A teia de Capitu : representação e releitura em “Dom Casmurro”,de Machado de Assis

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze the representation of the image linked to the feminine and its construction process in the novel Dom Casmurro, by Machado de Assis, seeking to reflect on the medieval misogynist heritage in the configurations of the female figure from the characteristics and behavioral patterns of womenmain female characters within the selected Machadian work. In addition to pointing out the role of the reader/receiver who presents himself as an active subject when choosing the paths to be followed in the fictional forest, being able to understand, read and reread the novel in his own way within the dialogic phenomenon established with the text. As this is a bibliographic research, we follow the thinking of R. Howard Bloch (1995) and Georges Duby (2001) on the studies of female representation in the Middle Ages; Sidney Chalhoub (2013), John Gledson (2019), Roberto Schwarz (1990), regarding the criticism and possible interpretations and points of view that surround Machado de Assis; Roque de Barros Laraia (2001), regarding cultural behavioral studies; Umberto Eco (1994), Mikhail Bakhtin (1997), regarding the reader's mission in this eternal dialogue with the work. Machadian narratives seem to generally place the female character in a prominent position, representing her under the gaze of the male character who seeks to characterize her through observation, as someone who reads her. Consequently, we can observe this construction process in the novel Dom Casmurro in which Bentinho describes the events in the first person from his memories. In this way, the object of study places the feminine in a position to be represented through the male voice, which, convinced of his superiority, attributes to his wife, in a veiled way resorting to the narrative voice, the blame for his unhappiness and destruction. In this perspective, this research approaches an understanding of the construction and reading of the feminine from the Machadian novel, in addition to identifying the reader's responsibility to understand and interpret the discourse emitted by the work.