Word: bento
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Casmurro's real name is Bento, and he does not start out a sourpuss. At the age of 15, Bento's head is full of great but nebulous expectations: "After Napoleon, lieutenant and emperor, all destinies are possible in this century." His heart throbs for Capitu, a dark-haired Juliet with "eyes like the tide when the undertow is strong." Bento's mother had dedicated him to the church at birth, but the seminary is not for Bento. He wins his release along with a seminarist friend named Ezekiel, and goes off to law school. Then...
...wedding day is rainy, a lucky omen in Brazil, and the wedding night so blissful that Author Machado slyly warns the reader: "Don't worry, I do not intend to describe it; human language does not possess forms proper to so great a task." Lucky in love, Bento is also lucky at law, partly because good friend Ezekiel shunts cases his way. And when Capitu bears a son, Bento insists on naming the child Ezekiel...
When the boy first mimics his namesake, both parents find it cute, but when he persists in it, Bento is irked and his wife scolds the child. As little Ezekiel grows to look more like big Ezekiel year by year, the cancer of a doubt spreads in Bento's mind. It is resolved when big Ezekiel drowns in a swimming accident and Bento sees the look of naked desolation on his wife's face...