A dantesque dream

an analysis of Castro Alves’ “O navio negreiro”

Abstract

This paper proposes an analysis of the poem “O navio negreiro”, by Castro Alves, that attempts to understand the images employed by the poet to deal with the issues concerning slavery. The aim is to demonstrate that in order to handle the horrors caused by a slave-based society the author evokes a series of images common to those present in Gothic literature. In addition, the image of the sea will be analyzed in detail in order to understand its meaning in the poem.