Dom Casmurro 3.21 · 3.21

The name lands: 'a gente do Padua' — the Pádua people, the neighbours whose daughter is Capitú. José Dias's phrasing is faintly de haut en bas, the dependent looking down on a family poorer or plainer than the Santiagos, and the class note matters — part of what makes the closeness a 'difficulty' is that the Páduas are beneath the match Dona Glória might imagine. But for Bento, crouched behind the door, the name is not a class problem; it is the first time he hears the household that holds Capitú spoken of as a threat.

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