Dom Casmurro 25.11 · 25.11

Here is the name the whole correction was reaching for. José Dias did not truly care about a year versus three months; he cared about pronouncing 'Pádua'. By fixing the date he can fix the company, and the company is Capitú's father, the neighbor next door. Everything in the scene bends toward this word.

The phrase 'nosso visinho' is a small masterpiece of insinuation. 'Our neighbor' sounds warm, inclusive, almost fond — and it quietly reminds Bento how near the Páduas live, a wall away, the proximity that is the real danger in José Dias's mind. He names Pádua rather than Capitú, keeping the warning at the level of the father and the street, but every reader knows, and the old narrator knows, that the true object of this campaign is the daughter. The neighbor is the pretext; the girl is the target.

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