Dom Casmurro 5.54 · 5.54

His reply is perfect. 'Obedeço, minha senhora' — I obey, my lady — dresses his victory as submission. He gets exactly what he wanted, a permanent place, and receives it in the posture of a servant bowing to a will not his own. The word 'obedeço' turns the whole outcome into obedience, and the courtly 'minha senhora' flatters the woman who has just kept him.

This is José Dias in essence, and a preview of every scene he will play. He rules by seeming to serve; his influence over the household will always wear the costume of deference. The reader who watches him later press Bento's mother about the seminary, or insinuate against Capitú, should remember this exchange, where his profoundest self-interest and his humblest formula of respect are, as ever, the same sentence. The Dependent has made himself the fixed point around which the family turns.

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