A Escrava Isaura 9.74 · 9.74

Leôncio's reply to 'the heart is free' is to deny it flatly: 'teo coração obedecerá' — your heart will obey. He cannot meet her argument, so he overrides it with the two things he actually commands, 'o direito e a força' — right and force, law and violence. The pairing is exact and damning: these are the only instruments slavery ever really had. Where Isaura appealed to a truth about persons, Leôncio appeals to a fact about power, and the gap between the two is the moral space the whole novel occupies. He is not answering her; he is reminding her that he does not have to.

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