Entre cinzas e palavras: Fernando Pessoa e o suicídio filosófico de Barão de Teive

Abstract

The present reading of The Education of the Stoic investigates the philosophical suicide of the Baron of Teive, Fernando Pessoa's heteronym who, displeased by the unfinished character of his texts, seeks, in this last manuscript, to explain the reasons why he did not write a major oeuvre and the reasons that led him to renounce literature and life. At a first moment, we reflect on Teive's suicide as an answer to the decadent times in which he lived and we also place this authoral figure in the universe of the heteronyms, showing why this noble man does not accept the fragmentary character of his oeuvre, which remits us to the idea of désoeuvrement. At a second moment, we look into the unique way how Teive performs death, compared to others heteronyms, and how the arguments he employs so as to justify his suicide are closely connected to the stoic philosophy of Seneca, roman thinker who defends the legitimacy of voluntary death if rationally deliberated.