A Escrava Isaura 9.143 · 9.143

Isaura's fear of a few passages ago is answered by a bleak, freeing logic: 'posso acaso ser mais desgraçada do que já sou?' — can I possibly be more wretched than I am? Having reached the bottom, she has the courage of those with nothing left to lose. The shackles waiting for her have burned away the ordinary caution that might hold a person back; the worst is already certain, so the risk of flight costs her nothing she was not about to lose anyway. It is the paradoxical liberty of the condemned, and Guimarães gives it to her as the final push out the door. Her fear was real, named in the last passage; here she steps over it, and the dialogue of the chapter ends where the action begins.

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