Dom Casmurro 18.96 · 18.96

The word 'espontaneamente' carries the weight. Nobody asked Capitú to soften; she does it of her own accord, repairing the 'injúrias' that anger had drawn from her against Dona Glória. Bento underlines the spontaneity because it is the proof, to him, of her good heart.

And yet the reader, holding the end of the novel in mind, cannot help hearing a second note. The very words that vindicate Capitú here — spontaneous, self-correcting, capable of taking back a feeling — are the words a jealous man will later turn into their opposite: too fluent in changing her face, too skilled at retracting. Machado writes the line to be read twice, once as evidence of virtue and once, retrospectively poisoned, as evidence of art. The chapter offers the innocent reading; time and Bento supply the other.

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