In "O espelho," the main character takes the narration into his hands and, based on an episode of his own life, explains his ambitious theory on the "two souls." The authoritarian pragmatism of the narration serves, however, to prove a monist perspective: the "exterior soul" ends up absorbing the "interior soul", so that the identity of the subject totally depends on the "look that comes from the outside." Therefore, we ourselves would be identifiable only by means of what we exteriorize. Through this functionalist perspective, the soul itself is fused with the person's status, and the subject's interiority expresses itself by means of nothing but a vague critical acidity, which anchors the fragile ironic conscience.
"O espelho"; first person narrative; subject; psychology; irony