Dom Casmurro 18.13 · 18.13

The condition arrives last and lands lightly against the enormity of the curse before it: 'se fosse para o seminario.' All that apocalyptic machinery — the failing light, the hour of death — hangs on a boy simply going to school for priests. Machado's placement makes the disproportion visible, and it is both comic and tender. The stakes Bento assigns are cosmic; the feared event is a change of address.

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