The chapter concludes with the dream-ideal of San Tomé crossing the threshold;
it is now controlling the Goulds rather than the other way around. On a physical
level, of course, Charles and Emily are perfectly capable of starting anew in
another part of the world. But Charles cannot do that because he is emotionally
committed to the ideal; he has devoted his sense of self to the cause. The
tragedy of the human condition, according to Nostromo, is that man must
choose a dream-ideal to survive in a meaningless world, but that once he does,
and sets forces in motion, the dream-ideal inevitably consumes his identity in
the course of its own necessary fulfilment.