Abstract
This article proposes an hermeneutics of physiognomy bringing together Machado de Assis, Goethe's Elective Affinities and E.T.A. Hoffmann's "Die Doppeltgänger". To what extent Dom Casmurro's Ezequiel's tragic physiognomy can be taken to bear a resemblance to Eduard's and Charlotte's child in Elective Affinities? Can we draw a line between Flora in Esaú e Jacó and Natalie in "Die Doppeltgänger" based on their hesitancy between two lovers who share the same physiognomy? The introduction of a third and a fourth element in a relationship is never, as Charlotte observes in Elective Affinities, without consequences. As Machado de Assis, Goethe and Hoffmann knew, the fantastic has always something to teach, or spice, realist prose.
Keywords:
Hermeneutics; physiognomy; daimon; fantastic; point of view; nature