Dom Casmurro 3.63 · 3.63

Here is what the denunciation was for. 'Vou tratar de mettel-o no seminario quanto antes' — I'll arrange to put him in the seminary as soon as possible. José Dias argued that delay was dangerous, and the mother has heard him: the vague future plan becomes an urgent errand, 'quanto antes', the sooner the better. Behind the door, Bento hears the exact words that will tear him from Capitú — and hears them chosen, in part, because a hanger-on wanted to seem indispensable. The great engine of the plot turns on a small man's vanity.

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