Dom Casmurro 25.12 · 25.12

The little question does two things at once. On the surface it is helpful, jogging the boy's memory in the friendliest way. Underneath, it insists — it makes Bento concede the fact of the outing with Pádua, drawing him into agreement before the warning lands. José Dias likes to have his listener nodding.

'Não se lembra?' also subtly puts Bento in the wrong: he has misremembered, José Dias has the truth, and the boy must now assent to the corrected version. It is a favorite move of the manipulator, to establish his own reliability on a small point so the larger suggestion inherits the credit. By the time Pádua and the street are the subject, José Dias has already been proved right once, and Bento is half-disposed to grant him the rest.

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