The Construction of the Competence for Infidelity in Dom Casmurro

Abstract

Dom Casmurro is a book that brings us instigating reactions about the infidelity of Capitu. Although the novel does not register any proof that she has indeed committed adultery, its narrator tries to persuade the reader that this actually happened, because it is believable. In other words, Capitu had the semiotic competence for that performance. This conclusion can be explosive in the pen of a jealous narrator. We can realize that the fact of taking for sure what is virtually delimitated by a verisimilar possibility is the result of a discursive construction. The fictional art of Machado involves the narrative in a network of ambiguities that makes some characters potentially adulterous people. In addition, the narration itself is characterized by omissions and contradictions. As a result, if Capitu is potentially adulterous, the narrator does not present elements to prove his accusation, because he tends to exaggerate his wife’s competence for adultery, whereas he has nothing to say specifically about the act itself. There is no evidence for that accusation; or rather, the only evidence produced is his own narrative. For the final verdict, the reader must to take into consideration the competence of Escobar, the narrator-character, and the narrative itself, with its ambiguities and contradictions. The theoretical support will be provided by French semiotics. More precisely, by the canonic development of the narrative level of the generative path of meaning.