Title: The 'sad end' of Lima Barreto's Policarpo Quaresma
Abstract: What is the ‘triste fim’ of Policarpo Quaresma? What is the author's attitude to his character? Most critics have tended to answer these questions by seeing Policarpo as a likeable, if misguided, character, for whom the novelist has great sympathy: he is the idealist brought down by a society which does not understand. Bezerra de Freitas tells that ‘Policarpo Quaresma simboliza o funcionario probo e meticuloso’.Agripino Grieco sees Policarpo as amusing but harmless: ‘Policarpo Quaresma ai continua vivo diante de nos, com os seus tiques e as suas manias primitivas, a tocar violao, a beber cachaca e a expressar-se em lingua tupi’. Olivio Montenegro sees him as a Don Quixote figure, the idealist battling against an unjust world, therefore earning the author's sympathy: ‘Ha muitas cenas que salvam o personagem, que salvam um tipo de homem em quem uma ideia absurda e generosa acaba expulsando dele todo calculo egoista, toda maldade, enchendo-o dessa abundância humanitaria que somente os santos e os loucos conh...
Publication Year: 1974
Publication Date: 1974-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 1
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