The difficult laughter – a reading of A falecida, by Nelson Rodrigues

Abstract

Nelson Rodrigues’s playwriting is commonly associated to the tragic form and to the tragic feeling that is inherent to his literature and characters. However, much more common than people could usually imagine, comedy and comic references pervades his theater, either in the characters construction or in the grotesque elements that emphasize the degrading and demeaning lives of those characters. This paper intends to analyse the dramatic construction of the play The Deceased Woman, which is structured in comedy, but with a tension that reveals its constant tragic qualities.