Archetypes of feminine dualism in the short-story “Desenredo” by João Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

In the short-story “Desenredo”, from Tatuméia by João Guimarães Rosa, the archetypes of the feminine dualism portrait the attributes of the women’s position in the world. Adulteress, the main character is the Witch, the Great prostitute, Lilith, personifying the bacchante soul, the prototype Dionysian, but, at the end of the story, by a magic way, her lover reestablish to the other’s eyes the image of the woman, which was feared and hated by the locals. Being part of the Mother figure, the character starts to be typified as the Virgin, Eva’s archetypes, representing perfection and pureness: goals of the masculinity aspiration recognized by the Eros’ tradition. Following those ideas we will do a reading of the short-story trying to recognize symbols and archetypes of the duality express on the fictional architecture.