Dom Casmurro 3.97 · 3.97

The little qualifier 'creio que' — I think — is doing quiet, crucial work. The narrator, reconstructing a scene he watched decades ago through a crack in a door, admits he is not sure of a detail: did Justina rise, or does he only suppose she did? It is the first open crack in the novel's reliability, dropped so lightly it barely registers. Bento is telling us a story he could not fully see, filling gaps with guesses, and this modest 'I think' is a warning label on everything that follows. The man who guards his dates so jealously is already reconstructing, imagining, unsure.

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