Ofélia and Pessoa

Two Pretenders

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyze the correspondence exchanged between Ofélia Queiroz and Fernando Pessoa. As we know, these are issues already vastly addressed by critics, who, in general, point out a dissimilar relationship between the experienced poet, who already was a big name in Portuguese Modernism, and the romantic young woman, dreamy and eager to get married. In this sense, Ofélia’s image would be crystallized in the idea of a childish girl, accustomed to diminutives, as ridiculous as the loving nicknames created to spice up the epistolary relationship. Eduardo Lourenço (2013), for example, sees in the correspondence between the “young bourgeoisie” and the “emulus of Lautréamont” a dialogue between the poet “with another being who loved him without literature”. Leila Perrone Moisés (2000, p. 177), in another valuable article about this epistolary dialogue, states: “Ofélia died single in 1991 [...]. She always remained faithful, not only to her boyfriend, but to his demands in terms of discretion”. Taking the texts of these two great critics as a starting point, we will seek to read Ofélia letters taking into account her disposition towards love and literary play, which, according to our perspective, makes her as much a protagonist as the writer of Maritime ode.