At the end of the novel, the sudden and tragic death of Bertoleza shocks João Romão for a short time. Nevertheless, his moment of sadness is washed away by the title given to him by the authorities and with which Azevedo, in a sarcastic tone, ends his novel:“At that same moment, a carriage pulled up outside. It was a committee of abolitionists in dress suits, who had come to respectfully deliver a certificate declaring him an honored member and patron.”(Azevedo 2000: 208) The end of the novel illustrates what Marx wrote about the power of money in hisEconomic Manuscripts:“I am bad, dishonest, unscrupulous, stupid; but money is honoured, and hence its possessor. Money is the supreme good, there-fore its possessor is good.”(Marx 1973: 324) The title of distinction given to João Romão takes us into another dimension in the dynamics of capitalism. As the narrator puts it, the excitement of the miser is lost when accumulation of money becomes an end in itself:“In the end, his lack of self-confidence and his conviction that he was incapable of aspiring to anything except money and more money poisoned his thoughts, turning his ambitions to ashes and dull-ing the luster of his gold.”(96). João Romão’s ambition for distinction emerges at the moment his rich neighbor, Miranda, receives the title of baron. The desire to possess material things is now replaced by the symbolic, that which things rep-resent, translated here as envy:
But such was the case! That tavern-keeper, apparently so wretched and humble, that skinflint who dressed as poorly as a slave in a cheap shirt and wooden clogs; that animal who ate worse than a dog so he could set aside everything he earned or extorted; that miser devoured by greed who seemed to have renounced all his privileges and sentiments as a human being;
that poor devil who had never loved anything but money now envied Miranda…(93)¹⁷
The steady transformation of João Romão from miser, from small vendor to rentier proves insufficient. For the“future viscount”or baron, money was not everything.
In addition, he dreamed of“[…] a noble life, luxurious and sumptuous, a life lived in palaces amid costly furnishings and splendid objects…There he was not and never had been the owner of a slum who went about in clogs and a cheap shirt,
“Sim, senhor! aquele taverneiro, na aparência tão humilde e tão miserável; aquele sovina que nunca saíra dos seus tamancos e da sua camisa de riscadinho de Angola; aquele animal que se alimentava pior que os cães, para pôr de parte tudo, tudo, que ganhava ou extorquia;
aquele ente atrofiado pela cobiça e que parecia ter abdicado dos seus privilégios e sentimentos de homem; aquele desgraçado, que nunca jamais amara senão o dinheiro, invejava agora o Mir-anda…”(Azevedo 1967: 136)
From Miser to Capitalist: An Economic Reading of Aluísio Azevedo’sO Cortiço 139
he was a baron! A baron of gold!…”(95). No longer was he the small vendor, but the
“famous and wealthy businessman! A mighty landowner! A banker…”(95). Howev-er, distinction has a price, and João Romão is very aware of this as it would require him to put money back into circulation: “I would have spent more, it’s true! I wouldn’t be so rich! But hell, now I could do what I liked with my money! I’d be a gentleman!”(97) Social distinction is equated here with civilization. And this in-deed means a change in João Romão’s view of existence and of his way of managing money. Once a miser, João Romão now becomes a spender in order to obtain dis-tinction:“He ordered fine clothes, and on Sunday donned a white jacket and proper shoes and socks. Thus attired, he sat in front of his store reading newspapers.”(127) Thus, from João Romão’s perspective spending money is also a form of gaining, through the symbolic capital that distinction represents. João Romão’s actions have been transferred from the material goods to, as Pierre Bourdieu suggests, the“economy of cultural goods.”(Bourdieu 1984).
Interestingly, João Romão’s concept of time also changes.While time for him, at the beginning of the novel, was defined only by labor, production and the ac-cumulation of capital, now it is dedicated to a non-productive concept of time, e.g. leisure. His transformation is also a makeover:“He would then go out for a walk wearing his jacket, fancy boots, and a cravat. He gave up his crew-cut and clipped his beard, almost eliminating his moustache”(127). This is a com-plete change of life style that involves taking dance lessons, decorating his house, drinking good wine, learning table manners to eat, going to the theater, and reading French literature in translation!
In his study of the relationship between money, social distinction, and indi-viduality inPhilosophy of Money, Georg Simmel states:“we value the distinct for-mation of individuality, the mere fact that a personality possesses a specific and concise form and power”(Simmel 1990: 390). Because possessions carry a great deal of influence and distinction, they somehow shape individuality. Owning (or having)“a power of disposal over objects enters into the circle of our Ego. The Ego, our desires and feelings, continues to live in the objects we own”(389).
Through the lens of psychology individuality is linked to money. Distinction dis-plays the resistance“of being interchangeable, of the reduction to a common de-nominator and of‘common activity’”(389). Simmel also ties the definition of so-cial distinction to a mathematical and economic discourse. From this perspective, distinction resists that which characterizes a commodity.¹⁸ Hence
“distinction should not be so conspicuous as to entice what is distinguished
Marx defines a commodity as“an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another”(Marx 1967: 215).
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away from its independence, its reserve and its inner self-containment and to transpose its essence into a relationship to others, be it only a relationship of dif-ference.”From this perspective, distinction stands out due to its characteristics of exclusiveness, and of differentiation, since“[the] distinguished person is the very person who completely reserves his personality. Distinction represents a quite unique combination of senses of differences that are based upon and yet reject any comparison at all”¹⁹(390).
Let us conclude by stating that for João Romão, in the end, distinction does not necessarily imply renouncing money. Before changing his life style, João Romão dreamt about himself being recognized as“the famous, the grand capi-talist! the mighty proprietor! the incomparable financier”(Azevedo 2000: 95).²⁰ His ideal for distinction also changes the dynamics of capital:“He hired three more clerks. He rarely waited upon the blacks who came to shop, and indeed was hardly seen behind the counter of his store.” (127) In this way, money takes on a different logic and establishes a new dynamic in the tenement:
He did, however, soon become a frequent presence on Rua Direita, at the stock exchange and in banks, his top hat pushed back and an umbrella tucked under his arm. He began to get involved in bigger deals: He purchased bonds offered by British companies and only loaned money for well financed mortgages. (127)²¹
O Cortiçoindeed pays its dues to naturalism. Azevedo, influenced by Zola, at-tempts to make a coherent, oriented, and scientific critique of a corrupt reality.
As a result, the novel demonstrates that João Romão becomes a villain, interest-ed only in exploiting the weak in order to succeinterest-ed, validating the maxim of the survival of the fittest in terms of the logic of economics. Therefore it is not by chance that the author-narrator denounces the protagonist and his behavior as
“a disease, a mania to possess.”The miser and seminal businessman turned
However, Simmel points out that the tendency of distinction is to disappear in the dynamics and development of capitalism, once objects are produced based on their monetary value:“Yet the more money dominates interests and sets people and things into motion, the more objects are produced for the sake of money and are valuated in terms of money, the less can the value of distinction be realized in men and in objects.”(Simmel 1990: 390–391)
I have substituted the indefinite article“a”with“the,”from the English translation to em-phasize the sense of distinction that features in the Portuguese original.
“E em breve o seu tipo começou a ser visto com freqüência na Rua Direita, na praça do com-ércio e nos bancos, o chapéu alto derreado para a nuca e o guarda-chuva debaixo do braço.
Principiava a meter-se em altas especulações, aceitava ações de companhias de títulos ingleses e só emprestava dinheiro com garantias de boas hipotecas.”(Azevedo 1967: 178)
From Miser to Capitalist: An Economic Reading of Aluísio Azevedo’sO Cortiço 141
into a rentier finally ends up as a lender and speculator. In short,O Cortiçois the Bildungsromanof an emerging capitalist.
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