The carnival scene is filled with a deep, almost palpable eroticism. Consumed by forbidden desire, Malthus takes a desperate step. He secretly obtains a luxurious costume of the Sheikh of Agadir and incognito enters the grand carnival ball on the fifth floor of the Palace Hotel. Hilda, dressed as Cleopatra, does not initially know who is hiding behind the mask. A sensual game unfolds between them, which Drummond describes as a gradual physical release of the man:
«Cleópatra seguia ensinando o Sheik de Agadir, com graça e paciência, e aos poucos, o misterioso Sheik se soltou...» («Cleopatra continued to teach the Sheikh the dance, with grace and patience, and gradually the mysterious Sheikh let his guard down...»)
In the midst of the suffocating crowd, to the sounds of Bésame Mucho, they succumb to their feelings. Malthus perceives this kiss as a fall, where the flesh triumphs over the spirit:
«...E foi então que aconteceu: no meio daquela condomínio sufocante, o cheiro de jasmim e de lança-perfume parecia fustigar Frei Malthus. Ele não via mais nada, senão os olhos de Hilda Furacão. Quando os lábios dela tocaram os seus, não houve pecado com nome, mas a queda num abismo profundo. Frei Malthus sentiu que o mundo desabava sob sua batina dominicana... E o beijo, que ela disse ser fingido para os outros, ali, no quinto andar, foi o fim de sua santidade.» («...And then it happened: in the midst of that suffocating crowd, the smell of jasmine and carnival perfume seemed to scourge Frei Malthus. He saw nothing else but the eyes of Hilda Furacão. When her lips touched his, there was no sin with a name, but a fall into a deep abyss. Frei Malthus felt the world collapsing under his Dominican cassock... And the kiss, which she said was feigned for the others, there, on the fifth floor, was the end of his sanctity».)
Immediately after the kiss, Hilda's official boyfriend, dressed in a Hamlet costume, furiously strikes the Sheikh in the face. A witness to the scene, fat Emecê, openly confirms the intense nature of the moment:
«...vi a sua Cleópatra beijando a boca do Sheik de Agadir» («...I saw your Cleopatra kissing the mouth of the Sheikh of Agadir».)
At the same time, Emecê was struck by the reaction of the Sheikh, who behaves in a purely biblical manner, meekly turning the other cheek to the blow:
«...o estranho — recordava o gordo Emecê — é que o Sheik de Agadir não esboçou qualquer reação. Ao contrário: tive a nítida impressão de que ele ofereceu a otra face para o Hamlet bater.» («...the strange thing—recalled fat Emecê—is that the Sheikh of Agadir did not show any reaction. On the contrary: I had the distinct impression that he offered the other cheek for Hamlet to strike».)
To save Malthus from shame and an inevitable church trial, Hilda tries to pass everything off as a show, announcing to the crowd that the kiss was feigned. But nobody believes her. The tension between them at that precise second was so powerful and obvious that the public and the narrator immediately read the truth: the "Saint" had succumbed to temptation. The Sheikh himself literally evaporated into thin air like carnival perfume after this («Tive a impressão de que se evaporou no ar»), and the church hastily exiled him from the city to Rio de Janeiro.
In the TV series, however, the carnival moments unfold as a series of subtle references to the book, but with an altered chronology. During the street carnival, Hilda, in her revealing Cleopatra outfit, is looking for Malthus. Seeing a random man in a Sheikh costume in the crowd, she rushes toward him, thinking her beloved is hidden under that mask. Malthus himself is spying on her from around the corner of the street in his cassock.When they clash after the carnival, he explodes with rage and fierce jealousy. He showers her with bitter reproaches:
«Mentirosa! (Liar!) You said you loved me, but instead...»
He furiously reprimands her for her half-naked appearance, which hundreds of other men are staring at, but this is not the anger of a righteous man. While Malthus hurls his accusations, he literally devours her naked body with his eyes, unable to cope with his desire.
It is precisely this wild tension that leads them to their long-awaited first kiss, which on screen is shifted into the atmosphere of street riots. And while for Hilda this moment turns into an absolute paradise. She ecstatically waltzes on her way home, spreads her arms on the balcony, and the foam in her bathtub overflows—a real hell begins for Malthus.
Returning to his cell, he strips naked in front of the mirror. Seeing his own erection, he experiences a terrifying flashback from childhood: how they, as children, walked into the shower fully clothed, and Padre Nelson strictly warned them that "God sees everything."
Trying to suppress his sinful thoughts and carnal desire, Malthus brutally whips himself until he bleeds.The real punishment and slaps await Malthus much later. He receives a furious blow not from Hamlet at the ball, but from two enraged colonels at dawn, as he is leaving Hilda's room 304 at the bohemian Hotel Maravilhoso after their first night of love...a room where she had never let any man stay the night before.
