Analyzing the short story "Love" included in the collection Family Ties (1960) written by Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector we start from the structural analysis proposed by Affonso Romano de Sant'Anna. Then we focus, taking into account Herbert Marcuse's interpretation of Freud, on the female protagonist of the short story who is imprisoned in the patriarchal system, representing the desperate female condition in the society.
As we consider this short story to be the exemplary one for all author's literary work, the present analysis tries to offer the general synthesis of its possible reading.