'Only in the last extremity'
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Dê-me essa faca, meo pae; eu não usarei della senão em caso extremo;
Give me that knife, my father; I will not use it save in the last extremity;
Isaura pleads for the blade as a reserve, not a certainty — 'senão em caso extremo', only in the uttermost need. The distinction matters to her: she is not choosing death but arming herself against the one fate she has sworn never to suffer, dishonour. The knife is to be a threshold she will not cross unless driven to it. It is the logic of her whole defence, stated in steel: she will bear anything, work, chains, the whip, but keeps one last exit under her own hand. Her father's refusal, coming next, does not deny her that autonomy so much as make it unnecessary — he offers a door out that needs no blood.
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A Escrava Isaura 9.128 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/9.128/