A Relação entre a ironia, o grotesco e o riso em Machado de Assis

Uma leitura de Conto Alexandrino, Pai contra mãe e O caso da vara

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the relation between formal literary elements - such as irony, grotesque and laughter - constructed on specific short stories: Conto Alexandrino, Pai contra mãe and O caso da vara, by Machado de Assis. This article intends to explore how the author produces the comic effect through the exposure of social contradictions related to necessity and contingency conflicts, which functions as a thread to ethical dilemmas exposed by the characters' choices, desires and conducts. The creation of the comic effect, through grotesque and disclosed by irony, provokes the laughter in readers, but also stimulates an exercise that pushes the exposed contradiction towards critical reflexion. This critical exercise qualified by laughter is what enables the elaboration of a dialectical synthesis, which is only possible because the grotesque is revealed in acts, conducts and moral conditions, since it represents the possibility of action for the characters.