A presença do teatro de William Shakespeare no romance de Machado de Assis pela perspectiva da teoria mimética de René Girard

Abstract

This study investigates the resonance of William Shakespeare’s theatre in the fiction of Machado de Assis, taking as its central axis the theory of mimetic desire formulated by René Girard. The research analyzes how Machado appropriates, displaces, and re-signifies Shakespearean models, particularly those related to the representation of jealousy, rivalry, and symbolic violence. The primary corpus consists of the plays Hamlet, The Tempest, and Othello, which are examined in comparison with the novels The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas and Dom Casmurro. Although separated by distinct historical, cultural, and aesthetic contexts, these works converge in their treatment of human impasses arising from the mediation of their characters’ aspirations. The general objective of the study is to understand how Shakespeare’s presence manifests itself in Machado’s work through themes such as the confluence of the tragic and the comic, mimetic incitement, and love oriented toward fatality. This dialogue is not proposed as a case of simple influence or imitation, but rather as a procedure of critical emulation on the part of the Brazilian author. As a research problem, the study asks how mimetic desire, understood as desire suggested by an Other, as theorized by Girard (2009) in Deceit, Desire, and the Novel, underpins the relationships among the central characters of these works and what effects this dynamic produces in the construction of each narrative. From a theoretical and methodological standpoint, the research is grounded primarily in René Girard’s mimetic theory (1990; 2010), especially as developed in Shakespeare: Theatre of Envy and Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, articulated with contributions from Shakespearean and Machadian criticism. In this regard, Jan Kott’s studies (1998), particularly Shakespeare Our Contemporary, are highlighted for emphasizing Shakespeare’s enduring relevance, as are the works of Antonio Candido (1977; 2006), notably Literatura e Sociedade and “Esquema Machado de Assis”, which address the formation of Brazilian literature and central aspects of Machado’s fiction. The studies of João Cezar de Castro Rocha (2013; 2017) are also of great importance to this research, especially with respect to practices of emulation and critical appropriation. These theoretical frameworks make it possible to situate Machado de Assis as a writer who engages actively with the Western tradition while simultaneously subverting it from his historical and cultural position. The results of the research indicate that the works analyzed are structured around triangular relationships of desire, in which the figure of the mediator plays a central role in intensifying rivalry, vanity, and jealousy. However, while Shakespearean tragedy leads to explicit violence and sacrificial expiation, the Machadian novel displaces this conflict onto the plane of language, memory, and narrative instability. It is therefore concluded that Shakespeare’s presence in Machado operates as a creative and critical strategy through which tragic models are reinscribed in order to give form to the moral, social, and subjective tensions of nineteenth-century Brazil, confirming the vitality of the classics and their capacity to generate new readings over time (Calvino, 1993).