Machado's wounded males (19th century Brazilian literature)

Machado de Assis's fiction offers a compelling assessment of the patriarchy's dire effects on male sensibility. Unable to fulfill society's rigid expectations of what a man should be and how a man should behave many of Machado's male characters are haunted by the specter of inadequacy and impotence, which inflicts painful psychological and moral wounds on them. These wounds perversely control the male characters' sense of self, and permanently distort these characters' relationships with others, particularly with women. Although Machado's analysis is grounded in the social and historical context of nineteenth-century Brazil, it contains modern treatment of gender issues and reveals an understanding of questions of masculinity that is far ahead of its time.