A Escrava Isaura 10.17 · 10.17

Álvaro's frankness — 'não faço mysterio disso' — is the danger and the pathos at once: he freely broadcasts the address of a woman whose safety depends on no one knowing it. A 'chacara' is a small suburban homestead with a garden, and the picture he paints of the pair 'evitando relações, e apparecendo mui raras vezes em publico' is the exact profile of people in hiding, misread by society as mere modesty or eccentricity. What looks to the ballroom like charming reticence is in truth the discipline of fugitives, who must refuse the connections and appearances that ordinary respectable life is built on. Isaura and Miguel have bought safety with isolation, and the tragedy is that this very withdrawal is what makes Álvaro find her so intriguing. Their armour draws the eye it was meant to escape.

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