The Focus of the Saramaguian Woman who does not go blind

beyond a guiding in the narrative thread, an experience of resistance

Abstract

This work primarily aims to highlight two aspects of the character of the doctor’s wife in Blindness. The first point to consider is that her vision allows the author to establish a productive connection with the reality intended to be conveyed to the reader, given that the scenes in this novel are intensely descriptive. Although there is a third-person narrator, there would be a greater distance between these entities if all the characters were blind. The other issue concerns José Saramago (1995) evoking the possibility of a point of estrangement, as this woman witnesses the full extent of human decay by observing the horror of the imposition of power by someone who, despite being blind, was able to subject the confined to humiliation and violence, even to the point of rape, simply because he possessed a weapon. This was a pivotal moment: seeing her companions being raped alongside her to the brink of femicide drove her to use her remarkable strength to kill this leader. Certainly, one perspective is to view her as a form of resistance within that nearly incorruptible structure of exploitation. Therefore, the pressing question is: why remain among the blind? The possible answers lie in her refusal to repeat patterns of power imposed by violence. She killed, but not to take the institutionalised place of the “master”.