Distinies without grandeur: the tragic trajectories of the women in Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas

Abstract

The present study aims to discuss the tragic feminine place as shown in the novel Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881) by Machado de Assis. Through the analysis, the feminine figure in the XIX century is briefly discussed, since restricted to the home and dependent of the masculine figure. Machado de Assis depicts this woman through the lenses of his century, but shows his reader women who have will and desires. In the field of the studies of the author, Barbosa (1989), Bosi (2006 e 2017) and Zolin (1994) were used. Theoretical support for the matters of the tragic were found in Vernant (1999) and Most (2001). Through Machado’s criticism the limitations and possibilities of the feminine body are brought to light. Marcela, Eugênia, Virgília and Eulália represent women who connect themselves differently to marriage and home. Their lives are the result of a cultural thought impregnated with the idea that, to the woman, only one role is assigned, and that is the role of a wife and mother. In our reading, Machado points out destinies without grandeur, highlighting the tragic aspect that resides on the incompatibility between man and world, which underlies human existence.