The main aim of this article is to examine some aspects of the social relations involved in the plot of the novel Quincas Borba, by Machado de Assis. In an environment of fragile principles and relative values, in which ethics are shaped by conveniences of the strongest, the protagonist Rubião presents himself under the sign of crisis. By falling into Palha's trap and false flattery of a retinue of parasites, Rubião gradually loses his fortune, and to the same extent his reason, and ends up destitute and mad, returning to his native Barbacena, where he dies as a nobody. Through the trajectory of his protagonist, Machado de Assis demonstrates that in a society driven by greed and governed by the "survival of the fittest", survival depends on cleverness of those who dominate the ethics of the winners.
literature; society; novel; crisis