Tristezas de uma geração que termina

Résumé

In Machado de Assis, dialogue and critical use o f certain traditional principles stage a playful conflict between new and old. By mixing irony and parody as effective procedures to establish considerations on life and art, the author evaluates, through a second semantic layer o f “Missa do galo” and “O espelho” the failure o f the romantic consciousness both to interpret psychological and social causes underlying fem inine behaviour and to relativize accounts o f events