Abstract

SOUSA, Sérgio Guimarães de. The (older) daughter of Joaquim Luís: About As Três Irmãs. Diacrítica [online]. 2013, vol.27, n.3, pp.265-284. ISSN 0807-8967.

In As Três Irmãs (The Three Sisters, 1862), Camilo Castelo Branco, giving in to bourgeois values (and by extension to the patriarchal morality), according to the most frequent interpretation of this novel, introduces us to Jerónima, who seems to embody the principles of the Old Regime. Uncompromisingly resisting to the ideals of the heart (the organ which, quite romantically, expands idealisations), the young lady, quite manly and endowed with a practical and entrepreneurial mind, is pleased to dedicate herself to commercial activities. This attachment to family and patriarchal order, I believe, is in fact, nothing but the denial of the patriarchal order itself and, consequently, of male dominance. This is because Jerónima, when all is said and done, does precisely what that order does not permit: she doesn’t get married, though emotionally very sought after, and in an obvious display of subversion of the patriarchal values, undertakes tasks which are eminently restricted to males, such as commercial and financial entrepreneurship.

Keywords : patriarchy; marriage; Romanticism; entrepreneurship.

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