Dom Casmurro 3.30 · 3.30

The close is a threat dressed as a forecast. 'Terá muito que lutar para separal-os' — you'll have a great deal to fight through to part them — makes delay dangerous and action urgent: wait, and the task only grows. Note the verb the whole scene has been building toward, 'separar', to separate; it is precisely what the seminary will accomplish. José Dias has, in a few muffled sentences, turned a mother's fond plan into a rescue mission, and handed her the reason to hurry Bento out of the house and away from Capitú.

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