Dom Casmurro: The Othello Syndrome

Extreme Jealousy and Self-Deception in Othello Syndrome and Dom Casmurro

Everyone at some point in their life has experienced jealousy. However, there are various instances of extreme jealousy that could torment a person to the point of questioning their sanity. The Othello syndrome leads an individual to become delusional and face a series of self-deception. The person believes that their partner is involved in acts of infidelity and gathers evidence that adds up to their partners’ alleged cheating. In Dom Casmurro, a classical Brazilian narration published either in 1899 or 1900 and written by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Bento is jealous of his wife Capitu and in his mind, she is an adulterous woman who cuckolds him and sires a child with his best friend Escobar. The narration is only one-sided and Capitu does not defend herself from the accusations of Bento. The narration is also questionable because it seems that Bento has dementia as he cannot recall the color of the pants he wore yesterday. Bento is insanely jealous of his wife and at some point, he relates to Othello. Thus, Don Casmurro is an entire narration of a lopsided and overtly jealous husband whose delusions lead him to betray his family and close friends.

The First Form of Self-Deception

The first form of self-deception is visible when his mother chooses a career in the church for her son. She even goes ahead to enroll him in the seminary but Bento has other plans for himself. He leaves the seminary in pursuit of Capitu’s love and he has to learn how to win over his mother for the rest of his life since he went against her wishes (Caldwell 99). Bento and Capitu cannot declare their love in public. Bento is an unreliable narrator and sometimes the reader wonders if he really adored Capitu as he claims. He claims to be telling the truth but at the same time tells the reader that his memory is poor. His memory is so poor to the extent that he cannot remember what color of pants he wore yesterday. Thus, the reader may question whether Bento’s representation of Capitu’s adultery was just a figment of his overactive imagination. The narration may be a composition of lies he had to tell himself so that he could console himself for everything he had done in his life. In the narration, Bento talks about anything and everything at the top of his head from the Brazilian politics to slavery and traveling on a train which are unrelated to the story. Machado gives the reader the impression that the narration is a complex series of illusions and everything is not as it seems.

Bento’s Life Revolving Around Capitu

Just like any self-deceptive and delusional husband, Bento’s whole life starts to revolve around Capitu, including his thoughts since he has placed her on a pedestal. Capitu and Bento are neighbors and playmates and when he reaches fifteen, his feelings for her change. According to Bento, she is very beautiful and manipulative, and she helps Bento to scheme. She is quite a good actress, as Bento puts it, and she endears herself to Bento’s mother. Nonetheless, Bento proceeds to the Seminary despite knowing it was not his calling. He promises Capitu that he would not take the order and he would wed her once he was done. Escobar suggests to Bento’s mother to sponsor another young lad to the priesthood (Graham 108). She is open to the idea because she knew she was only deceiving herself by sending Bento to the seminary.

Overshadowed by Jealousy

As time passes, Bento is overshadowed by jealousy which clouds his perception and interpretation of various situations. His jealousy ultimately leads to tragedy. His jealousy could be noted from early on into the relationship. At one time he comes to visit from the seminary and he thinks he sees Capitu stare at a man on horseback and he goes into a rage and refuses to see her the whole day. He has vindictive and harmful emotions towards her (Machado and Gledson 91). After finishing law school, he marries Capitu, and Sancha, Capitu’s friend from when they were children, marries Escobar. The jealousy continues after he marries Capitu. He knows that Capitu is very beautiful and she is admired by many men, and so he chooses to dress her modestly. His resolution is a form of self-deception because the fact that he dresses her modestly does not mean she will not commit adultery if she wanted to, and it would not make her any less beautiful. Bento is depressed because of jealousy, as well as the fact that they had been trying to conceive for five years. Eventually, they get a son whom they name Ezequiel, and he is a bit relieved.

Arriving at Absurd Conclusions

Bento’s belief of his wife’s adultery is arrived at without due cause and has its basis on the incorrect inference that is supported by little bits of evidence which he compiles in justification of his delusion. At one time when their son is five years old, they are planning a trip to Europe with Sancha and Escobar, and Bento thinks that Sancha is flirting with him. His adulterous mind envisions a relationship with her. Afterwards, he feels guilty because of his earlier thoughts. On the next day, Escobar drowns while at sea. During his funeral, Bento notices the immense grief that overwhelms Capitu, and he is convinced that Escobar and Capitu were lovers. Being a jealous husband, he is entangled in self-deception. His delusional jealousy leads him to believe that their son is Escobar’s. He contemplates on killing Capitu and her son but he resolves to send them to Europe (Machado and Gledson 213). After many years without any form of contact, Capitu dies. Exequiel returns to visit his father, and the delusional Bento realizes that he resembles Escobar when he was a young man. Later, Ezequiel loses his life to typhoid during a scientific expedition, and the psychotic Bento is actually happy that he is dead.

Confirmation Bias and Delusional Thinking

Bento’s misinterpretations are much too obvious, and they leave the reader wondering about the credibility of his narration. The reverse Othello syndrome that is prevalent in Bento’s reasoning led him to make absurd conclusions and distorted views of various situations (Bayne and Fernández 134). He believed everything that he wanted to be true. Before Escobar drowns, Bento believes that Sancha would be unfaithful to her husband. After Escobar dies, he sees her crying and concludes that he had just misread the situation and she must be one of the most faithful wives (Machado and Gledson 136). Nonetheless, he still maintains that his wife and Escobar were lovers based on the many stares that Capitu gave Escobar’s body. At one time, he has a discussion with Sancha’s father about how friends sometimes resemble each other. When Capitu was a child, she greatly resembled Sancha’s deceased mother. Despite including the conversation in his narration, he fails to reason that his son could just merely resemble his deceased friend Escobar. Nonetheless, his revelation of the conversion could just be an admission of guilt for betraying his family based on unverified delusional thinking.

Bento’s Self-Gratification and False Interpretation

Bento arrives at a confirmation bias by testing various hypotheses about his wife’s fidelity. He is more willing to confirm certain incidences as true despite various suspicions being tentative. At one time, he finds Escobar at his door, but he had supposedly told him that he would be at the opera. At this juncture, he does not think about Capitu’s fidelity and instead focuses his thoughts on his mother. Nonetheless, the suspicion that crowds Bento begins after the death of Escobar, but his jealousy has been a part of him since he began the relationship with Capitu. Bento only confronts Capitu once, but she laughs it off and tells him he is jealous of dead men (Machado and Gledson 213). Bento is motivated by his own self-gratification, which leads him to have a lopsided and false interpretation of life.

Conclusion

Dom Casmurro is a narration by Bento Santiago, who is a lawyer originating from Rio de Janeiro. Before he married his childhood love Capitu, whom he fell in love with while fifteen, he breaks the vow of the priesthood. He marries Capitu, and the memoir almost looks like a perfect love story. He believes that she loves him as much as he adores her. Contrary to expectations, the love story begins to take a turn for the worst because of Bento’s jealousy, which clouds his perception and interpretation. The story is a one-sided perspective, and Capitu does not have a chance to tell her side of the story. At various instances, the reader questions the credibility of the narration because Bento seems to have dementia. The views presented by Bento are delusional in nature, and he developed them to manage his strong emotions of jealousy, but at the cost of losing the people closest to him.

Works Cited

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Bayne, Tim, and Jordi Fernández. Delusion and self-deception: Affective and motivational influences on belief formation. New York: Psychology Press, 2010.

Caldwell, Helen. The brazilian Othello of Machado de Assis: a study of Dom Casmurro. No. 6. Univ of California Press, 1960.

Graham, Richard. Machado De Assis: Reflections on a Brazilian Master Writer. Austin: University of Texas press-Institute of Latin American Studies, 2002. Print.

Machado, de A, and John Gledson. Dom Casmurro. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. Print.

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