Dom Casmurro 5.21 · 5.21

The father answers exactly as the refusal was designed to make him answer. 'Quem lhe impede que vá a outras partes?' — who is stopping you from going elsewhere? — sweeps the lofty objection away as no objection at all. The high principle is granted and neutralized in a breath: of course he may serve the poor; that is no reason to leave.

The dialogue turns the screw of the little comedy. José Dias offered to depart on noble grounds; the father simply removes the grounds, leaving him no honorable way to go. This is how the courtier's refusal is meant to end — not in departure but in a warmer invitation. Machado renders the father's speech as brisk, generous, and slightly obtuse, a good man playing his assigned part in a transaction whose real author is the man being pressed. The trap that closes here is one José Dias himself baited, and it closes on his behalf.

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