Machado de Assis and the Secret Heart of Literature

Abstract

Paulo Moreira proposes a nuanced reading of Machado’s short story “A causa secreta” (translated as “The Secret Heart” or “The Hidden Cause”). Moreira uses the story to explore one familiar motif present in several of Machado’s stories: the ambitious young man negotiating favors in order to ascend socially and being dragged by unexpected twists of fate into violent and tragic moral circumstances. Moreira argues that in this particular short story, the shifting points of view and narrative voices combine in a daring examination of voyeuristic and sadistic pleasure (“no anger, no hatred; just a vast pleasure, quiet and profound”) as “something like a pure aesthetic sensation.” The chapter fundamentally demonstrates how Machado de Assis decisively links this particularly cruel mode of aesthetic sensation to literary representation.