Criticism of Justice and Prison System Through Some Female Characters in Memórias do Cárcere, by Camilo Castelo Branco

Abstract

This paper develops the reading of some chapters of Memórias do cárcere (1862), by Camilo Castelo Branco, based on the analysis of some of the female characters portrayed in the context of the Portuguese justice and prison system of the 19th century, in order to reflect on the social criticism developed by the narrator/author. For this, among other critical texts, the research of Andreia Alves Monteiro de Castro, Crimes, realities and fictions: the representation of the criminal in literature and in the 19th century press (2021), of Maria Cristina Pais Simon, “Female criminality in Portugal in the second half of the 19th century: survey and Camilian illustrations” (2023), and of Ana Ribeiro, “Evil in the feminine in Memórias do cárcere” (2016) were used, in addition to studies on the Portuguese historical and social context in the 19th century. Thus, it was observed that there was a recurrence of disproportionality in the treatment given to characters from lower social classes, especially women, who are victims of moral prejudices, denounced by the narrator/author through his comments throughout the narrative. Finally, some observations will be made about the current Brazilian reality, shown by data from the 17th Brazilian Public Security Yearbook (2023), which presents similarities with the Portuguese prison conditions of that time.