This article discusses Ressurreição (1872), the first novel by Machado de Assis. In the book, the narrator presents the behavior of the main character, Félix, as determined by his particular nature. According to the narrator, Félix possessed an incoherent personality, which would make him prone to suspicions, leading him to feel jealous, with no grounds at all, about his fiancée Lívia and to question whether he should really marry her. The narrator works on the premise that marriage is an unquestionable benefit, which only a suspicious person like Félix would refuse. However, the narrator contradicts himself by recognizing that marriage could have problematic implications to some of the couples presented in the novel. The following analysis focuses on this contradiction.
Ressurreição; narrator; marriage