Jamie Ruan

ENG 2850
Professor Samyn

Close Reading 2: The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman

“Oh, how humiliated she felt at having come to the bar without a hat, and her head now felt bare.
And that madam with her affectations, playing the refined lady! I know what you need, my
beauty, you and your sallow boy friend! And if you think I envy you with your flat chest, let me
assure you that I don’t give a damn for you and your hats. Shameless sluts like you are only
asking for a good hard slap on the face.” – Lispector (813)

Lispector reveals Maria’s inner dialogue and negative diction, to show how, in her

drunken state, the woman views herself unfavorably and tries to justify to herself her own

position within society. The sudden switch to an inner dialogue, from a third person to first

person point of view gives the reader a window into the mind of the speaker. The reader can see

that the use of negative diction used to describe the rich woman Maria saw shows her apparent

jealousy of someone who she sees is in a better position. The “madam with her affectations” as

Maria describes has a negative connation and denotation as Maria is leading the reader to believe

that the other female is fake and superficial, and is acting to get attention. Maria also compares

her beauty and assets to the other female’s. While she sees the other female as someone who is

richer and playing well the role of a “refined lady,” she feels the need to destroy her initial

impression of the madam to satisfy herself; she feels insecure so there is the need to convince

herself that she is on equal ground, on the same social level, as the other woman. In addition, she

continues on to call the madam a “shameless slut,” showing her strong desire to tear down the

image of the other woman that she has. While she originally feels humiliated and out of place for

not wearing a hat, Maria by the end of this section attempts to convince herself that she has no

reason to feel that way and that she is better than this woman with a hat anyways.

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 Maria’s perceptions of herself differs between scenes in the short story. While she was in

the bar, she saw herself negatively, as seen in the scene with the “refined lady.” She also

mentions that at the tavern, she was “nothing more than a fishwife trying to pass herself off as a

duchess” (813). She sees herself as extremely out of place in this party but does nothing to

change her situation. There are also instances where she views herself as “a lazy bitch” when she

realizes none of the housework has been done. On the other hand, there are instances when

Maria perceives herself positively. In the beginning scene of the story, she was sitting in front of

a mirror and within the first paragraph, it was repeated, “Her eyes did not look away as the

mirrors trembled…her eyes did not take themselves off her image.” She seems to be completely

wrapped up in her own appearance. Additionally, at the end of the story, she mentions how her

husband’s protector pressed his foot against hers, and wonders if that move was intentional.

Maria seems to hold herself on a pedestal in these two scenes as she is in awe of her own beauty

and she thinks she has captured the attention of another man who is not her husband.

The contrasting perceptions Maria has of herself insinuates that she is dealing with issues

of self-esteem and self-identity. Although she views herself highly in the privacy of her bedroom

at the start of the story, she turns to lambasting another woman who she sees as better than her

and belittles herself after her appearance at a public event. Through this short story, Lispector

shows the difficulties of finding and understanding one’s identity.