The weary star at dawn

tragedy and theology in Senhora dos Afogados by Nelson Rodrigues

Abstract

This article analyzes the work Senhora dos Afogados (2017) by Brazilian playwright Nelson Rodrigues along with some of the distinctive aspects of the Christian theology and the modern tragic, according to recent literary theory. Nelson Rodrigues was an important Brazilian author, being considered one of the modernizers of the theater scene in the country. His play Senhora dos Afogados, written in 1948, sets on stage the story of a homicide committed against a prostitute and a series of murders that take place in a traditional family as a result of this primary crime. The work, in addition to being marked by some of the elementary conventions of tragedy, is also loaded with strong Christian symbolism. In this article, we will attempt to demonstrate how the author bases his tragic vision on the imagery, symbolic and narrative body of the Christian religion — therefore, bringing together two apparently antagonistic areas (the tragic and Christianity). We will take as a theoretical contribution the works of authors such as Rowan Williams (2016) and Terry Eagleton (2020). The effort of this article is to demonstrate that there is a significant exchange between images and themes of the Christian mythos and the tragic within Rodrigue’s play.