seeing his neighbor get rich without marrying for a dowry, forms the ideal of the title and opens his house for parties.
- Chapter IV: Romão agrees to pay seventy milreis to Jerônimo after calculating that the salary will come back to his drawer through the shop.
- Chapter V: Jerônimo, who left the plantation empty-handed, looks for a place where effort pays for himself, and his employer comes to respect him.
- Chapter IX: Jerônimo becomes Brazilian and forgets his dreams of ambition; Romão refuses to settle accounts with the clerk Domingos and says his balance does not cover Florinda's dowry.
- Chapter X: The news of Miranda's title robs Romão of sleep. He sees himself as baron and banker in a dream and counts up what he lacks for the leap.
- Chapter XII: After Bruno's letter, Pombinha sees in her fiancé a good young man without any daring ambition and almost breaks off the arrangement.
- Chapter XIII: Romão remakes himself with clothes, dance lessons, and newspapers, settles with Botelho the price of reaching the Baron's house and, in his daydreams, thinks of everything except Bertoleza.
- Chapter XIV: From Miranda's window, Romão looks with contempt at the people who made him rich.
- Chapter XVIII: Romão takes the bottles from Libório, says it would have been an act of justice to take them earlier and, already covered by insurance, hears from Miranda that the homeless have nothing to lose.
- Chapter XIX: The building works begin, Romão starts to frequent the Stock Exchange and to dine with the Baron, and Botelho urges him to ask for the hand of Zulmira.
- Chapter XX: Romão's townhouse becomes taller than Miranda's, and the signboard now reads Avenida São Romão.
- Chapter XXI: With the marriage settled, Romão dreams of the title of viscount before Miranda and decides to return Bertoleza to her owner.
- Chapter XXII: The São Romão becomes aristocratic, with a letter of surety and higher prices, at the pace of its owner.
- Chapter XXIII: Romão covers his face at the end of Bertoleza and soon sends the committee of abolitionists to the drawing room, where he receives the diploma of benefactor member.
Passages
The narrator separates what Romão feels from ambition and calls the desperation to accumulate an illness.
Aquilo já não era ambição, era uma moléstia nervosa, uma loucura, um desespero de acumular; de reduzir tudo a moeda, That was no longer ambition, it was a nervous illness, a madness, a desperation to accumulate; to reduce everything to coin
Envy reaches a man who had loved only money.
aquele ente atrofiado pela cobiça e que parecia ter abdicado dos seus privilégios e sentimentos de homem; aquele desgraçado, que nunca jamais amara senão o dinheiro, invejava agora o Miranda, that being stunted by greed, who seemed to have given up his privileges and feelings as a man; that wretch, who had never loved anything but money, now envied Miranda
The wish to rise lives alongside the fear of falling.
um desejo forte de querer saltar e um medo invencível de cair e quebrar as pernas, a strong wish to leap and an unconquerable fear of falling and breaking his legs
In his daydreams of ambition, Bertoleza is left out.
João Romão, com efeito, tão ligado vivera com a crioula e tanto se habituara a vê-la ao seu lado, que nos seus devaneios de ambição pensou em tudo, menos nela., João Romão, in fact, had lived so closely tied to the Creole woman and had grown so used to seeing her at his side that in his daydreams of ambition he thought of everything except her.
Romão gives himself a reason for what he did with Libório's money.
Seria um ato de justiça!, It would have been an act of justice!
The desire Romão never told anyone.
sustentava de si para si nos últimos anos o firme propósito de fazer-se um titular mais graduado que o Miranda, he had held privately, over the last few years, the firm purpose of making himself a titleholder of higher rank than Miranda
The obstacle to the marriage is the woman who helped him rise.
Bertoleza devia ser esmagada, devia ser suprimida, porque era tudo que havia de mau na vida dele!, Bertoleza had to be crushed, had to be eliminated, because she was everything bad in his life!
The honor arrives the instant after the deed.
Era uma comissão de abolicionistas que vinha, de casaca! trazer-lhe respeitosamente o diploma de sócio benemérito., It was a committee of abolitionists who had come, in dress coats! to present him respectfully with the diploma of benefactor member.