As faces de uma personagem realista: um estudo sobre a figuração de Amélia em O Crime do Padre Amaro

Abstract

This study focuses on the analysis of the construction of the character Amélia Caminha of the realist-naturalist novel O Crime do Padre Amaro by Eça de Queirós, first published in 1875. The interest in the chosen character is due to the specifics of their construction process in the novel, given their protagonism and complexity in the story. It is precisely the figuration of the character that catches our attention. The notion of figuration is promulgated by the Portuguese theorist Carlos Reis (2015) as a form of representation of characters, which involves a dynamic, gradual and complex process. Therefore, we endeavored to sketch a broader reading for the character, beyond the focus on description and characterization, considering the different linguistic resources projected in the narrative discourse, comparing the character’s relationship with other categories of literary analysis (time, space, narrator-focusing) and the perspective of the other characters in the novel. The analyses indicate that the character goes through three expressive moments that constitute her figuration: the first, being stability (psychophysical and social) in which she presents a nominal identity associated with beauty and youth; the second moment is one of instability, stemming from her affair with Father Amaro, in which the character goes through psychological and emotional conflicts, explored by the narrator through an internal narrative focus on the character’s psychology; and the third moment is the transformation of their initial image, marked by the alteration of their characteristics, in which the linguistic signs point to the psychophysical and moral degradation. The character’s path is described through the semantic field of “fire”, which gains new nuances according to their degree of involvement with Amaro.