Gender

A Woman’s Power 7/11/13

            It is not uncommon to hear the phrase “never send a man to do a woman’s job”, and this phrase is very fitting when it comes to the story “The Rod of Justice” by Joaquim Maria Machado De Assis. Machado’s story depicts a young man, Damiao, who is fleeing the seminary because it simply is not the life for him. However, he cannot return home due to the fact that his father wishes him to complete the seminary and become a padre. In order to escape this predetermined path in life he runs to his godfather’s mistress, Sinha Rita.

            Sinha Rita is a forty-year-old widow who knows what she wants and how to get what she wants. Even though she has much power over her slaves and Joao Carneiro, Damiao’s godfather, she is easily manipulated into helping Damiao. “”My godfather? He ‘s even worse than papa, he doesn’t pay any attention to what I say, I don’t believe he’d pay attention to anyone…” “No?” interrupted Sinha Rita, her pride pricked. “Well, Ill show him whether he’ll pay attention or not…”” (Machado 913). She is a proud woman, and when Damiao hurts her pride she is determined to prove him wrong, to prove her power.

            The proud mistress calls Joao Carneiro to her house and demands that he help his godson be free of the seminary. “Get along. Joao Carneiro, your godson is not going back to the seminary. I tell you, he is not going back…” (Machado 914). Sinha Rita is not asking this man to help her; she is demanding that he help. Due to his affection for Sinha Rita, Joao Carneiro does his best to help is godson. “Joao Carneiro fought hard to get him not to make a decision right away, to sleep on it, and think over carefully whether it was right to offer the Church such an unruly and vicious character” (Machado 915 – 916). This answer does not satisfy the powerful Sinha Rita and she informs him “Joaozinho, either you rescue the boy, or we never see each other again” (Machado 916). These strong words signify that she controls their relationship. Whatever she says goes.

           Damiao was right to go to Sinha Rita. He knew that he would not be able to convince his family to let him leave the seminary, but a woman, specifically Sinha Rita, had the power to free him. However, in requesting her help he has to sacrifice some of his morals. He wants to defend a little black girl who laughed at one of his jokes. He feels the need to defend her because she laughed because of him. However, when it comes time to protect her he fails. His desire to be free overcomes his moral obligation to save the young girl. The young girl, Lucretia, had not finished her needle-work, and Sinha Rita wished to punish her for not doing what she should have. The problem is that she cannot reach the rod to punish the girl, so she asks Damiao to hand it to her. “Damiao was pricked by an uneasy sense of guilt, but he wanted so much to get out of the seminary! He reached the settee, picked up the rod, and handed it to Sinha Rita” (Machado 916).

Sinha Rita is a powerful woman, she controls her slaves by beating them, she controls Joao Carneiro by threatening to leave him, and she controls Damiao by controlling whether he gains his freedom from the seminary or not. This woman controls what happens, when it happens and how it happens. Without her nothing would get done, at least not to her standards.

Work Cited

Machado De Assis, Joaquim Maria. "The Rod of Justice." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin Puchner. 3rd ed. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2013. 911 - 916. Print.