PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Alcides Villaça TI - “O espelho” AID - 10.1353/lbr.0.0059 DP - 2009 Jun 01 TA - Luso-Brazilian Review PG - 93--105 VI - 46 IP - 1 4099 - http://lbr.uwpress.org/content/46/1/93.short 4100 - http://lbr.uwpress.org/content/46/1/93.full SO - Luso-Braz Rev2009 Jun 01; 46 AB - In “O espelho,” the main character takes the narration up and explains, through a fact in his life, his ambitious theory on the “two souls.” The authoritarian pragmatism of the narration serves, however, to prove a monist perspective: the “exterior soul” ends up absorbing the “interior soul”, thus the identity of the subject totally depends on the “sight that comes from the outside.” Therefore, we ourselves would be identifiable only by means of what we exteriorize. Through this functionalist perspective, the soul confuses itself with the person’s status, and the subject’s interiority expresses itself with nothing but a vague critical acidity, which is the fragile haven for the ironic conscience.