A presença do mar em Dom Casmurro: filigranas machadianas

The presence of the sea in Dom Casmurro This article is a critical study of water symbolism and the presence of the sea in a novel of Machado de Assis mature phase. Time, memory, and change flow in the confrontation between the jealous Bento Santiago, a man of the land with eroding power, and the personal merit of women with the astute intelligence of Capitu or the pragmatism of an emerging merchant class to which Escobar belongs. The latter drowns in a stormy sea that finally engulfs Bento’s marriage to Capitolina. Machado’s filigrees form a narrative palimpsest, with traces of readings that must be pieced together to fully construct the meaning that also nature provides, beginning with the psychological and social incorporation of the characters. Capitu’s “undertow eyes”, an obsessive image of the waves and the sea in Dom Casmurro, are the product of work patiently developed over many years in other texts by the Rio de Janeiro author.