In this article the author discusses the metaphorical dimension of melancholy, as differentiated from depression. Depressions are usually accompanied by metaphors about falls and struggles. In the melancholias, the dimension of becoming is also present, as one’s being changed in the depth of one’s own body. Two aspects related to the body are discussed, and reveal the difficulty of becoming from the point of view of metaphors presented by melancholic patients, that is, devitalization and the near impossibility of moving about. The verbs “going up” and “going down” and, especially, “coming” and “going” are indicated as important in metaphors because they express the basic blockage of feeling and, therefore, of becoming. Examples from Graciliano Ramos’s novel São Bernardo are presented and discussed.
Melancholia; depression; metaphors; Graciliano Ramos