A Escrava Isaura 9.37 · 9.37

The idiom 'dar ouvidos,' to give ear, to heed, marks the threshold she refuses even to approach: merely to listen to his 'palavras amorosas' as if they were an offer would already be the betrayal. She will not entertain the proposition at all. And the pointed pairing — 'palavras amorosas de meo senhor,' words of love from my master — exposes the contradiction Leôncio cannot escape: love has no meaning in the mouth of an owner. Her refusal is not prudishness but moral logic.

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