The division of the stage into halves, one representing family conflicts in 1929 and the other representing the same family in 1932, is a device in the dramatic use of space which explains the originality of A Moratória, as shown by an Aristotelian analysis of its structure. The archetype which inspires the structure of this play is “the ant and the grasshopper,” whose division implies different dramatic climates within the play. On the one hand, we have the tragedy of negligence (level of the parents and their son), and on the other hand, the apprenticeship of consciousness (level of the daughter). The simultaneous use of the divided stage reflects the period of transition lived by the family and the Brazilian society in the early thirties: there is the shift from the country to the city; the shift from patriarchal to matriarchal tendencies; and the transfer of power from the great families to the emerging middle class. If the play fails in part, it is because the author cannot give an objective interpretation of reality. He is too compassionate.