The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman by Clarice Lispector
"The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman" by Clarice Lispector explores the inner life of Maria, a housewife grappling with her identity and societal role. Set against the backdrop of her mundane daily routine, the narrative unfolds during a Thursday afternoon when Maria, feeling tipsy and carefree, reflects on her existence while her children are away and her husband is out for the day. This momentary freedom reveals her struggle with feelings of alienation and the fear of being unanchored in her role as a wife and mother.
The story contrasts her fleeting sense of liberation with the pressures of her domestic life, culminating in a Saturday night dinner where Maria's tipsiness allows her to confront her duality — the obedient wife versus her desire for a more profound self. As she navigates the superficial interactions at the restaurant, she becomes increasingly aware of her societal constraints and self-worth, oscillating between pride and insecurity. Ultimately, Maria's journey highlights the complexities of womanhood, the impact of social expectations, and the longing for self-assertion amidst a life defined by domesticity. Through her experiences, Lispector invites readers to reflect on the challenges faced by women in seeking personal identity within established roles.
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The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman by Clarice Lispector
First published: "Devaneio e embriaguez duma rapariga," 1960 (English translation, 1972)
Type of plot: Coming of age
Time of work: The 1950's
Locale: Brazil
Principal Characters:
Maria Quitera , the narrator, a dissatisfied Brazilian housewifeHer husband , a businessperson
The Story
Maria Quitera is a housewife on the edge. She is looking for her place in the world; not finding it, she is searching for someone to blame. The story begins on a Thursday afternoon just before her husband returns from work. Maria is in a tipsy mood, acting childish and as if she is drunk. She is talking and singing to herself, brushing her hair, admiring herself in the mirror, flitting from one mood and subject to another. Her children are away, and her husband is soon to be out of town on business. She prepares herself by sleeping.
The story falls loosely into two sections: the first being Maria's "day off," and the second, the Saturday night dinner. On her day off, when her children are away and her husband is to spend the day in the city on business, Maria fleetingly feels the freedom and consequent fear of not having a particular role to play for the day. When her husband comes in to kiss her farewell, she realizes that she does not even know what he has had for breakfast—the preparation of which is doubtless one of her daily rituals. She realizes that she need not get his meals nor check his suit for lint. However, if not these things, what then should she do? Her answer is to snap at her husband and spend the next thirty-six hours or so in a dizzying, whirling sleep, effectively avoiding the self-defining task of asserting her will on the day. When Maria finally does get up late on Saturday morning, she is clearly happy to find the everyday routine restored as she goes about her chores and errands.
The Saturday night at the fancy restaurant, where Maria accompanies her husband to dine with a wealthy businessperson, plays out this same scenario but more elaborately. Now drinking wine, Maria actually is tipsy, playing with her altered perceptions and self-awareness. On the outside she is socializing in the role of the loyal, if slightly shallow, wife. She feels alienated from that role, however, and is instead becoming hypersensitive to her own sense of self, as if that self were a secret. "But the words that a woman uttered when drunk were like being pregnant—mere words on her lips which had nothing to do with the secret core that seemed like pregnancy." She plays a bit with this duality, relishing it, as she remembers that she is a woman of culture, a woman who has traveled, who has an artistic sensibility. Wanting to pursue this identity, she becomes more and more drunk, reasoning that she has after all acquired a certain position in life, which affords her protection from the social world. It is this very realization that brings her back into "reality." Her position is nothing if not the adjunct to her successful husband, whom she was just silently mocking. In an instant the "position" that saved her from misfortune has become a cloud that shadows her self into obscurity.
Maria's response to this sense of annihilation is again vehemently to defend her role as model wife and mother, as she jealously and hatefully criticizes another woman who has caught her eye at the restaurant. Though not wanting to do so, she still plays by the rules of the superficial, fluctuating from self-righteous disdain and indignation to humility and shame at going out to dinner without a hat like that which the slim socialite is wearing.
While recovering at home from her indulgent night, her hidden self makes one last stab at emerging and taking hold. The physical sensations of such a state of heightened awareness, however, become unbearable for Maria. Accordingly, she recites a series of Christian and domestic platitudes, as she resigns herself to a defeated state in subjugation to her "real world" position—cleaning house and being pretty and plump—at the side of her husband.