A Critical Analysis Of Bento's Story In 'Machado'
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Dom Casmurro is narrated in the first person narrative by the self-proclaimed protagonist Bento, nicknamed Dom Casmurro for his stubborn nature. The story is told solely from his perspective and therefore automatically creates a biased view of the events that come to pass in the novel. The flawed narrator (Bento) writes the story from his point of view completely muting out the opinions and speech that do not directly support his case in order to rally sympathy and build trust between himself and the reader. Despite the fact that all we have to believe is Bento’s thoughts and what he writes down, because of Machado’s writing technique we are able to see what Bento tries to do, which is to play the victim in the story. Driven by jealousy and self-consciousness, Bento tries to persuade the reader that he is being victimised. His closed-mindedness, constant need to reassure and use of allusions are all powerful yet ineffective ways in which he tries to be judged as innocent. Bento’s lack of ability to understand leads him to creating theories in his head in order to support what makes sense to him. Machado shows Bento trying to rationalise Capitu’s tears at Escobar’s funeral and failing. Bento tries to build sympathy for himself through adapting unclear feelings about Capitu through his language and subtle hints. He wants the reader to be on his side, trust him and his thoughts about Capitu. All the trust he is meant to built between the reader and himself is supposed to be