Abstract:
This essay is aimed at examining the concept of character by questioning its importance in the economy of narrative text. The structure of a character is emphasized in the light of semiological assumptions according to Philippe Hamon, as well as the role of the unconscious in the constitution of the subject and its relation with the social dynamics are discussed. Also the value of the reception is noted drawing on Wolfgang Iser e Umberto Eco. For such reflections, the character Sebastião is used, from the novel O primo Basílio (“Cousin Bazilio”), by Eça de Queirós, framing him as a figure of repression of the amorous desire, subject to the moral precepts of the nineteenth-century Portuguese society.
Keywords:
Character; Reception; Novel; Eça de Queirós