Dom Casmurro 21.56 · 21.56

Justina drives the timeline home once more: 'ainda hoje,' this very day. She wants Bento to feel that the threat is not history but happening, the pressure applied within hours of their conversation.

The insistence on immediacy is a small piece of dramatic craft. By repeating that the meddling is fresh, Justina keeps the danger urgent and keeps Bento agitated, which suits both her taste for stirring things and the novel's need to push the boy toward action. Machado's chronology is tight throughout these chapters — everything crowding into a few charged days around the revelation of Bento and Capitú's love — and Justina's 'ainda hoje' is one of the pins holding that compression together. The vow is not dozing in the past; it was renewed this afternoon, and will be renewed again.

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