A Escrava Isaura 8.4 · 8.4

The chemistry metaphor runs the whole sentence: the intrigues were 'refervendo no mais alto gráo de ebullição,' seething at the highest degree of boiling, and demanding a 'desenlace,' an untying, a denouement. The father's death arrives like a reagent dropped into the boiling flask — it forces the reaction to its crisis. Guimarães frames the family's collapse as something almost physical, a pressure that must burst.

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