Between money and the miracle: a semiotic reading of Machado de Assis’ short story “Entre santos”

Abstract

Machado de Assis wrote a considerable amount of short stories. Although his writings have been widely studied, some of his short stories have not yet received due attention from the specialized critique, because of their typical polysemous irony. One of such stories is “Entre santos” (2007), a tale of mystery about a man who witnesses some saints chatting at an altar. In this narrative, St. Francisco de Sales reports his contact with a worshipper interested in his wife’s physical recovery in exchange of some effort involving no pecuniary loss. On proposing the exchange, the worshipper is torn between his love for his wife and his avarice. The story focusses on the evolution of the man’s feelings. As the outline of the unusual plot suggests, the text remains open to further analysis. Despite the fact that this short story is considered one of Machado’s best productions, we believe it has been insufficiently studied, so far, and propose a semiotic reading of the feelings related to avarice in the story told by the Saint.