• About the Characters:
Bentinho: Main character, narrated in the 1st person, a boy who grows into a man throughout the story.
Capitu: Bentinho's muse. She was his neighbor, friend, and childhood companion. The reason Bentinho didn't want to go to seminary. She eventually becomes his wife. Beautiful and Tempting.
Dona Glória: Bentinho's mother. Loving towards her son and God-fearing.
Uncle Cosme and Cousin Justina: Relatives of Bentinho's mother. They lived in her house.
Serving as her Companionship.
José Dias: A dependent of Bentinho's family. A fake doctor who, out of gratitude, stayed living with them.
As a companion and an all-around handyman. Being faithful and a servant to them.
Escobar: Bentinho's best friend, whom he met at the seminary. He becomes a merchant. Marries Capitu's best friend: Sinhá Sancha.
Ezequiel: Bentinho and Capitu's son. Born after many attempts to have a child. Named in honor of Escobar's first name.
• About the Plot:
The plot revolves around 3 areas. Each directly linked to the other. It concerns:
1. Bentinho at home. Before going to seminary. Having encounters with Capitu.
Trying to escape the profession of priest.
2. Bentinho in the seminary. When he meets Escobar. And visits home every weekend.
3. Bentinho married and some time after the separation. The so-called Climax occurs when he marries Capitu, has a son, and begins to suspect the son is not his.
• About the Author and the Work:
Author: Machado de Assis
Work Title: Dom Casmurro
Publisher: Ática
Edition: 32
About the Author: He was born on June 21, 1839.
On December 31, 1899, in Rio de Janeiro. During a New Year's Eve transition. At the turn of the century. Beliefs in change were reinforced, and the fear of the unknown was also crystallized. He was Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis but was known as Machado de
Assis, this in 1899.
His life was normal; he wasn't rich but lived comfortably, worked hard, was respected, and famous. As a child, he was poor, a grandson of freed slaves, born on the hills, and from an early age felt the first manifestations of epilepsy. At the time, Rio de Janeiro was different from what we know today, and it had gas lighting, but only in the center, and the city didn't smell good with foul waters, and with very precarious transportation for a population of 300,000 inhabitants, half of whom were slaves.
In a society marked by very rigid social divisions, as it was in Brazil during Machado de Assis's time. And his destiny was already marked by race and even by the possibility or not of attending school. Joaquim Maria was a suburban boy, and the intellectual life of the suburbs was very different from the intellectual life of the court. This was what attracted Machado de Assis.
On January 6, 1855, Marmota Fluminense, a newspaper for news, variety, etc., published the poem "A Palmeira." It was just the beginning for Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis's literary debut. The newspaper where the poem was published was the meeting point for writers of the time. And he gained patrons like Paula Brito, and his career grew. Soon, Machado de Assis was a member of Marmota Fluminense's editorial staff. And other newspapers began to publish his work. Machado de Assis, a city man, increasingly distanced himself from Joaquim Maria, the suburban boy. In his clothes, his posture, his expression. And the literary circles of the Court gradually became a more familiar ground for him. And he became more known in this sphere. Machado de Assis surprised with a subtly ironic style, which soon became the trademark of his
work. Machado de Assis, as a chronicler, wrote for several newspapers, but don't imagine that in Brazil at the time it was possible to live by writing, and to survive, he accepted a public job that guaranteed his livelihood. For 40 years, Machado wrote his chronicles. Using everyday stories, the writer reflected on the history unfolding around him. And over time, Machado de Assis worked in various places and wrote several books. Machado de Assis died old from an intestinal infection and with poor eyesight; he died at 3:20 AM on September 29, 1908.
• About the Message:
The work is a novella, not educational in itself. But it has parts comparable to Greco-Roman gods and passages from Shakespeare's "OTHELLO," leading to the conclusion that Machado de Assis didn't just write a novella; he created a work with cultural content. But the message the group concluded, in terms of a moral lesson, is "Sometimes don't trust your best friend or a childhood companion," referring to the Capitu-Escobar situation.
• About the Style and Setting:
It was a work in the Brazilian Realism literary style. Set in an upper-middle class in the late 19th century, taking place in Rio de Janeiro. Therefore, regional words were not used, only words used at the time, now out of use. They caught attention, but there was no need to use dictionaries to read the work because, in addition to having the vocabulary, the words were not that unfamiliar.
• Conclusion
The work was neither entirely good nor bad. It's just a novella that, if written today, could be considered unoriginal. The story of a boy escaping the vocation of priest imposed by his mother and a love triangle are common themes in television programs, which may have been inspired by the work, or maybe not. But even so, the work has considerable content because it portrays Brazilian society in the last century.
• Book Summary
The author recounts the life of a boy in the late 19th century, brilliantly narrated in the 1st person, leaving doubt as to whether these events happened in the author's life or not.
At the beginning, he explains why he was nicknamed Dom Casmurro: "Casmurro" because people thought he was a quiet and withdrawn man. And "DOM" was given ironically to attribute the brilliance of nobility. His father was on an old farm in Itaguaí, where Bentinho (Dom Casmurro) was born, when his father was ill. By chance, a homeopathic doctor named José Dias appeared and cured him. He didn't want to receive payment, so Bentinho's father proposed that José Dias stay and live with them, with a small salary. He left but said he would return in a few months; he returned in two weeks and accepted to live in the house, serving as the household doctor. His father was elected deputy, and they moved to Rio de Janeiro with the family; José Dias also came, having his room at the back of the small farm.
His father fell ill again with a high fever. José Dias confessed that he wasn't a doctor but was interested in homeopathic medicine, which was a growing science. His father soon died afterward. Nevertheless, Bentinho's mother asked José Dias to stay. His mother's name was... Then the story tells that after losing her first child, Dona Glória made a vow that if a son was born, she would make him a priest in gratitude to God. Capitu, who was her neighbor, and Bentinho, still young, used to play at holding Mass, dividing the host, etc. He began to like Capitu without her knowing. He discovered she liked him too when he read "Bento and Capitolina" scribbled with a nail on the wall.
For various reasons, Bentinho promised to pray a thousand Our Fathers and a thousand Hail Marys as a vow. And the wishes came true, and the vows accumulated, without him fulfilling any.
He does everything his mother wants, even becoming a bus driver, but anything but a priest, even though it's a noble career, it's not his calling. Bentinho began to meet Capitu in secret, even risking being seen kissing.
His mother had already decided that Bentinho would enter the seminary with Father Cabral and that he would visit his family on Saturdays and holidays. So it was decided; he would go to the seminary in the first or second month of the following year, with only 3 months left before he had to go. Capitu was sad to hear he was leaving and feared their love would end. There was still some time before he had to say goodbye and leave, and they already swore to each other that when he returned, they would get married, and for any reason like illness or anything similar, he would return at any time.
Bentinho, along with Capitu, tried various wild ideas to escape the seminary, even asking the Emperor to speak to his mother to forget the idea. But it never worked. He spoke to José Dias to convince his mother, little by little. This pleased José Dias, who would travel with Bentinho to Europe to study at the best schools in the world. But it was all in vain; he had to go to the seminary soon. Months later, he went to the Seminary of S. José. Father Cabral said that if within two years he didn't have a vocation for it, he could choose something else.
Everyone who agreed with him going to the seminary thanked the priest for convincing Bentinho and offered their help for any problems. Bentinho went to the seminary but with resentment and regret. He only thought about leaving. But months passed, and he wanted to escape before Father Cabral's deadline. He was desperate to go home until he managed to find a Saturday when he could go home.
Capitu was truly in love with Bentinho, and her plan was to wait for him to leave the seminary to get married. Bentinho was worried because they came to pick him up from the seminary, and he immediately thought it would be something bad, and indeed, his mother fell ill, on the brink of death. For Bentinho, this was terrible because it was his mother, but on the other hand, it was good because with his mother's death, he would leave the seminary, but he would be filled with remorse. But everything went well, and his mother recovered.
Bentinho met Escobar, a friend he found at the seminary, and he was the only one he could confide in, besides Capitu who was in love with him but far away.
Bentinho couldn't stand being in the seminary anymore; he had to leave somehow; it was becoming impossible to just think about Capitu and the things he could do outside.
Bentinho went home and asked where Capitu was, and his mother said she had gone to sleep at the house of Sinházinha Sancha Gurgel, who is her friend and lives on Rua dos Inválidos. Cousin Justina insinuated that she went there to date, driving Bentinho mad with jealousy. Seeing that Capitu was taking a long time, Bentinho waited until eleven o'clock and ran to Rua dos Inválidos. When he arrived, he saw old Gurgel worried about his daughter Sancha's health. Entering, he saw Capitu taking care of Sancha's fever. Old Gurgel even commented on how Capitu resembled his deceased wife and how she would still
be a good mother. Seeing that Capitu wasn't flirting with other boys, Bentinho became calmer.
Time passed, with endless weeks at the seminary and weekends of rest at home. Escobar visited Bentinho's house a few times.
At one point, Bentinho couldn't stand it anymore and talked to Capitu about escaping the seminary. With ideas of sending José Dias to the Pope to cancel the vow. But Capitu put an end to this idea. And told him to think carefully before committing any foolishness.
So Bentinho went to ask Escobar's opinion about the Pope idea. Then Escobar had the great idea that managed to get Bentinho out of the seminary. The idea Escobar had was to take the vow literally: "If I have a son, I will make a priest," the vow says "he will make a priest," not specifying that it would be his son.
This argument served Dona Glória, who took an orphan to ordain him priest. Thus, after some time, both left the seminary.
The book skips the period when nothing important happened and jumps to shortly after when Bentinho married Capitu and Escobar married Sancha Gurgel. Time passed, and everyone was relatively happy; Bentinho graduated in Law, and Escobar was in commerce. Later, Escobar had a daughter whom he named Capitu.
After many failed attempts, Capitu and Bentinho couldn't have a child. Capitu even called Escobar to settle accounts so that if they had a child soon, they would have everything ready.
Months later, they finally managed to have a son, whom they respectively named Ezequiel, which was Escobar's first name, as if it were a reciprocal tribute.
After this, with the family bonds strengthened, they even planned a trip to Europe with both families.
But the next day, on a tragic morning, Bentinho sat in his study to review the cases for his work and noticed a photograph of Escobar that he had at home and noticed a strange resemblance between Escobar and his son. But he was interrupted when a slave knocked on the door and delivered the news that Escobar had drowned on the beach.
Thus, Bentinho forgot his suspicion and went to see the body on the beach.
The funeral soon occurred; Bentinho even gave a speech about the deceased so good that they wanted to publish it. But his doubt persisted about the resemblance between the deceased and his son. Time passed, and his suspicion grew. After making some time calculations, he was almost certain of those encounters between Escobar and Capitu when they had to do those calculations. And also because the resemblances were also increasing. The feeling of betrayal was horrible, and Bentinho even tried to commit suicide, but he noticed that although Ezequiel might be a bastard son, he remembered that there was still love between father and son. This made Bentinho forget the suicide attempt and proceed with an amicable separation from Capitu.
He traveled with his family to Switzerland, returning later, leaving them there so his son could have a good education. Thus, after a long time, Capitu died there, and Ezequiel returned to tell his father the news. Ezequiel returned grown up and with a degree in archaeology, now identical to Escobar.
He recounted that his mother was buried in Switzerland and that he was already leaving for the Middle East to study the pyramids. Some time later, he received the news that Ezequiel had died there of typhoid fever and was buried in sacred ground.
Ending there, the author emphasizes the idea that his novella is nothing more than a Suburban Story.
Things that happen every day, part of humanity's daily life.
