The adultery in Portugal. Jose Cardoso Vieira of Castro: analysis of a political - cultural drama

Abstract

In the middle of the 19th century, Jose Vieira of Castro, a well-known member of Parliament, murdered his wife –a young woman of only eighteen years of age– in his house of Lisbon. The motive was a supposed infidelity on the part of her. The case stirred the public opinion of Lisbon, provoked reactions in favour and in opposition to the convict, and unleashed a debate concerning the penal figure of the adultery. This work analyzes this aspect from the point of view of the history of law, putting it in relation with the concept of honour and examining his private repair: the duel. Likewise, the situation of women is approached from the educational point of view and the reflection that the feminine adultery had in the Portuguese literature of the 19th century.