Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the novel’s depiction of enslavement.

Machado de Assis weaves a tapestry of themes throughout The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas, yet none is as pervasive and haunting as that of mortality. Central to this theme is the author’s choice of a deceased protagonist as the storyteller. Brás Cubas calls himself “a dead man who is a writer” (6), prioritizing the fact that he is dead over his role as narrator. This inversion serves as an important point of departure, highlighting the foundational force death has on the narrative. By making this distinction clear, the author confronts readers with a paradox: Death traditionally marks the end, the cessation of any further action or expression, yet here, it becomes the genesis of narration. The defiance of verisimilitude in having a deceased figure engaging in the act of writing—an act typically reserved for the living—introduces narrative irony to this Realist novel.

Throughout the novel, death catalyzes personal transformations, shaping characters’ familial dynamics, socioeconomic circumstances, and outlooks on life. Marcela’s trajectory shifts dramatically following the death of her former lover, leading to her eventual inheritance of a shop.