SPIRAL DESTINY: the tragic structure of the female characters in The Old Women, by Lourdes Ramalho
Tragedy; Destiny; Spiral; Feminist literature; Lourdes Ramalho.
This dissertation aims to analyze the tragic destiny that leads to the movement spiral of female characters
in The Old Women (1975), by Lourdes Ramalho, based on characters Mariana, Ludovina and Branca,
taking into account the historical, political and social aspects that are included in the work. The research
is justified by the importance of analyzing the theatrical text within the framework of literary studies,
about the political, social and cultural configurations that influenced the construction of female characters.
We understand that patriarchy expresses a form of domination that, in some way, is naturalized in The
Old Women, which is why it is important analyze the construction of the characters Mariana, Ludovina and
Branca thinking about behavior of these women, if they accept fate, the spiraling ethos. This dissertation was
prepared methodologically based on a bibliographical research of a qualitative nature, centered on following
authors: Aristotle (2008); Albuquerque Júnior (2011); Andrade (2005); Andrade and Maciel (2005); Candido (2019),
Coqueiro (2014); Koss (2000); Leite (2007); Magaldi (2001); Maciel and Andrade (2005); Bridges (1979);
Perrot (2017); Pinto (2003); Prado (2011); Rosenfeld (1985; 2011); Soeiro (2015) and Zolin (2009). It was
possible to infer that the female characters in The Old Women travel along the same spiral path, because, no
matter how much the female characters try to get out of the sexist conditions, always end up allowing the
factors that prevent them to be the conditions political and social.