An enigma called José Matias In Eça de Queirós’ enigmatic short story “José Matias” we learn about a man who is in love with a married woman but runs away from her when, becoming a widow, she is available. He refuses at least twice to marry her. Instead he prefers to look at her from the distance and ends his life as a homeless dude getting drunk in a bar facing her windows. There may be many ways of explaining José Matias’ behavior and the narrator of the story, a professor of philosophy, tries to solve the problem concluding at one point that he was happy loving Elisa spiritually and didn’t mind, after having kind of educated himself, leaving her body to other men. Is José Matias perplexed by the greatness of the love he feels? We may also think that by not marrying the widow his love for her would not suffer from the harsh introduction of reality in their relationship; but on this topic we need to say more. While I would not consider the above-mentioned explanations incorrect I think that there is another way of looking at the enigma. I found it in Rilke’s Duino’s Elegies. See the beginning of the first Elegy (Stephen Mitchell’s translation): Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels hierarchies? and even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart: I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence. For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure, and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us. Every angel is terrifying. And so I hold myself back and swallow the call-note of my dark sobbing. If we follow Rilke we may think that the love that José Matias feels for Elisa is above his capacity of enduring it: “he would be consumed in that overwhelming existence”. That would explain his refusal of marrying her and keep her at distance. Isn’t beauty “the beginning of terror”? Isnt every angel terrifying? Rilke seems to make in other verses of this poem and in other poems statements that go in the same direction. Doesn’t he doubt that other humans would be able to help us in our need? Angels and animals wouldn’t do better and maybe only “some tree in a hillside” or “yesterdays’ street” or, and it’s amazing, “the loyalty of a habit” would be of some help. Oh and night: there is night, when a wind full of infinite space gnaws at our faces. Whom would it not remain for--that longed-after, mildly disillusioning presence, which the solitary heart so painfully meets. Is it any less difficult for lovers? But they keep on using each other to hide their own fate. Dont you know yet? Fling the emptiness out of your arms into the spaces we breathe; perhaps the birds will feel the expanded air with more passionate flying. Yes- the springtimes needed you. Often a star was waiting for you to notice it. A wave rolled toward you out of the distant past, or as you walked under an open window, a violin yielded itself to your hearing. All this was mission. But could you accomplish it? Werent you always distracted by expectation, as if every event announced a beloved? What does Rilke mean when he says that lovers “keep on using each other to hide their own fate”? And what fate is he referring to if not for our incapacity of understanding, of possessing, of duration? He goes so far as to doubt that we can accomplish “the mission”. What mission? Spring needs us, he says, the stars wait for us to notice them, “a wave rolled towards us”, “a violin yielded itself” to our “hearing”. But weren’t we “always distracted by expectations, as if every event announced a beloved?” Surprisingly maybe, after mentioning our incapacity of paying attention, of understanding, of possessing, he also questions our capacity of love: Where can you find a place to keep her, with all the huge strange thoughts inside you going and coming and often staying all night. I will stop here for the moment. There are maybe more problems than solutions when we try to understand both Rilke and Eça. My impression is that José Matia’s enigmatic behavior could be explained in a rilkean way by his awareness of how great is the love he feels and how insufficient would be his capacity of enduring it for real - if not of making it real. True love seems to be an experience too intense for him. And for us all. José Matias also seems to have understood something else and that too could also be part of the explanation for his behavior: Elisa will never love him as he loves her, she will never understand, her love is of a more imperfect human nature. That’s why her need of love can be easily satisfied by the more insignificant men she found to replace the stubborn José Matias. It may also be that love, an intense love, may seem better fulfilled when escaped it in death.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Dec 2013 01:52:29 +0000
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