A Escrava Isaura 10.44 · 10.44

Geraldo's question — 'amas muito essa mulher?' — turns the banter serious for a moment, and it is the hinge of Álvaro's fate. The verb 'amar', to love, plainly stated, replaces the salon's playful 'fada' and 'deosa': the doctor is asking whether this is real. Álvaro's answer, and the depth of the love it reveals, will determine everything, for it is precisely because his love is genuine and total that he will later stand between Isaura and the law. Guimarães marks the moment quietly: the frivolous storytelling gives way, just here, to the question the whole plot rests on.

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