Dom Casmurro 25.88 · 25.88

The narrator names the cause of the shock: José Dias 'não contava certamente com a resistencia' — had surely not counted on any resistance. The verb 'contar com' is that of a man who plans, who reckons his moves in advance; and his calculation had left the boy out as a factor. He assumed Bentinho would remain the pliant instrument he had always been.

The word 'resistencia' is almost too grand for the trembling little speech that earned it, and the disproportion is the point. From José Dias's side, any 'no' at all from this quarter is an upheaval. Machado measures the manipulator's surprise by how modest a rebellion it takes to undo his forecast.

Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.

You are reading a page of the Dom Casmurro — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.

The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.

Also on our shelves:

• Plato's Phaedrus — complete, ancient Greek
• Heraclitus, the Fragments — complete
• Dante's Inferno — Italian, canto I