Madalena: o avesso de Paulo Honório no romance "São Bernardo", de Graciliano Ramos

Abstract

The present study aims to analyze the construction of the character Madalena from the inside out with Paulo Honório, narrator-protagonist of the novel São Bernardo by Graciliano Ramos (1934), as well as the representation of the actions used by Paulo Honório to achieve wealth and social ascension. In carrying out this research, it was possible to understand the representation of the Madalena character strictly related to the power relations existing in society, that is, the character opposes and resists to the natural and social environment taxes, means that, that hurt and mark irreversible. In this sense, this study will seek to highlight the relationships between literature and the social environment, showing how gender representations and also aesthetic conventions are related to values, ideological roles that are rooted in a society. To do so, we will also analyze how the materialistic view of the character interferes with his wife, Madalena, an educated girl, a teacher at a public school, who quits her job to marry him and live on the São Bernardo farm. For that, we have as theoretical foundation Candido (2006), Lafetá (1984), Bosi (2001), Brait (1985) aiming to describe formally and conceptually the drama lived by the characters in a society inequality and marked by conflicts.