Abstract
Machado de Assis frequently relies on controlling metaphors, which provide a unifying plan for an entire work. His play Lição de botânica is an example of this practice, where human progress is compared to the life of plants or other simpler organisms. The play contains echoes of the seventeenth-century notion of vegetable love, as seen in Robert Burton and Andrew Marvell. It follows the norms of classical comedy, which has its roots in the celebration of fertility. It illustrates the central ideas of Henri Bergson's philosophy of laughter, which opposes the organic to the mechanical. From a national perspective, it exemplifies the cultural characteristics of cordiality and preference for the jeitinho. The common denominator for all these perspectives is the rejection of rigidity in favor of organic elasticity.
Keywords:
Machado de Assis; metaphor; theater; comedy; laughter; Brazil