O mito de Pandora: dissimulação e máscara em Eugênia e Eulália

Abstract

This work aims to delineate the profile of the characters Eugênia and Eulália, from the novel Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, written by Machado de Assis, based on the relationship that there is in this writer's work with the representation of the female figure and also with the underlying presence of Pandora’s myth which marks both protagonists. In sum, this research aims to discuss, through the attitudes of both characters, what the narrator's approach is in relation to the women in Brazilian society and answer the following inquiry: will be the marks of nineteenth-century patriarchal society the reasons that lead the narrator to deconstruct the representation of characters Eugênia and Eulália in this writer's work? During the performance of the analysis, studies about the structure of the nineteenth century’s society and the women’s position at that time were used, as well as the theorizing supplied by some critics and historians of literature, especially Alfredo Bosi (2015), John Gledson (2006), Luis Filipe Ribeiro (2008) and Roberto Schwarz (2012), by which it sought to evidence that both female figures designing by the malicious view of a male narrator.