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.