Machado de Assis and the Nature of the Soul in “The Mirror.”

 

Machado de Assis and the Nature of the Soul in “The Mirror.”

 

In “The Mirror,” Machado de Assis begins the story with the gentlemen, or “four or five metaphysical detectives” (444) gathered in a house overlooking the Metropolis of Rio de Janeiro discussing “Lofty matters.” Right away we notice the phrase, “four or five,” because of its uncertainty or ambiguity. We come to find out that Jacobina is the one singled out from discourse as he is on a different plane altogether.

For one, as opposed to the gentlemen of the city, Jacobina hails “from the provinces, wealthy, intelligent, not educated.” Here de Assis suggests that Jacobina, although “intelligent”—meaning he has accumulated knowledge and is aware of philosophical debates—he lacks the capacity to correctly apply that scientific knowledge to the discussion of metaphysics. Perhaps Jacobina is “not educated” in the physical sciences or “laws of nature” explained by materialism, empiricism and rationality of Western civilization, the cultural zeitgeist of postcolonial metropolis Rio. Perhaps de Assis is writing in response to colonial, Western ideologies. In “The Mirror,” de Asis gives an alternative account of his conceptualization of the nature of the soul.

We see how Jacobina concerns himself in the metaphysics concerning the nature of the soul, which differs from the four other gentlemen. For example, “he would add that the seraphim and cherubim never disagreed, that they were eternal, spiritual perfection” (444), and that the “external soul can be a spirit, a fluid, a man (or many men), an object, even an action” (citation needed). The angels, “seraphim and cherubim” deviate from Western philosophy’s rejection of God and angels.

Because one gains a sense of oneself from both an external locus and an internal locus, as identity is formed on the basis of how one views oneself and how one is viewed by others, de Assis is asserting that it is not enough to have an internal soul. Machado de Assis, through the character Jacobin and his gaze in the mirror, contends that existence is contingent upon awareness of both the self and others. There is a need for others, or the natural world; the external soul.

We see what happens when one separates himself from humanity and compassion for others. In a dream, Jacobina becomes ‘Senhor Lieutenant’ who rises in authority and status and is thus “flattered with little attentions, shows of affection, and kindness that brought about a transformation in me, aided and abetted by the natural vanity of my youth” (447). This new distinction between “officer” and “private citizen” causes Jacobina to lose sight of humanity, or the “other,” when Jacobina says, “my original nature gave way to the other; only a tiny part of my humanity remained” (citation needed). Jacobina, consumed in his self, loses touch with the outside world i.e. “the sun, the air the rolling countryside, and the eyes of young women…only the officer remained, the private citizen had vanished into thin air, and into the past” (448). Thus, Senhor suffers “the loss of the external soul [which] implies a loss of one’s entire existence” (445).

It seems Machado de Assis is critiquing Western thought and its idea of the soul in terms of metaphysics, more specifically the idea of Solipsism, a concept positing that only the self exists. De Assis also attacks selfishness and egoism. At the same time, Machado de Assis is promoting the need for others in the world who account for half of our own existence, for “clearly, the function of the second soul, like the first, is to transmit life; together they complete the man, who is, metaphysically speaking, an orange.”