Gender

In many of the texts read lately, there has been a focus on submissive women. Perhaps they were still strong, but the women were usually left with very little choice or respect. In Joaquim Maria Machado De Assiss' "The Rod of Justice," readers see a very strong, self-sufficient woman, Sinha Rita, insert her dominance over three characters. Sinha Rita is described as "a fine figure of a woman, lively, merry, and fond of a joke, but, if need be, fierce as the devil" (913).

First, Sinha Rita displays her dominance over her lover, Joao, the godfather of our main character, Damiao. When Sinha Rita decides to help Damiao leave the seminary, she uses her hold over Joao. She writes to him, "either you rescue the boy, or we never see each other again" (916). Rather than being at the full disposal of her lover, she actually makes demands and threats to him.

Sinha Rita is also in command of slaves, and the Damiao specifically notices one slave girl, Lucretia, who laughs at his joke. Sinha Rita responds by threatening the girl with a birch rod if she does not get her work done. "If her task was not finished at nightfall, Lucretia would receive the usual punishment" (913). Damiao resolves to stand up for Lucretia if she would be punished with the rod.

Lastly, Sinha Rita, although she has set out to help Damiao, eventually shows her dominance even over him. By the end of the story, the time arises for Lucretia to receive a punishment. Even though Damiao has vowed to protect her from the rod, when Sinha Rita asks him to hand the rod to her he obeys. He "was pricked by an uneasy sense of guilt, but he wanted so much to get out of the seminary" (916). He knows the power Sinha Rita is using to help him, so she is ultimately able to control him. 

De Assis, Joaquim Maria Machado. "The Rod of Justice." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Ed. Martin  Puchner. Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2013. 911-916. Print.