A Escrava Isaura 9.110 · 9.110

The most Christian turn of the prayer, and the hardest: Isaura asks not for Leôncio's punishment but for his conversion — 'infundi-lhe no coração brandura e misericordia', pour gentleness and mercy into his heart. Having been called a vessel, she asks that his heart be filled like one, with the very qualities he lacks. It is mercy prayed for the merciless, and it quietly claims the moral high ground she has held all along: she wants to be saved by his softening, not his suffering. She even keeps his frame, calling herself 'sua captiva', his captive — but hands it to heaven so that pity, not possession, becomes the bond she prays he will feel.

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