Ea and Flaubert Author(s): James R. Stevens Reviewed work(s): Source: Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer, 1966), pp.

47-61 Published by: University of Wisconsin Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3512969 . Accessed: 01/11/2011 13:49
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Eca

and

Flaubert

JamesR. Stevens

The literaryaffiliationsof Ega de Queirozhave from the beginning suggested a relationship between his work, particularlyO Primo Basilio, and that of Gustave Flaubert, most obviously with Madame Bovary.1 Criticismhas tended, however, to concentrateon supposedparallelswith Emile Zola,and, where Flauberthas been treated,to limit itself to a comparison of particular scenes. This paper is an attempt to indicate the importance of the example of Madame Bovary to the structure of O Primoand particularlyto the characterization of Lulsa. The effect of the discussionis to supportsome of those stricturespronouncedby Machado de Assis againstO Primowhich have recently been contested by Alberto Machadoda Rosa2and RichardA. Mazzara,3 to whose studies this paper owes much. Its focus, literaryrather than ideological or sociological,has led to conclusionswhich differ from but do not contradicttheirs. Both O PrimoBasilioand MadameBovaryare built aroundthe adultery of a young marriedwoman, and in each the "fall"is regarded as inevitable considering the past history and present situation of the two. In what ways do the two central figures resemble each other and how do they differ? Both are given educations in convents which have neither preparedthem for the lives they are to lead nor given them any security through religion. Religious sentiment, even of the most superficialand transitorynature, is almost completely absent from O Primo Basilio. Emma is susceptible to the "pretty" side of religion as a possible frame and after Rodolphe'sdesertion and her confor her self-dramatizations, sequent illness, she has a period of religiosity, roughly correspondingto her physical convalescence.Both authorsput great stress on the impor1 The editions used are: Ega de Queiroz, O Primo Basilio (Episddio d6mestico), (Lello e Irmao, Porto, n.d.); Gustave Flaubert, Oeuvres, ed. A. Thibaudet et R. Dumesnil, Biblioth6que de la Pleiade (Paris, Gallimard, 1952). 2Alberto Machado da Rosa, Epa, discipulo de Machado? (Rio: Fundo de Cultura, 1963). 3Richard A. Mazzara, "Paralelos Luso-Brasileiros:Ega e lrico," LBR, I (1964), 63-73.

Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. III, No. 1, May 1966

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tance of the reading of "romantic"fiction in the formation of their heroines' temperaments. Emma begins with late eighteenth century stories of love and tender passion and adventure, and then moves on to Walter Scott; Lulsa begins with Scott and proceeds to the "modem" fiction of French Romanticism. (This minor difference is logical due to the fact that Emma was born twenty years before Lulsa). In both, this "petit mal de siecle" remains a constant and at times overpowering element in the motivation. Luisa is given a somewhat higher social position than is Emma, but since her drama is played in the provinces and Luisa's in a national capital their relative ranks are not very different. The relationship of this position to their characters, however, is a clue to an important distinction between them. Emma is always conscious that she belongs by circumstances to a class far below the one to which she believes her qualities entitle her. With Luisa this is of such minor importance as to be almost non-existent as a motivating factor. That is to say, Emma is an idealistic rebel, feeling herself deprived of a paradise which is rightfully hers. Her attempts to enter this paradise are purposeful and sustained, revealing a temperament not weak and acquiescent like Luisa's but strong and determined. Specifically, if she is not a member of the privileged classes, she will act as if she were. Materially this involves spending large sums of money. This difference prepares us to understand the grounds for one of the basic criticisms made by Machado de Assis against O Primo: that the conflict in the second half between Luisa and Juliana and the former's consequent need for money have a purely fortuitous basis. It is by accident that the maid comes into possession of the incriminating letters, and it is from this fact that the action of the entire second half results. Emma too is involved in a sordid struggle over money, as a result of her business dealings with Lheureux, the cloth merchant and rising capitalist. Now these dealings are the direct result of her social aspirations and of the circumstances of her liaisons with the two lovers, particularly Leon. Within the context of the novel they are inevitable and the result of them is inevitable, whereas Juliana's finding of the letters and the blackmail which follows is not. Eca justifies the circumstances: Luisa is surprised and flustered, thus leaving the first letter where it can be found; Juliana is vindictive and prying, so that we understand her reasons for discovering the others and the use she makes of them; but the first cause does not have the aspect of inevitability given its analogue in Madame Bovary. Moreover, the financial details Flaubert describes make these transactions both particular and representative (the old formula for French realism), and give a solidity to the presentation of the society surrounding

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49

Emma, a solidity comparativelylacking in O Primo. It is interestingthat both writershave found it necessaryto isolate their heroines.Luisa is an orphan,her husband leaves on a long trip, she has no children,the two servantsmore than sufficeto attend to her needs and those of the house. She has no duties of any kind. The members of the restrictedcircle of her acquaintancesare for various reasons disqualified from exerting any effective influence on her. Sebastiao, her husband's closest friend, is concerned only with what the neighbors will say, and with fulfillingJorge'srequestto keep Leopoldinaout of the house. This is not because he feels no responsibility,but because his unusual shyness and sensitivityprevent him from playing the role for which his sincerity and virtues qualify him. Leopoldina, Luisa's only woman friend of her age, suffersfrom exactly contrarydefects; she has the personal qualities but lacks the moral ones. The others are likewise unsuitable: D. Felicidade is a good-heartedbut silly woman (moreover, she is immobilized with a brokenfoot during most of the period of Luisa'smisadventures); Juliao is an egoist, so consumed with resentmentas to be incapable of acting in this situation;the Counselor,equally egoistical, is a pompous pedant; Ernestinois busy with his play and in any case is an ineffectual person. Luisa has no one to stand between her and the consequencesof her faulty upbringing. Ega'smethod is to isolate Luisa socially and physically;Flaubert'sis to let Emma's feeling of isolation grow out of the estrangementwhich a romantictemperament naturallyfeels towarda world dominatedby material interests.Her husbandis a force propelling her into the arms of her lovers, so it is unnecessaryfor him to be removed physically. Emma is even permittedto have a child, but Charlesis the father, and, with rare and theatrical exceptions, she feels no attachment for her daughter. Emma, unlike Luisa, has a living father, but he is distant from Yonville. The mother of Charles, of course, cannot be permitted to live with the family: her presence would soon have brought to light Emma'sfinancial manipulationsand the novel would have been considerablyshorter.But on the whole Luisa is isolated by chance, Emma by her own nature.Further, Emma is isolated throughoutthe novel, Luisa only at the time of her affairwith Basilio-that is, only when it facilitates the action of the book. Probablythe most basic elements of the novels and their leading charwhich constiacters are concernedwith the handling of the "romances" tute the heart of both novels and the consequences which result from them. Given Emma's temperament,the circumstancesof her life, both past and present, her first affair is completely inevitable, requiring only the presence of a professionalladies' man to precipitate it. The ground

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has been preparedby Emma'severy action prior to this point. Only after five chapters is the reader permitted for the first time to learn Emma's elle avait cru avoir de state of mind directly: "Avantqu'elle se mari&t, ramour;mais le bonheurqui aurait dt r6sulterde cet amourn'6tantpas venu, il fallait qu'elle se fut trompee,songeait-elle.Et Emma cherchaiti savoir ce que l'on entendait au juste dans la vie par les mots de f6licit6, The de passionet d'ivresse,qui lui avaientparu si beaux dans les livres."4 substance the after remain her as real as before, only words, marriage, is lacking. She is disillusioned with her marriage, not with what she expected of it, and the action of the book will be dominated by her attempts to experience "felicit6,""passion,""ivresse."The novel will end when she has found them, or when she realizes that she never will. It is then that Flaubert,who had until this time concentratedhis attention on Charles,reviews the experienceof life that leads Emma to invest those romanticwords with such a content of longing and expectation. And how could Charleshave been expected to understandher unfulfillment, when he himself has been so marvelously fulfilled? Fourteen months with the cold-footedwidow, following all the years in which his mother guided him with concernbut not with love, have been repaid to an extent he had hardly dared hope and never expected. Unfortunately for him, his very gratitude, coupled with his lack of imagination and intelligence, make him blind to Emma's discontent and the maneuverings to which it leads. No; Charlesis a good simple boy, not the stuff of which dreamsare made. The dullnessand the vulgarityof her life add to Emma'sdissatisfaction, for she has expected not only to feel the emotions of a romanticheroine but to live in the world of luxuryand excitementthat is the propersetting for such people. The only break in the monotony of her existence is the the residence invitationshe and Charlesreceive to a ball at Vaubyessard, The effect of the ball is to add fuel to of the Marquis d'Andervilliers. Emma'sflame of imagination.For the first time she sees, or believes she sees, the life her reading had told her existed, and she even has a little adventureherself with the handsomeVicomte, whose equally handsome cigar case they find on their way home. But monotonycomes down again until the arrivalof Leon, a young law clerk of Yonville.Leon is too inexfor him, perienced and timid to profit by Emma's obvious "penchant" and he departs to study in Paris leaving only a faint perfume of mute and tremblinglove. Arrives at last Rodolphe, the made-to-orderlover, cynical, worldly, unprincipled, an excellent reader of female character and an accom4Flaubert, op. cit., p. 365.

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51

plished actor in domestic dramasof his own contriving.He realizes very quickly what Emma'sdream is and converts himself into it. The rest is technique: Rodolphe'sand Flaubert's. Emma is genuinely,sincerelyin love with him, wholly, for her tragedy is that her capacityfor feeling has been almost completelyreduced to the formulaher readinghas taught her is the properone for love. She is playing a role, but the role is the only reality she has. This permits Flaubert to retain the dramaticcontrastbetween the woman, innocent and sincere in her feelings, and her seducer,heartlessand calculating,so dear to the Romanticnovel. At the same time he keeps his heroinewithin the bounds of the real by showing us the limitationsof her sincerity and innocence. When the affairbegins to pall, as it eventuallymust, Rodolphe manages his escape by appealing to one of the stock pieces in the repertoireof romanticism.He agrees to run away with Emma, and manages to keep up the pretence of love for some weeks more until at last he goes away alone, leaving Emmawith a message in the bottom of a basket of fruit he sends her. She takes to her bed, with a long and mysterious-to her husband-illness from which she at length emerges, miraculously,like the Phoenix, with most of her illusions intact. There follows a long period of convalescenceduring which she enjoys a shortflirtationwith religion,and then takes up again the dull monotony of her pre-Rodolphian existence. She is now ready for the next phase, a phase far more serious in its spiritual and material consequences than the affair just ended. Emma meets Leon again. After some time in Paris he has come to Rouen as a clerk. He has learned enough of life and women in Paris to be able to undertakethe physical conquest of Emma,but not enough for him to understandthe forces which have made her what she is. He has learned the techniques of romanticseduction,but unlearnedthe romanticism of mind and spirit which had attractedthem to each other in the beginning. Still he is not Rodolphe, and after a few preliminarylunges and arrangesfor them to meet and parries,it is Emma who "capitulates" on a permanentbasis. The affairtakes its course, and the desperationwhich has been latent in Emma'sprevious experience-that the great emotions and experiences of life are going to pass her by-becomes an increasinglydominanttheme. It is not that she is to be deprived of the life of romance;it is that the life of reality is going to have its revenge on her for her aspirations.Don Quixotemust meet defeat and be paradedin a cage as an object of scorn and derision.Reality has always ringed her in, held barely at bay by the strengthof her illusion, and its bordershave been so diligently guarded that even the familiarand family affectionshave been refused admittance.

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The love of her child would be a real love, so the child is rejected as lacking the visa of romance.But now realityis to make an entranceand under the most unpleasantof aspects. He who calls the tune pays the piper, and Emma'sneglect of the bourgeois virtues, particularlythose relating to money, receives appropriate punishment,culminatingin the notice of forced sale tacked on her door. It is the necessity of finding money to satisfy the importunateLheureux which bringsabout the finalcompletetriumphof realityover illusion.The experiencesshe has-the realizationthat Leon has neither the desire nor the capacityto help her, the scene with MaitreGuillaumin,other humiliations-all culminatein the terriblescene with Rodolphe,the scene which justifiesthe concludinghorrorsof the book. She has not seen him for three years, and since the beginning of the affairwith Leon has scarcelythought of him, but now in this crisis when all else has failed, his memory "commeun grand eclair dans une nuit sombre,"comes into her soul. "I1etait si bon, si delicat, si genereuxl"5 So quickly does Rodolphe again become the vehicle for her illusions. This illusionis soon destroyedby his refusalto help her, and with it crumble all the others. "La folie la prenait, elle eut peur, et parvint a se ressaisir,d'une maniere confuse, il est vrai; car elle ne se rappelaitpoint la cause de son horrible etat, c'est-a-direla question d'argent. Elle ne souffraitque de son amour,et sentait son ame rabandonnerpar ce souvenir, comme les blesses agonisant, sentent l'existence qui s'en va par leur plaie qui saigne."6 This is her situation:the illusion that love by itself is sufficientand that it justifieseverythinghas gone, swept away by the crueller disillusionmentof realizing that she has never been loved by the men for whom she has been willing to sacrificeso much. How does she act in this dark night of the soul? "Alorssa situation, telle qu'un abime, se representa.Elle haletait a se romprela poitrine. Puis, dans un transportd'heroisme que la rendaitpresque joyeuse,elle descenditla c6te en courant,traversala planche aux vaches, le sentier,l'allee, les halles, et arrivadevant la boutique du pharmacien."7 Her decision has been made, and she proceeds to put it into effect with her usual initiative and dispatch, but even now an illusion deceives her-that death by arsenic poisoning will come easily and painlessly.Instead she, and the reader,must go through the agony of an excruciatingand degrading death. Flaubert does not stop with this, but presentsus with the pitiful death of Charles and a glimpse of the future which shows us their little daughter forced
5

Flaubert, pp. 606, 607. 6 Flaubert, 611. p. 7 Flaubert, p. 612.

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to earn her bread by work in a factory. Flaubert seems like one who has by chance wounded an animal, and who in a frenzy of remorsekicks it to death, and goes on kicking long after the animalis dead. Is Emma'sdeath justified?This requires two answers, one relating to the motivationprovided for the death and the second to its place in the developmentof the theme. Practically,it is very well motivated. Emma does not die by illness or by accident.She takes her own life. The novelist has then only to show that a person of her temperamentand circumstances would be apt to see suicide as the only solutionto her problems. Her characterwe know has been formed aroundthe illusion of romantic love as the guiding force in the universe and the thing of greatestvalue. Accompanyingthis has been a strong sense of self-respect and a desire for esteem, which nevertheless has permitted her to subject herself to humiliationsbecause they could be justifiedas occasionedby love. With her belief in love gone, she must bear the full force of the consequences of these humiliationsas well as the realizationthat the centralfact of her universe has disappeared.These material consequences,coinciding with the loss of the illusion which might have permitted her to bear, perhaps even avoid, them, leaves her no real alternativeto suicide. She dies when her illusion dies, that is, when Rodolphe rejects her need in the present, and by extensionthe reality of their love in the past; and her actual suicide is really more a process of decay in the abandonedphysical body than it is the death of anythingalive. Emma does not die to make a point to a morallesson, nor does she die to prove the folly of romanticlove; she dies to show us that this great nineteenthcenturyworld of scientificand materialprogress"Hathreally neither joy, nor love, nor light, // Nor certitude,nor peace, nor help for pain;".It is not that Emma'sillusionsmake her unfit for reality;it is that reality is unworthyof her illusions. She dies not as the defendant in an action with life, but as the accuser. And she accuses not merely French society under NapoleonIII-Homais in the Tuileries-but the human condition and God himself, who has permitted such aspirationsto exist in a
world of paltry mediocrity, where love, because it must, ". .. has pitched

What Flaubertforgets or was his mansionin // The place of excrement." old Yeats' of is what beggar woman so well knew: incapable knowing that it is love which makes a mansion out of the "place of excrement" and that it is Don Quixote'sillusion we remember,not the reality which killed him. It is this defect of vision which renders MadameBovary one of the long series of brilliant, passionate, but partial representationsof life-books not artisticallywrong but humanlylimited. This novel then becomes a dialogue between Emma'sillusion and the illusion of her creator,a dialogue illuminatedby the occasionalslipping

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of the mask of objective impassivity which Flaubert so conscientiously but with so much agony assumes.The man who writes, describingEmma coeur comprime s'y dilatait amoureusement,"8 regards his creation not with the serenityof an imperturbabledivinity, but with the intense pity of a god who suffersfor and throughhis creation. It is the nature of things which makes Emma suffer;it is the nature of Emmawhich makesLuisa suffer,for she has not a natureof her own, that is, a consistencyand wholeness of personality.She is and does whatever her creatorrequires;and although Eca is at times in love with her, it is never to the extent that he allows her to go her own way. Luisa is guided and restrictedby E9a's reading of Madame Bovary, and the differences between the two novels are every bit as much the result of Flaubert's influenceas are the resemblances. The chief differenceand the one which Primo Basilio in a lower category of fictionalquality is the lack places O of consistency in Luisa's character and actions. With minor class and nationaldifferences,she is given the same conditioningas is Emma, and with the same result of a preoccupationwith romanticlove. Whether Ega himself would agree, Luisa's portraitureis a labor of imenso a penal" (552),9 and in its procedure.Luisa is the product of a bourgeois society infested with the disease of romanticism,that is, a materialismunable to recognize that it is materialism.Her educationhas taught her how to read and play the piano, and to expect of life a continued gratification of her emotions.It is emotional,not sensual, satisfaction she demands. The particularform of this emotional satisfactionis determinedby the books she has read, for she is as much the result of the reading of French romancesas Don Quixote is of reading romances gesto acariciadore amoroso dos dedos sobre a orelha, comegou a ler, toda interessada.Era a Dama das Cam6lias." (13). She has been reading them all her adult life, beginning at eighteen with Scott. But her taste has changed, and "agoraera o moderno que a cativava."(14) And this is Paris and the "Bohemegalante,"where sincerity of passion "modern" all. justifies Moreover,her experienceof life has done nothing to correct the harm done by reading. Her life has been frivolous and protected; even the ending of her understanding with her cousin Basilio has left no effect. He went and after a time she met Jorge. They permanent away and life flows without incident. She lacks almost marry along evenly,
8

as she runs to meet her death at the hands of Rodolphe, ". .. son pauvre

love, both in its result (as Basilio says: "...

6 uma linda rapariga! Vale

of chivalry, ". . . veio estenderse no voltaire, quase deitada, e, com o

Flaubert,p. 607. Paginationrefers to O Primo Basilio, vid. note 1.

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strength of characterand the habits of her social class in Lisbon have prevented her from acquiring any genuine religious convictions which might have compensatedfor her individual weakness. Her strongestconviction,then, is her romanticillusion. But is it really an illusion,that is, an all-pervasivedistortionof the appearanceof reality as it is with Emma?What does Luisa do and what does she think before Basilio returns to her life? Despite the misgivings of some of Jorge's
friends (who must have read Flaubert): ". . . Luisa . . . saiu muito boa

dona de casa: tinha cuidados muito simpaticos nos seus arranjos:era como um passarinhoamiga do ninho asseada,alegre como um passarinho, e dos cariciosdo macho; e aquele serzinholouro, e meigo veio dar a sua casa um encantoserio."(9) And this conditionhas lasted for three years. The only cloud is Leopoldina,and Lulsa'sregardfor her stems at least as much from her feelings of loyalty toward an old and somewhat unfortunate friend as from any admiration for her way of life. It is true that, like Emma, she continues to read romanticfiction, but there is no evidence at this point that she is accustomedto substitute its values for those of everydayreality. She is leading the typical life of a person of her condition; Emma was not. There is no evidence of a basic discontent, either latent or overt, with herself, her husband, or their circumstances. This is by no means in itself a fault in the novel, but it leaves the novelist with the necessity of so presentingthe love affairthat it will provide its own motivation, whereas Flaubert could rely on Emma's temperamentand attitude to justify almost any affairshe might involve herself in. It might have been possible, if Ega had been as much of a Naturalistas some of his critics have thought him, to base Luisa's fall on sexual appetite, but the course of the affairdoes not bear this out. Everythingthen depends upon the quality of Luisa'sfeeling for Basilio as revealed in her relationship with him, and in the effects of this relationshipon her. Two things strike the reader familiar with Madame Bovary about Luisa as she is presentedbefore her reunionwith Basilio: that she is contented with her way of life, and that Emma would not be. It is impossible to imagine her reacting to the imminent departure of Charles as does Luisa to that of Jorge."Eladeixou pesar o corpo sobre as maos dele cruzadas,olhou-o com um longo olhar que se enevoava e escurecia, e envolvendo-lheo pescogo com o gesto lento, harmoniosoe solene dos bragos,pousou-lhena boca um beijo grave e profundo. Um vago solugo levantou-lheo peito. 'JorgelQuerido!,' murmurou." (61) It is not that she does not have momentaryfeelings of resentment toward her husband and occasionalmoods of vague sadness, not that she has more common sense than Emma;the differenceis that she finds it easier to incorporate the actual facts of her existence into the substanceof her dreams.When

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she thinks of the child they hope to have she sees him and his father as never changing, never aging: ". . . um sempre amante, novo, forte; o outro sempre ... louro e cor-de-rosa." (61) Reality and illusion merge into each other in a rose-colored haze where they are bitterly incompatible for Emma. Luisa's fall from virtue cannot be motivated by a deep-seated discontent with her situation. Nor in the twelve days that elapse between the departure of Jorge and the first visit of Basilio does anything happen that would serve to explain her later conduct. We must therefore look for the motivation in the actual events of her affair with Basilio. We may safely discount her earlier feelings for him as an explanation for this affair. When she learns through a newspaper that he has returned after a long absence as a visitor to Lisbon, the knowledge does not affect her greatly. "-Ah! -fez Luisa de repente, toda admiradapara o jornal, sorrindo. -Que 6? -8 o primo Basilio que chega!" (9) She then reads to her husband the newspaper account. She does not think of Basilio again until, after finishing her Dame aux Came'lias, she sings to herself the final aria of La Traviata, beginning: "'Addio, del passato... '." Then she remembers him, but in what terms? "Um sorriso vagaroso dilatou-lhe os beicinhos vermelhos e cheios-Fora o seu primeiro namoro.. .," (15) not precisely an outburst of passion, but rather a stylized emotion conditioned by conventional romanticism and triggered by a book and an opera which epitomize that romanticism. Neither in Madame Bovary nor in O Primo Basilio is any particular attention paid to the motivation of the seducer; in both the concentration is on the seduced. Only the technique of the seducer is important because it is the key whose conformation reveals that of the lock it fits. Hence in the first conversation between Luisa and Basilio, the reader's attention is focussed upon the words of the man, which in themselves reveal the developing pattern of responses within Luisa, a pattern whose outlines are reinforced by certain physical reactions on her part, particularly by what she notices about him as the interview continues. Norwood Andrewsl? has pointed out Eva's use of the cook Joana's sexual appetite as counterpointing in O Primo. On the afternoon of her cousin's visit Luisa had intended calling on Leopoldina, Juliana had received permission to see a doctor, thus leaving Joana alone in the house and able to "entertain"her Pedro. When Juliana informs her of this, "A cozinheira
10Norwood H. Andrews, Jr., "The Artist and the Servant Problem: Example, Ega de Queiroz,"LBR, II (1965), 43-55.

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fez-se vermelha.. ." (65) and a few seconds later, after anotherallusive remarkby her fellow-servant,"A raparigaficou escarlate."(66) When rosto ..." (68) Luisa'sblushes run like a leitmotif throughoutthe scene, their effect on the readerpredeterminedby his earlier associationof this reactionwith Joana and her uninhibitedenjoymentof sex. The relationshipbetween Basilio and Luisa is indicated early in the scene by describinghow they are seated: "Ele no sofa muito languidamente; ela ao pe, pousada de leve a beira duma poltrona,toda nervosa." (68) From this contrast,the woman at the man's feet, he calculatingly at ease, she poised nervouslyon the edge of a chair, the relative importance of the subsequentaffairfor its participantscan be predicted. The conversationis a study in stimuli and reflex responses,as Basilio, like a salesmandisplayinghis samples,places before her, not the facts of his life since last seeing her, but rather the interpretationof a careful selection of those facts-including some that it is difficult to accept as Througha progresfacts-designed to arouseLulsa'slatent romanticism.11 of their sive deformationof their past relationshipand the circumstances parting, he succeeds in transformingthe resentment which she might legitimately be feeling into compassionand interest, as she sees in him the evidence of her attractiveness. Early in the conversationshe had simply remarkedto herself: "No cabelo preto anelado havia agora alguns cabelos brancos-que lhe dera a separacao."(71) Still later Basilio'shair reappearsin yet anotherguise: "Luisasentia o aromafino que vinha de seus cabelos."(74) Her perceptionshave passed from their initial objectivity through a stage of romantic nostalgia to sensuality-or to what passes for sensualityin Luisa. Basilio, a being completely immune to any sort of romantic feeling, eventually tires under the strain of projectinga romanticimage of himself, and ratherhurriedlyannounceshis departure.The strainhe has been under to disguise cynical sensuality as deeply-felt emotion reveals itself in his reaction to the news that Jorge'smother is dead: "-E o que uma sogra pode fazer de mais amavel ..." (75) Soon afterwardshe leaves, having maintainedhis psychologicaladvantageby terminatingthe interview while Luisa is becomingmore and more avid for it to continue.Outside, in a beautifully incongruous simile, he reveals his real attitude toward Luisa: "-A ela!-exclamou com apetite:-A ela, como S. Tiago aos mouros!"(76) No further explanationof Basilio's motives is necessary;but what of Luisa's?Her thoughts and actions immediately after his departure are
fios brancos . ."; (68) later the same physical reality becomes "... os Luisa recognizes her cousin ". . . fez ah! toda escarlate." (68) After the initial greeting, they are both silent, ". . . ela cor todo o sangue no

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inevitably significant.No sooner has the street door closed behind him than she looks at herself in the mirror in her bedroom. "Comengou entao a despir-sedevagar diante do espelho, olhando-semuito, gostando de se ver branca, acariciandoa finura da pele, com bocejos lAnguidos dum cansagofeliz." (77) This is one of the most importantpassages in the entire novel, for all of Lufsa is here, reflected in the mirrorwhich Basilio'sinterest has provided her. Machado de Assis has seen Luisa as a puppet, reacting only to the stimuli of others, incapable of acting out of her own nature, since her creatorhad failed to give her one. His conclusion about Luisa's lack of individualizedcharacterseems on the whole justified;the metaphor,however, is, if not inexact, at least misleading.There is no real Luisa, that is true;there are only reflectionsof Luisa in the variousmirrors providedfor her. She sees herself only as others would have her see herself. Basilio wants her to see herself as a sophisticatedwoman capable of romantic adventures,so she becomes a romantic adventuress.Earlier Jorge had imposed upon her a role as the coddled inhabitantof a respectablelovenest, and she had played that role beautifully.Later Julianawill be able to transformher into the helpless victim of the maid's tyranny.And all through the book Ega forces on her the role of the middle class Lisbon Emma Bovary until that role-not her own nature, not her real circumstances-brings her, shaven head and all, to her deathbed. Her final words in life reinforcethe message of the mirror-scene. o cabelo. . . -murmurou tristemente. "-Cortaram-me correram-lhe duas lagrimas silenciosas Ela nao respondeu; pelos cantosdos
olhos.

. . ." (533) Devia ser a uiltima sensagao The scene of actual seductionis, as a reader of nineteenth century fiction would expect, not described at all. Lulsa has been badly frightened when Basilio, having failed to visit her at the usual hour, arrivesat nine in the evening and has himself announced as coming to say goodbye to her. "Quesustoque tivel -suspirouLuisa. -Tiveste? Ela nao respondeu; ia perdendoa percepgaonitida das coisas; sentia-se como adormecer..." (206) And "asif asleep"is what she seems to be in the greaterpart of her life and actions. While still in bed the next morning she receives a sentimental note from Basilio. On reading it ". . . sentia un acrescimo de estima por si mesma e parecia-lhe que entrava enfim numa existencia

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humido no olhar;-seria verdade . . . que 'nao havia como uma maldadezinha para fazer a gente bonita?'Tinha um amante, ela!" (214) She does not say to herself: "Theman I love loves me,"but rather congratulates herself on her newly acquiredromanticstatus and on her increasing physical attractiveness. Only as a personagein an orthodoxromanticsituation and as the reflectionof another'sinterestand praise can she achieve reality. These two concerns are evident throughout her relationship with Basilio, and neither of them can be related to the raw sensuality which some have attributed to her. Even in the "Paraiso" they dominate her mais que o sentimento; e a casa em si interessava-a, impressionava-a atraia-amais que Basiliol"(232) E9a describesfor us the room as it is in such a way that we feel Luisa'sdisappointment. "Luisamordia os bei9os, sentia-se entristecer."(235) When Basilio gives evidence, through his lack of consideration, of tiring of her, she is wounded, not in her love but in her pride. Following a scene in which she has charged him with lack of feeling, she returnshome, and after abusinghim mentally asks herself: pasmada de encontraro seu cora9ao vazio." (269) She then seeks an ter nada que fazer, a curiosidade romancesca e m6rbida de ter um The readerhas no reasonto disagreewith her self-analysis.Basilio senses
this, for he writes to her after she fails to meet him ". .. 6 decerto o teu amante, mil vaidadezinhas inflamadas, um certo desejo fisico . ." (269) explanation for having engaged in the affair, and she finds it: ". . . nao "Amava-o, ela?", (268) and, searching for an answer ". . . ficou toda actions. Before she has actually seen it she realizes that ". . . o aparato

superiormente interessante . . ." (213) Again she has recourse to her mirror: ". . . achou a pele mais clara, mais fresca, e um enternecimento

orgulho,nao o teu amor que te domina...." (270, 271) While we accept the motives given for her actions as the correct ones, we need not accept them as sufficient.We cannot but recognize that what we have here are reflectionsof the motivationgiven by Flaubert to Emma Bovary, especially when we recognize in the Portuguese affair details identical with or analogous to details in the French affair: the Paradise itself, particularlythe romantic repas a deux, the use of the coach at an earlier stage, the excuses used by the lovers to break off relations.An examinationof one such analogue is particularlyuseful in indicating what Ega's reading of Madame Bovary has done for and to

0 PrimoBasilio.

In both novels the attemptsmade by the women to stave off the ruin which the lack of money threatens lead them to seek help from men whom they find personally distasteful. With Emma it is Maitre Guillaumin whom we already know to be fully aware of her difficultiesand

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Luso-Brazilian Review

whose interest in her person has been hinted at earlier in the book. She can only go a short way in the tacit bargainthey make before her pride (and this is a part of her character,particularlyas far as self-esteem is concerned, which has been well developed previously) makes her say with the haughtinessof a marquiserepulsingan immonde:'Vous profitez impudemmentde ma d6tresse,monsieur!Je suis A plaindre, mais pas a vendre!"After this speech, whose rhetoricis in perfect accord with her nature, she leaves. In Madame Bovarythis misadventureis but one of a series of humiliationsreceived in Emma's attempts to undo the results of her irresponsibility. In O Primo Basilio the analogue to this scene is in much more detail, and has been carefully planned by Ega developed almost from the beginning of the book. Leopoldina has been telling Luisa for some time that Castro, one of the richest men of Lisbon, admires her greatly. Before Jorge's return she had considered getting the money from him, but her nerve had failed her. Now she learns that he is going to retire to Bordeaux, and that the next day this literally golden opportunitywill be gone forever. Leopoldina has him come to her house and after some preliminariesleaves him with Luisa that they This is one of Luisa's "hoursof truth." may "cometo some agreement." What will happen?Ega regardsthis as a scene tfaire, and there is indeed more interest in whether or not she will "fall"then than there was in her affair with Basilio. After a number of advances and retreats she apparentlyrealizes the true nature of what she is contemplating and piteously begs: "Deixe-me!Deixe-me!"He is understandablyannoyed, and charges at her with his teeth clenched. Luisa seizes his whip and proceeds to vent all her fury on the poor man. He finally escapes, and when Leopoldina hears what has happened (she has seen him running out) she explodes with laughter.The whole scene is in the characteristic but it belongs in a French comic style of Ega. As a scene it is magnificent, or Italianfarce, not in a Realisticnovel, at least not in this one. In importance this episode could be ranked with Emma'slast visit to Rodolphe, much less fully prepared for by Flaubert (Emma has not previously thought of him as a way out of her troubles,and the reader has perhaps forgottenthat he lives within walking distance of Yonville), but once it has gotten underway,proceedingin a completelynaturalfashionbecause the two act and speak along lines that all our previousknowledge of their naturesleads us to accept as inevitable. In Flauberttoo the scene is intimately linked to the denouement,since it is the culminatingpoint of Emma's emotionaland materialbankruptcyand thus immediatelyand adequately motivatesher suicide. In O Primo a scene so carefully prepared and presented has surprisinglylittle connection with the eventual conclusion; and, most damning,it confuses rather than clarifiesthe reader's

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grasp of Luisa's nature. Could a woman capable of such violent and decisive action on this occasion be so completely lacking these qualities on all others? We might accept this as an eruption of her character which had been deeply suppressed up to this point, but we cannot accept her later complete relapse into her former state of almost hopeless acceptance of what others do to and for her. This distinct break in consistency of characterization, occurring as it does in a scene so analogous to one in Madame Bovary, draws attention to the overall structural resemblance between the two novels. The same two motifs are employed: extramarital affairs and consequent financial pressures on the two women; the same motives within these heroines: the desire to replace the prosaic world of reality with the glittering world of romantic illusion; the same terrible revenge taken on both by that scorned world of reality. The basic differences in temperament between two heroines given similar motivations in similar situations-Emma, headstrong and energetic; Luisa, timorous and languid-become indicators of the debt of the creator of one to the creator of the other when we see Luisa acting in dissonance with her basic temperament but in consonance with the temperament of Emma. A final indication of the relationship between Madame Bovary and O Primo Basilio develops from the deaths of the two principal characters. Emma's suicide, so consistent with her character and so abundantly motivated, has already been discussed, but what of Luisa's? How and why does she die? She dies not by her own hand, nor by the hand of another, but by illness, apparently as a result of the shock of Jorge's discovering evidence of her infidelity, just as Charles Bovary discovers similar evidence, but only after Emma's death. Everything about this death has been carefully prepared by E9a: the emotional tensions to which Luisa has been subjected over a period of months; Jorge's statement very early in the book that he would not tolerate infidelity; references to various illnesses of Luisa's in the past, particularly the very understandable physical collapse which follows Juliana's death. Everything has been prepared, and yet the reader is not convinced that so superficial, dreamily egotistical a creature as Luisa, particularly one in such generally good physical health, would have succumbed so easily. Lulsa had never acted as if romantic illusions were her bread of life; to her it has been more the dessert that completes a meal. Emma dies because her world was destroyed. Luisa dies to complete the parallel her creator has so assiduously traced between the burguezinha of Lisbon and the gallant rebel of Normandy.