writing_womans_lives_symposium_paper_book_v2

THE FEMININE UNIVERSE OF THE 19 TH CENTURY IN COUSIN BASÍLIO,
BY EÇA DE QUEIRÓS
Izabel MARGATO *
This work aims at analyzing the Domestic Episodes staged by Eça de Queirós in Cousin Basílio.
Reading the Portuguese Scenes that the novel brings out in relief is our first step. We seek to recover
the meaning of scene as the panorama of occurrences that are more or less objectionable or
scandalous. It is with this in mind that we begin the reading of Cousin Basílio, a novel markedly
limited to the petty‐bourgeois universe of a Lisbon family. Constructed fundamentally by the
exposition of actions, feelings and attributes of this small group, the novel allows Eça to lay bare,
under the cloak of an exemplary narrative, the false bases upon which rested the “official world, the
sentimental world, the literary world, the agricultural world, and the superstitious world” of his
domestic Lisbon.
As we know, the family idealized by the 19 th Century bourgeois is not only the “refuge” 1 against
the terrors of a markedly unstable society, but it functions, primarily, as a guarantee of respectability
in a life where order, honor and authority could not be contested.
In the name of family respectability, the character of Leopoldina is forbidden to attend the
honorable home of the Engineer. The presence of “Bread and Cheese” does not fit in with the role
destined for Luisa, the “angel of the home,” nor with the other family relationships that complete
this socially‐marked picture, where a simple discordant presence is a sign of compromise.
Nevertheless, the sense of respectability in this universe does not depend solely on the distancing of
a woman of dubious behavior, since the universe of bourgeois respectability will be constructed
based on an intricate code of values.
Hobsbawm, in The Era of Empires, traces a panorama of the bourgeois world at the end of the
19 th Century, analyzing in great detail this codified universe of “belonging.” 2 In this work, different
strata of society are mapped out and identified within the particularity of their attributes. The key
mark of identification is change, triggered by the social mobility that all seek. Money is the main
object of this movement, as, in the absence of feudal rights or mark of identification of the
inaccessible “blue blood,” it will be the most resistant touchstone with which to assess the status of
each one. Having more or less money will determine the fluctuation of respectability of class that
organizes bourgeois life.
Living in this constant and unstable escalade implied having to live with the implacable wheel of
fortune that could either ruin a well‐to‐do family or, from one day to the next, transform the
accurate marksman into a respectable businessman. The ruin and, subsequently, the fortune badly
accounted for of the character Basílio can be seen as an example of this process. After some time
spent in Brazil, Basílio becomes wealthy, s 2 pends a year in Paris and, when visiting Lisbon, no longer
introduces himself as a simple local tradesman; Basílio is now cosmopolitan, travels, and does
business on an international scale. He has ascended socially, recovered and broadened his prestige.
Thus, he has become wealthier.
Nevertheless, this respectability earned in such haste, also needs legitimacy. To this end, it would
be necessary to own, aside from the money, a set of attributes that define the position of different
classes.
*
Literature Department, PUC‐ Rio, Brazil
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