Eugenio Character Analysis

A prisoner who dies in prison of an overdose, Eugenio barely appears in the story as himself. Rather, his main importance is his appearance in Laura’s dream, where he bids her eat the Judas Flower, telling her that it is his “body and blood,” which invokes the Eucharist. Unwilling to wait for Braggioni’s machinations to free him, Eugenio takes the entirety of the pills that Laura has provided with him and dies before the guards can find him. Braggioni calls him a fool and is glad to be rid of him, but for Laura, who nurses extreme guilt for her part in his death, Eugenio becomes something of a martyr, a figure of purity and deliverance.