Abstract
This article is a psychoanalytic reading of the theme of irony in Machado de Assis's work. It proposes the use of Freud's concept of "narcissism of minor differences" in the analysis of the novel Esaú e Jacó (Esau and Jacob). It also presents the "forced choice" as an impossibility of choice by the novel's characters. It further develops how the duality of opposites is transposed in the narrative by the use of irony.
irony in Machado de Assis’s work; narcissism of minor differences; forced choice