Fascinação de Almeida Garret

Close Reading

In this passage the author Hélia Correia describes the meeting between D. Diogo Lopes and Dama do Pé de Cabra, based in the tale of the romantic Portuguese writer Alexandre Herculano who was as well inspired by a mediaeval folkloric tale from the 11th century. In “Fascinação”, just like in Herculano’s tale, D. Diogo falls in love with Dama do Pé de Cabra by listening to her singing and then they become husband and wife with only one imperative: D. Diogo can’t execute the sign of the Cross. Their marriage goes on and they have two children: one boy called Inigo and a daughter called Dona Sol. Despite being children just like the others, they had a singular physical feature – they had both red hair – a symbolism that in the past was associated with the devil, producing mistrust among people.

The author proceeds with the narration of the moment that changed this family which was the fact that D. Diogo performed the sign of the Cross while watching his dog fighting with Dama do Pé de Cabra’s dog. This conducted to the transformation of D. Diogo’s wife into a possessed demon, a very strange creature that flew throw the sealing taking only her daughter. Hence, Hélia Correia will mainly focus on this point of the story wondering why D. Diogo chose to save his son instead of his daughter. This takes the author to narrate the story with gothic features based on a feminist view, since she will focus on what happened to Dona Sol’s life after she was taken by her mother, which can be categorized as “women’s writing”. By the other hand, in Herculano’s tale he only gives importance to the male characters: D. Diogo and his son Inigo, completely forgetting about Dona Sol.

Hélia Correia later in her book will continue to focus on Dona Sol’s life, describing for example the changes in Sol’s body as well as the relations of incest against Christianity she maintains with her brother with the approval and desire of Dama do Pé de Cabra. Dona Sol will also meet Afonso Pena, whose name “Pena” is a premonition of what will happen, meaning shame and condemnation, since the first time they meet happens the exact same way as D. Diogo and Dama do Pé de Cabra.

Beatriz Moreira de Oliveira

...