In the end, Capitu betrayed or not betrayed Bentinho? This mystery marks Dom Casmurro, romance of Machado de Assis which became one of the great classics of Brazilian Literature. Are we going to better understand the work so that we can unravel this mystery?
Dom Casmurro
The romance Dom Casmurro, in Machado de Assis, was published in 1899, in the second phase of the author, which became known as the realistic phase, because of his criticisms of society, that he lived by appearances. Dom Casmurro is the narrator and main character who, through an autobiography, tells his story in order to to alleviate the monotony of an old man with few friends and so that, in this way, he could live again everything he already had vivid. The author then recounts his journey as a son betrothed to the seminary, his passion for his neighbor, Capitu, and how he managed to marry her to the point where they drift apart.
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What does Casmurro mean?
In the novel, Bentinho explains that he earned the nickname Dom Casmurro for being alone, saying that Casmurro means 'quiet man and stuck with himself', influencing the reader to do without consulting the dictionary, however, if we distrust the narrator-character, when looking at the meaning of Casmurro, we see that he is a stubborn person, moody (sad, frowning, gloomy), closed in on himself, who insists and doesn't give up, sad, always sullen (saddened and grumpy.). It can be seen, from the first page of the book, that this is not a reliable narrator, implying that the entire narrative is partial. Just keep in mind that access to history is only given from a perspective on facts.
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Why does Bentinho think Capitu betrayed him?
Bentinho's distrust of Capitu was always present in the novel, from the beginning, when they were still children. One of the strongest reasons that led Bentinho to leave Capitu was the fact that he thought that his son, Ezekiel was, in fact, the son of his friend Escobar, by virtue of a similarity in appearance and manner of Act.
In addition, Bentinho and Capitu had a hard time getting pregnant, trying for years until they did. Linked to these suspicions, there was an occasion when Bentinho, upon arriving from the opera that he had gone alone, found, by Escobar at the door of his house, which added to his suspicions that, in fact, Ezekiel was the son of Escobar.
Capitu's defense
Capitu, despite being very smart and cunning, never gave any real indications that she would be with Escobar. The events that guided Bentinho's suspicions are ambiguous and, therefore, there is no way to defend either Capitu or Bentinho.
However, it is possible to assume that some of these cases of distrust are the result of a misinterpretation by Bentinho, such as the delay to get pregnant, which could be justified as a congenital problem, considering that Dona Glória also took a long time to get pregnant with Bentinho; or how the boy resembled Escobar's ways, which could have been child's play, given that the boy had this habit of imitating; the similar physiognomy could have been chance, just like the resemblance between Capitu and Sancha's mother, who were not related and, even so, they looked alike.
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After all, did Capitu betray or not Bentinho?
Several conjectures are possible in this classic Brazilian novel by Machado de Assis: Bentinho may be right in his suspicions, just as Capitu may not have betrayed Bentinho. The circumstances presented in the novel are unable to confirm anything, as it is a story told by the character himself: there is no other point of view than that of Bentinho himself.
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*Image credit:rook76 / Shutterstock
By M. Fernando Marinho
