Antagonistic depictions of the domestic worker in “The Happy Summer of Mrs. Forbes,” by Gabriel García Márquez, and Cousin Bazilio, by Eça de Queiroz

Abstract

Gabriel García Márquez, in “Miss Forbes’s Summer of Happiness”, and Eça de Queiroz, in Cousin Bazilio, insert, in each of their works, two similar yet contrasting portrayals of domestic workers: the rigid and masculinized woman, Miss Forbes and Juliana, and the cheerful and feminine cooks, Fúlvia Flamínea and Joana, respectively. This study aims to examine this parallelism by analyzing how Forbes and Fúlvia, as well as Juliana and Joana, interact within their respective narrative universes, paying close attention to how each author characterizes these two types of women in their domestic roles. In both the short story and the novel, the character's relationship with their environment – seen by Antonio Candido (2014) as a decisive factor in character construction – plays a crucial role. When there is a dissonance between the character and their surroundings, their identity is split, making the character more complex and antithetical. Thus, the simultaneous presence and interaction of two entirely opposing domestic workers fosters a unique narrative dynamic, one that is shaped by the representation of women in this specific role of care and household management. Through this analysis, it is concluded that there are behavioral patterns within each character's respective paradigm: Fúlvia and Joana embody lightness and adaptability in relation to their environments, while Forbes and Juliana both fail to fit into these same settings, which disturbs them and the overall structure of their narratives.