Love and the "Causa Secreta" in the Tales of Machado de Assis

Abstract

IT HASBEEN observed that Machado de Assis' fiction reveals the author's preoccupation with the theme of true love versus self-love.' One can add, however, that excluding perhaps Memorial de Aires,2 his last novel, true love generally appears in his works as a device concealing an ulterior motive deeply rooted in self-love. This motive Machado himself has called the causa secreta, or the ugly side of human beings, which his fictional characters try to conceal behind a mask of selfless humanity.3 Machado's denial of true love, furthermore, can be observed in his short stories as well as his novels, and even in those early tales commonly taken as emotional, sentimental stories supposedly aimed at the immature, love-starved reader who delights in the triumph of true love. These earlier tales, assigned to his so-called romantic period, seem to be filled with sentimental cliches very much in keeping with the literary conventions of the times.4 As one looks more closely, however, at the stories in Contos fluiminenses and Hist6rias da meia noite, his first collections, one finds paradoxes and ironies that should dispel the notion that these early tales among Machado's works are uncharacteristically romantic, hence inferior to his later production. The mating game is depicted, to be sure, but as an ironical battle of wits, and a strenuous one at that, at the conclusion of which it is uncertain whether the winner really enjoys the spoils or merely gets stuck with them. In these tales Machado seems to be asking: Who is to tell what lies hidden behind people's actions even when they seem most sincere? What guarantees that love can reform self-centered people? Self-centered love appears in a number of these early stories in the form of greed, vanity, pride, jealousy, envy, lust or any combin tion of these. In Frei selfish parents destroy their son's life out of greed a d pride. Simio's parents, wishing their son to marry a wealthy heiress, more likely for a financial gain of their own than for their son's welfare, deceive Simao by telling him that Helena, the destitute orphan girl with whom he is in love, has died. Machado describes Simio's parents in a way that leaves no doubt as to their charac er: Os referidos pais eram de um egoismo descomunal. Davam de boa vontad o pao da subsistencia a Helena; mas 1 casar o filho com a pobre 6rfa e o que ndo podiam consentir (pp. 153-154). This egoism ventually kills Simao, who after he has become a Benedictine monk discovers that Helena is alive and married to a peasant. Soon after, he goes out of his mind and dies. Greed is again encountered as a manifestation of self-love in Soares. Here Luis is portrayed as an irrespo sible individual incapable of loving anyon but himself, yet he almost succeeds in persuading his beautiful young cousin Adelaide that he is in love with her. This occurs when he discovers that she is to inherit a large sum of money which is to rescue him from financial difficulties. Fortunately, the girl learns of Luis Soares' scheme in time to prevent an unhappy marriage. In O segredo de Augusta, the causa secreta is envy on the part of a parent, who should be the last person to be suspected. Augusta is envious of her daughter Adelaide's youth and beauty, which she conceals behind a mask of motherly zeal.