Dom Casmurro 3.43 · 3.43

'Basta a edade' — their age is enough. Dona Glória reaches for the argument every parent trusts: they are only children, too young for what José Dias is hinting. It is reasonable and, in this novel, poignantly beside the point — Machado is precisely interested in how early and how completely the passions arrive, how a boy of fifteen and a girl of fourteen are already, behind the door and in the corners, exactly what the adults refuse to see. The mother's faith in their youth is the last thing standing between Bento and the seminary.

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