Dom Casmurro 5.64 · 5.64

The narrator turns to address the reader directly — 'não lhe supponhas' — heading off the easy conclusion. Having shown José Dias framing his four words of praise and opining while obeying, he anticipates that we will file the man under toady, and forbids it. The dependent's deference, he insists, is not the mark of a naturally servile soul.

The defense is double-edged, as Machado's defenses always are. In clearing José Dias of servility, the narrator introduces an even less flattering idea, which the next passage will spell out: the courtesies came from calculation, not a low nature. So this is not really exoneration but reclassification — José Dias is not a groveler by temperament, he is a calculator by design. The apparent generosity of 'do not suppose' opens directly onto a colder reading of the man's every kindness.

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