Robert James
Dr. M Staton
LS 130 A
30 April 2015
The Effects of Death and Dying In Dom Casmurro Dom Casmurro was the story of a man named Bentinho Santiago. Within this story were various themes, these themes being things such as jealousy, betrayal, paranoia, death, love, and the loss of trust. Within this paper the effects of death and dying will be analyzed and discussed. Now while discussing the topic of death, one must come to the realization that death is not always the death of a physical person or being. Within the theme of death there can also be death of emotion, and bonds among characters. There are numerous examples throughout the novel that show the effects of some characters dying on other characters. Obviously some of the deaths were more important than others, such is the nature of writing. The most important deaths however, would be the death of trust between Bento, and his beloved Capitu, and the physical death of Bentinho’s best friend, Escobar.
This story is one that is narrated by the main character, and that it began in the end. The entire story is that of a memoir, and it begins with Bentinho talking about his childhood. Bentinho or “Bento” as he was nicknamed talks about his childhood with his widowed mother, his caretaker, Jose Diaz, his uncle, and his cousin whom lived with him. As a child Bento comes to find that he has been promised for the seminary as a repayment to God for blessing his mother with him. Previous attempts at having a child resulted in no luck, and a stillborn. Bento was not very interested in the seminary as he wanted to study law. He also had a friend whom he was very much in love with at the time. Her name was Capitu. Capitu and Bento had known each other from the time they were little, and grew up together. As Bento continued to find ways to get out of going to the seminary as best he could he eventually failed, but made a promise to Capitu that he would marry her one day. While he was in the seminary he met his best friend, a fellow padre in the making, Escobar. Escobar and Bento went through their years in the seminary together only to find that neither one of them actually wanted to be there. After finding a way out Bento, and Escobar followed their separate career paths, but remained close friends. With Escobar becoming a family friend, and a sort of an older brother to Capitu, and Bento becoming a young attorney they had ascended into adulthood. This brings us
