Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Sublimation of Sin in Clarice Lispector's A maçã no escuro

2024; University of Northern Colorado; Volume: 39; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/cnf.2024.a925994

2328-6962

Alonso Varo Varo,

Linguistics and Education Research

The Sublimation of Sin in Clarice Lispector's A maçã no escuro Alonso Varo Varo Mas restava a desobediência.Então —através do grande pulo de um crime—[…] aquele homem se tornara um duro herói; elerepresentava a si mesmo. A culpa não o atingia mais. Clarice Lispector, A maçã no escuro 31–33. An unknown man, whom the desire —or thenecessity— to reach the summit drove mad, gets closerto it […] It often appears that madness, anguish, crimetogether prevent access to it, but nothing is clear: whocould say of lies and contemptible actions that theydistance oneself from it. Georges Bataille, Inner Experience 114. To choose evil is to choose freedom. Georges Bataille, On Nietzsche 24. A maçã no escuro (1961) is not only Clarice Lispector's longest work, but also one of her most complex and ambitious projects. It chronicles the reshaping of an individual's identity during a period of crisis. Martim, believing that he has killed his wife, takes refuge in an isolated desert region where he wanders by night until reaching a farm the following day. Vitória, the ranch's owner, has her suspicions about him because he seems educated and strange, yet she ends up hiring him as a laborer. During his stay, Martim has an affair with the young widow Ermelinda, Vitória's sickly cousin. However, his nonsexual encounters with Vitória are much more intense.1 Martim's presence disturbs the disciplined life of the strong and independent Vitória. One night, she awakens from a dream, realizing that she is in love with him. The next day, in what might be called the [End Page 82] climax of the novel, Vitória confesses her inner life to Martim. He reluctantly listens to her but, after this moment, they continue their relationship as if nothing had happened. Martim suspects that Vitória has reported him to the authorities when a German teacher, a friend of hers, visits the house with his son. After this meeting, Martim plans to escape at night, but he changes his mind and returns to the house. Finally, Vitória turns Martim in to the authorities and they inform him that his wife is not dead. However, he insists that he deserves to be punished, hoping for redemption and therefore salvation. As Patricia Palermo affirms, Ermelinda, Vitória, and Martin "seek to escape an unhappy previous existence if not escape life entirely" (22). Despite the vast length and density of the text, the plot of A maçã no escuro can be considered simple. However, similar to lyrical and psychological novels, most of the work is dedicated to representing the main character's inner states.2 As suggested by the titles of the three parts of the work, Lispector seems to propose a parable of birth, the quest, and the maturation of a man-hero. Regardless of how appropriate an analysis of some of the story's facts may be, this essay will mainly examine the inner state into which Martim falls after committing his crime and its subsequent evolution. Drawing on Georges Bataille's major works, in what follows, I illuminate the symbolism and cosmogony that emerge from A maçã no escuro. I determine the allegorical meanings that derive from the protagonist's criminal act and interpretational keys relevant for the reader of A maçã no escuro to notice the textual effects of Martim's absence of language and knowledge after attempting to kill his wife. In A maçã no escuro, Lispector chooses as the starting point for the liberation of the protagonist a subversive act laden with iniquity, one that perverts and transgresses an established ethical order. In a sequence of Dostoyevskian-style events, a criminal act deconstructs the conscience of the offender and thus initiates the process of atonement for the individual's faults.3 As Martim reflects: "Corajosamente fizera o que todo homem tinha que fazer uma vez na sua vida: destruí-la" (124). For the protagonist, the attempted murder of his wife is a vortex of symbolic suction that ends up completely destroying the subject's former being (129). The subsequent evolutionary process developed in...