NARRATIVE AND STYLE - ESAÚ E JACÓ

Machado de Assis em Esau e Jaco atinge uma maturidade de estilo e uma serenidade narrativa que tinha estado ausente durante os seus primeiros anos. Em torno de 1904, o novelista brasileiro tinha visivelmente se resignado com as vicissitudes da vida. Em lugar de continuar a concentrar-se na psicologia humana, Machado, na sua oitava novela, retrata um panorama dos finais do seculo XIX no Brasil. MMB

The year 1878 marked a turning point in Machado's career. In April of that year he had published a two-part critique of the J. M. Eça de Queiroz' novle, O Primo, Basíllo (1878).2 In those articles Machado attacked the artistic validlty of the Realist and Naturalist's approach to the naval. Then beginning in 1881, in what appeared to be a direct rebuttal to those two esthetic movements, he would publish five novels in his own extremely personal style. In them Machado challenged and negated the values of the Realist and Naturalist novelists of Portugal and Brazil.
In his last five works, Machado, antedating many twentieth-century novelists in his use of a variety of narrative and thematic innovations, demonstrated that man's primary prececupations, such as truth, reality, and human existence, are acutely subjective literary and psychological concepts which readily vary with each individual's viewpoint.
Unlike his Realist literary contemporaries, Machado did not pretend to possess or monopolize answers to truth, reality, and life. His final five novels are for he most part open-ended. Each of them purposely denies the traditional happy, or at least logical, ending, and ís replete with numerous unanswered questions a void which the reader must fill, although not necessarily close, wíth his own imagination. Machado seemed to hold greater respect for his readers' intelligence than did his literary colleagues. He implied that truth, reality, and life, being experiences common to ali individuais, the reader was to be obliged to participate along with the novelist in the seach, even though it be futile, for those essential answers.
The presence of a narrator in each of the final five novels, whether omniscient as in Quincas Borba (1891), or first-person participant in Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas (1881), Dom Casmurro (1899), and Memorial de Alres (1908), or as in Esaú e Jacó, where both types are present, strongly negated the doctrines and techniques of the Realists and Naturalists, whose literary creed obliged them to suppress ali evidence of the author's presence.
Thus within Machado's novels Esaú e Jacó is unique due to its narration by both an omniscient author and a participant character, Counselor Aires. The latter, however, is dependent on the former, and, significantly, does not emerge as a narrator in hís own right until Machado's final novel, Memorial de Alres.
In Esaú 'e Jacó the Counselor is still within the control of the omniscient narrator. Consequently, the latter, in a manner alternately serious and humorous, strives to avoid censure for his own foolish and rhetorical remarks and frequently attributes them to the character Aires. For instance, it is Aires who is blamed for impishly modifying Padre Manuel Bernardes' celebrated phrase "Alonguei-me fugindo e morei na soedade" (p. 82): "Aires trocou-lhe uma palavra e o sentido: Alonguei-me fugindo, e morei entre a gente" (p. 83). Machado as the narrator thus revives a quotation from the Classical Portuguese literature, deforms it in order to rejuvenate lt, but attributes such literary license to anoher. And when he wishes to dissassociate the cultured Aires from commonplace statements, the omniscient narrator often invents an unidentified third person: "Pessoa a quem li confidencialmente o capítulo passado, escreve-me dizendo: 'A ocasião faz o ladrão": (p. 166). The narrator at that point then attributed the upgrading of that heckneyed adage to the inventive Aires: "Uma das afirmações de Aires, quem também gostava de estudar adágios, é que esse não estava certo. A forma exata deve ser esta: 'A ocasião faz o furto, o ladrão nasce feito" (p. 166).
Machado is observed maintaining various levels of association. Offstage or lesser characters in Esaú e Jacó are respons!ble for the statements or sayings which are most commonplace, Conversely, Aires often serves as an agent for Machado's humor by ridiculing, deforming, or upgrading such po-pular utterances. It is, however, Machado disguised as the omniscient narrator who reserves the most original, humorous, and sublimes interventions for himself; for example, references to classical literature or mythology: "Ulisses confessa a Alcinoos que lhe é enfadonho contar as mesmas cousas. Também a mim. Sou, porém, obrigado a elas, porque sem elas a nossa Flora seria menos Flora" (p. 207).
Having presented the above sketch of the several narrative levels of intervention, it remains to analyze the numerous types or categories of intervention. The approximately 150 interventions by the omniscient author in Esaú e Jacó can be divided into ten broad classifications: (I) By far the most numerous are those which economize narrative time and space, permiting the novel to progress unhindered by voluminous details or exhaustive descriptions. It is of interest to note the rei ative brevity of Machado's novels: while those after 1881 averaqe 180 to 230 pages, Machadc's famous contemporary, Aluízio Azevedo, published novels which were a prolific 300 to 450 pages in length. Machado's narrator interventions which save time and printed space, substitute the Realist-Naturalist penchant for microscopic character descriptions, elaborate scenery, and graphic details. Concerned exclusively with human interiors and psychological motivation, Machado either discarded such encumbering external details or disposed of them in a single word or phrase. Therefore, unconcerned with specific names, an exact time, place or activity, Machado simply omits the reference: "Não ficou o dia, o mês foi agosto" (p. 28); "para ir a não sei que compras" (p. 65); "Frei***. Podia escrever-lhe o nome, ninguém mais o conheceria" (p. 65).
In depicting the character Santos, who often spoke hastíly and unintelligibly, Machado, avoiding a word-by-word portrayal as a Realist might have done, economizes both time and the reader's patience by summarizing: "As palavras de Santos sairam de atropelo, umas sobre outras, embrulhadas, sem princípio, sem fim" (p. 43).
Machado regularly reminds his reader that a given page or chapter should not be overburdened with words, sentences and ideas, lest it become excessively cluttered: "Se não fosse a necessidade de pôr os meninos em pé, crescidos e homens, espraiava este capítulo" (p. 55). At that juncture the narrator rapidly impels the twins through their early years:"uma página bastava para os chocalhos que embelezavam os pequenos" (p. 55), and "a operação de desmamar podia fazer-se em meia linha ... tudo isso exigia uma boa página ou mais" (p. 55). Machado the narrator on other occasions seeks gratitude from the reader for having spared him or her the tedious descriptions so common to the Realist and Naturalist schools: "Tudo isso restrinjó só para não enfadar a leitora curiosa de ver os meus meninos homens e acabados" (p. 55). Machado thus skips lightly over the twins' earlier years, realistically acknowledging the omitted time, but moving forward steadily to their early adulthood, where the principal action of Esaú e Jacó is concentrated: "Ei-Ios que vêm crescendo" (p. 56).
On certain occasions the reader is urged or invited to forego an entire chapter, if he wishes: "Não tendo outro lugar ... aproveito este capítulo" (p. 65). In another instance Machado the narrator, instead of attempting to rival Plutarch regarding an especially beautiful phrase, achieves an equal effect by stating quite curtly: "Valia por um página de Plutarco" (p. 113).
Another example of economy occurs when the narrator flatly refuses to develop a point: "Esse ponto, no nosso caso, não pode ser ventilado, nem eu quero desenvolvê-Io, como aliás cumpria" (p. 132). The narrator also admits (p. 148) that he scratches out or erases words and admonishes the reader not to try to resuscitate them.
In another case the narrator cleverly avoids duplicating a psychological description of the twins, Pedro and Paulo. After delving at length into Paulo's soul (p. 177), Machado economizes space, foregoing a similar long-winded probe into Pedro's soul by stating flatly: "[a alma de Pedra] era gêmea da outra; não lhe viu mais nem menos que nesta" (p. 178).
The Realist and Naturalist insistence on minute portrayals of characters, clothing and milieu was emphatically rejected by Machado: "Crede-me que eu preferia contar as rendas do roupão da moça. .. seria enfadonho, mas entendia-se" (p. 178). Again, perhaps having his feminine readers in mind and recalling the excesses he had criticized in O Primo Basílio, Machado the narrator intervenes to spare the reader from harsh and ugly words uttered to each other by the twins (p. 182).
(11) Another category of intervention often occurring in Esaú e Jacó is a technique designated by Maria Nazaré Uns Soaresê as "dizer não dizendo." An example of this stylistic device which employs both denial and negation occurs immediately in Chapter I, during the visit by Natividade and Perpétua to the fortuna teller's shack. The narrator, although constantly apologizing for his avoidance of minute descriptions, imparts indirectly to the reader a vigorous description by means of denial. Note the spooky tone attained in the following passage: conduziu as senhoras à sala. Esta era simples, as paredes nuas, nada que lembrasse mistério ou incutisse pavor, nenhum petrecho 1-" (1983) simbólico, nenhum bicho empalhado, esqueleto ou desenho de aleijões. (p. 20) Following a symmetrical description of two horses, "os próprios cavalos eram iguaizinhos, quase gêmeos, e batiam as patas com o mesmo ritmo, a mesma força e a mesma graça" (p. 74), Machado the narrator then indirectly emphasizes the above harmony by denying any further extension of that same symmetry to tails and manes: "não creias que o gesto da cauda e das crinas fosse simultâneo nos dous animais: não é verdade e pode fazer duvidar do resto. Pois o resto é certo" (p. 74). The narrator also offers slight denials of the reality of semipoetical statements; however, in so doing the poetic impression is further enhanced: "O céu parecia escrever o tratado de paz que ambos teriam de assinar ... Também não juro isto, digo o que se pode crer só pelo aspecto das cousas" (p. 189).
In another example, Machado, assiduously avoiding lengthy descriptions, again portrays indirectly, now using a negative sentence: "Não se descreve a admiração do secretário, em seguida a consternação, finalmente a indignação" (p. 211). He also makes a flat denial in another case, by attributing the origin of a particular statement to a personage, disavowing responsibility, but permitting the declaration to stand: "Não sou eu que o digo: Santos é o que pensou" (p. 31). Often the narrator confesses to not having used the appropriate word or term, seemingly casting doubt on his own veracity, which contributes even further to the murky Machadian intent: "embora esta palavra não exprima exatamente o que quero dizer" (p. 47). Machado also continues the proceess, "dizer não dizendo," by refusing to commit to paper what he be/ieves obvious: "Não digo com isto ... cousa tão óbvia que custa escrever" (p. 46). Such denials, refusals, and negatives are abundant throughout Esaú e Jacó. Ali of them, however, evoke an understanding on the reader's part, and, more significantly, oblige him or her to participate closely in the development of the novel, (/lI) A third category of interest is the series of narrativa interventions which attempts to scrutinize human sentiment, the human psyche, and the processes of thought. Machado's efforts to penetrate the workings of the mind years before the divulgation of Freud in Brazil further make salient the author's rejection of the Realist and Naturalist's penchant for exterior observation, and his own success in creating a singular nove-Iistic style. Delving into the human psyche ("O homem é um alfabeto de sensações," (p. 174), Machado illustrated psycho-logical actions: "Velhas idéias ... emergindo do cérebro e descendo ao coração" (p. 40), portrayed the thought process: "A palavra rasgava-lhe o cérebro, ferindo sem penetrar" (p. 83), or the groping of the mind: "apalpava-se moralmente" (p. 106). Machado implied that existence is too infinitely complex and profound to be systematically sketched by literature: "Mas no secreto do coração, lá muito ao fundo, onde não penetra olho de homem" (p. 59); and "o olho do homem serve de fotografia ao invisível, como o ouvido serve de eco ao silêncio" (p. 96). In another often-cited example, which juxtaposes psychology and physiology, Machado strives toward a graphic visualization of the manner in which the learned mind functions: o leitor atento, verdadeiramente ruminante, tem quatro estômagos no cérebro, e por eles faz passar e repassar os atos e os fatos (p. 128) um dia, a língua deu sete voltas na boca, e o segredo saiu medroso e sussurado. (p, 180) Two final portrayals in this vein are the temporary departure of Flora's communicative soul: "A viagem que o espírito da moça fazia à casa da gente Santos... voltou para dizer estas palavras ao coração: quem és tu que não atas nem desatas" (p. 194), and the personification of secrets: "Então, pedem [os segredos] aos deuses (porque os segredos são pagãos). .. que os segredos, minha amiga, são gente, vivem e morrem" (p. 192).
(V) In a fifth group of interventions are observed the narrator's preoccupation, at times obsessive, with the mechanics of composition and writing. In one instance, capital letters are humorously discussed in the case of the abstract noun "Modéstia," as to whether it wishes to have a capitalized "M." The comma is cited: "Daqui a dizer que ambos a amavam era uma vírgula" (p. 119). The narrator's acute awareness of rhetorical devices is frequently evident in the text of Esaú 'e Jacó: "Não falo só por imagem... amava as imagens graciosas e aquela pareceu-lhe graciosíssima" (p. 105). At times the narrator criticizes the images of his own or of the personages' creation: "[duas lágrimas] como outras tantas fitas que lhe atavam para sempre à pasta do passado. A imagem não é boa, nem verdadeira; foi a que acudiu ao conselheiro" (p. 205). In another intervention the narrator apologizes for lacking the time to seek out a better figure: "Perdoa a figura; não é nobre, nem clara, mas a situação não me dá tempo de ir à cata de outra" (p. 177).
Machado's acute consciousness concerning the demands of refined and responsible composition appears in the text in another instance regarding an unsubstantiated opinion: "mas não possuo o menor documento disto" (p. 86).
The narrator also evidences hiS foresight concerning the placement and organization of chapters. The closely interwoven structure of Esaú e Jacó and other Machadian novels can ln part be attributed to constant citings and references to previous and sometimes even later chapters: "Sei que este fenômeno é tal qual o do capítulo XXV" (p. 87). In Chapter XCIX the narrator refers twice to Chapter XXXII, "O Aposentado." An audacious innovation, chapters in which only other chapters are discussed, occurs in Chapter CXIX, "Penúltimo," wherein the entire chapter is devoted to an announcement that there will be two final chapters, "Penúltimo" and "último." A humorous and playful trick is employed to connect two chapters: [Chapter XCIX] "E daí outro abraço longo, mais longo...
Such an intense preoccipation with the mechanics of composition and style would have comprised a literary taboo to Machado's Realist-Naturalist contemporaries.
(VI) In somewhat the same vein as the previous group are the interventions which criticize and belittle the stylistic short-comings and pretensions of individual personages.
The latter are often ridiculous secondary characters and certain stereotypes such as poets, politicians, and newspaper writers, who receive the brunt of Machado's acidic criticism of hackneyed style. For example, the amateur poet Gouveia: "gastava papel e tinta a metrificar as esperanças.
Another genre of composition which Machado attacked with noticeable delight was the political manifesto, which he perceived to be structured according to a commonly accepted recipe: Batista recordou o tempo dos manifesto liberais, e quis fazer um. Chegou a principiá-Io, em segredo, empregando as belas frases que trazia de cor, citações latinas, duas ou três apóstrofes. (p. 158) The narrator scornfully relegates the character Nóbrega to a position inferior even to the other mediocre writers and poets of Esaú e Jacó, by exposing his total incapacity to compose even a rudimentary prose: "Sabia pouca ortografia, nenhuma sintaxe, lições úteis... uma carta supria tudo, mas a carta pedia língua, calor e respeito" (p. 208).
A final example of Machado the narrator's awareness of the techniques and problems of composition is a marked fear of lapsing into an "excesslve" style. Here a seulf-criticism ln parentheses follows a short passage of what Machado considered the shopworn eloquence of his time: "Que esse breve raio de luz lhe desabotoasse as flores da esperança (começo a falar como a primeira carta)" (p. 198).
(VII) A seventh category of interventions consists of quotations. For the most part such quotations are digressions which assist the narrator in illustrating, expanding, or reinforcing a particular point or idea. Some quotations are commonplace expressions which Machado frequently deforms, in order to reinvigorate their communicative value. Ali of Esaú e Jacó's mediocre personages are totally unoriginal and, as a consequence, borrow expressions from a common and tired patrimony: "Tal-vez essas razões não fossem propriamente dela, mas ouvidas a alguém, decoradas sem esforço e repetidas com convicção" (p. 35).
The narrator often takes a commonplace expression, and, after carefully attributing its origin to others, deforms it for a humorous effect: "Pessoas do tempo, querendo exagerar a riqueza, dizem que o dinheiro brotava do céu" (p. 162). In other cases Machado simply repeats an adage, applying it to a specific character: "Há pessoas para quem o adágio que diz 'o melhor da festa é esperar por ela,' resume todo o prazer da vida. D. Rita tinha esta opinião" (p. 209).
(VIII) A less frequent category is comprised of interventions aimed directly at the reader ("leitor" and "leitora"). Some in this grouping invite the reader's participation in the novel's actlon: "Talvez a leitora, no mesmo caso, ficasse aguardando o destino" (p. 40). On another occasion the narrator warns the reader, especially those expecting a Romantic novel, not to tamper with the novel's structure: Aqui entra uma reflexão da leitora. O que a senhora deseja, amiga minha, é chegar já ao capítulo do amor ou dos amores. Francamente, eu não gosto de gente que venha adivinhando e compondo um livro que está sendo escrito com método. Se quer compor o livro, aqui tem a pena, aqui tem o papel, aqui tem um admirador. (p. 73) A final example to be noted occurs when Machado addresses the reader as an abstract entity, perhaps simultaneously and indirectly lamenting the sparse Brazilian reading public of the time: "Não sei quem me lê nesta ocasião' '(p. 93).
(IX) A final category is composed of philosophical interventions in which the narrator ruminates on questions of truth, reality, and life. None of these statements by Machado is lntended to be absolute, and ali remain open-ended. This attitude and approach again make salient the void between Machado and his contemporaries, whose theories and doctrines presupposed absolute truths and factual reality. The famous "dúvida rnachadiana" stems in part from this very denial of absolutes.

B. DESCRIPTIVE STYLlSTIC TECHNIQUES
Since Brás Oubas, Quíncas Borba, and Dom Casmurro are to a greater degree profound studies of human nature, they exhibit a lesse r utilization than Eeaú e Jacó of what may be considered descriptive stylistic elements. In this eighth novel there is a marked focus on external appearance, which in turn affords Machado ample opportunity to explore and perfect style as a descriptive device.

Simm.etry
The basic theme of Esaú le Jacó, the quest for human perfection, is symbolized by the polarized twins, Pedro and Paulo. Their presence enables the methodical Machado to experiment with symmetrical description. Symmetry often emerges ln scenes when the twins appear together:
Although Machado's style has often been held to be flat and colorless, Esaúe Jacõ presents the reader with an array of descriptive technical devlces which provide it vlvid notes of realism. Machadc's selection of verbs graphically depicts movement and evokes mental pictures. He frequently groups verbs in threes or fours to portray prolonged action, or to extend particular scenes: e.g., prolonged action, imperfect tense: "e fitava-as, e cheirava-as, e escutava-as" (p, 26); and, e.g., future hope: "eles hão de subir, subir, subir" (p. 23). In another humorous instance, the preterit was expeditiously used to dispose of an impoverished, unwanted relative who had journeyed to Rio de Janeiro from the province for a hand-out: "arranjou-lhe depressa. .. despachou-o" (p. 30). Following their c1andestine visit to the fortune-teller of the Morro do Castelo, Natividade and Perpétua fear being recognized and subsequently desire to exit rapidly. The latter action is conveyed aptly by five verbs in the preterit: "visto que subiram, que desceram, deram os dois mil-réis, entraram no carro e voltaram para Botafogo" (p. 40). Hastiness in making a decision also demanded the preterit: "propuseram, discutiram, emendaram e concluíram" (p. 189). In Chapter CXII, in an extreme case, the narrator chose three sets in "ternárlo" to intensify Paulo's actions and thoughts in the cemetary: "estacou, recuou, e novamente se escondeu. .. aceitando, repelindo, esperando... arredou-se, desceu e saiu" (pp. 222-223).
In the last paragraph of Chapter LXXIX and the first line of Chapter LXXX, Machado appropriately weaves a passage of vague nouns, in order to intensify a diaphanous atmosphere: I -11(1983) "Era um espetáculo misterioso. On other occasions the narrator purposely avoids logic and congregates disparate nouns to form scenes of dlsorder, thereby heightening the animative effect: "toda a terminologia espírita saiu fora. e mais os casos. fenômenos. mistérios. testemunhos. atestados verbais e escritos" (p. 49).

Adverbs:
Machado less frequently endowed adverbs with such pietorial missions, but some examples do appear in Esaú e Jacó. There is one six-syllable adverb which depicts slow and hesitant movements: "e vinha a repeti-Ia consigo. va/ga/ro/sa/men/ te. como ia andando" (p. 96), and "Paulo. va/ga/ro/sa/men/te. caminhou para a sepultura" (p. 221). In another descriptive vein, Machado provokes a definite psychological nuance by contras-ting one adverb which expresses duration of time with another, of emotion, thus heightening the evocative potential of the phrase: "pedindo longa e lastimosamente" (p. 26).

Metaphors and Images:
Among the more interesting metaphors and images are two which augment the descriptive powers of Machado's style: "um dia dobrou a esquina da vida e caiu na praça da morte" (p. 66); and in the phrase "o Cabo das Tormentas converteu-se em Cabo da Boa Esperança" (p. 59-60), Portuguese history is utilized to digress on the topic of Natividade's fortieth birthday. Further examples, although sensitively poetic, still convey an intense picture: "até que o sono entrou com os seus pés de lã e bico calado, e tomou conta da alcova inteira" (p. 58).

Collectlve Scenes:
The final example to be considered, that of the collective scene, is especially utilized in Esàú e Jacó in comparison with Machado's previous fiction. This novel can be considered the most "Brazilian" of Machado's nine, inasmuch as an inordinate I -11(1983) effort has been made to insert scores of references to Brazil's history, economy, literature and political figures. The principal action of Esaú e Jacó occurs between 1888 and 1894, a tumultuous period in Brazilian history which Machado is especially successful in capturing. For exampel, during the Republican Revolution of November 15, 1889, Machado, in this novel, foregoes an attempt to describe directly the triumph of Deodoro da Fonseca in the Praça da República. Instead, the novelist conveys a vivid impression of the public confusion and bewilderment by synthesizing rumors from the street: Ouviu umas palavras soltas, 'Decdoro,' 'batalhões,' 'campo,' 'ministério,' etc ... mas nenhuma notícia clara nem completa...