My understanding of the cultural and contextual considerations of Machado de Assis' Dom Casmurro was greatly expanded by this interactive oral presentation. This presentation focused on the mythological archetypes, which providing insight that deepened the meaning of many scenarios. This presentation was very helpful covering Thetis, Aurora, Homer's cow, and Priam. This information has been highly helpful in analyzing the novel. Knowing how Bento wanted to describe Capitu to Aurora and Thetis helped me understand how he viewed her. He didn't end up describing her hair to Aurora's because, “I was yet unfamiliar with this goddess”. Aurora's hair of sunburst and sun rays were probably not a good enough way to describe Capitu's hair. Bento crossed out Thetis and nymph and instead wrote “a beloved creature, which is a word which embraces all the powers.” Thetis was one of the 50 Nereids and their leader. She had her son Achilles with King Peleus, who she didn’t really like. Bento described Capitu's undertow eyes like Thetis' because she was the goddess of the sea. The sea has an undertow current that drags people in just like Capitu's eyes dragged in Bento and made him love her even more. Homer's cow is about the sun god's Helios' immortal cows. Odysseus' crew kills the cows and Helios gets mad. He kills the crew except Odysseus because he escaped to Calypsos' island. Homer's cow was used to describe Jose Dias' eyes and how they “dragged themselves away from the wall and began to wander around the whole patio.” This happens when Jose Dias is trying to find a way to get Bento out of the seminary sooner, since he couldn’t get Bento out of it completely. Priam, king of Troy, watches his son, Hector, get killed by Achilles. Priam goes to Achilles' camp to get Hector's body. He kisses Achilles' hand and Achilles feels sympathy for the first time. This helped me understand what Bento was feeling at the time he gave his speech at Escobar's funeral. Bento “just praised the virtues of a man who had, in death, been the object of such a look...” He says this because of the way Capitu was looking at Escobar's body. He caught her looking “for some moments at the body with such a fixed gaze, with such a passionately fixed gaze, that it's small wonder that into her eyes there came a few silent tears.” Bento didn’t feel right giving a speech for the man who had taken his wife. Understanding the deeper meaning behind these mythological archetypes are essential to have a complete understanding of the significance of many aspects of Dom Casmurro.
