This is Captain Mitchell's closest approach to the novel's deeper world of general philosophical distrust. Note that his uneasiness does not extend to himself. He is a "public character"; i.e., like Nostromo he has created an idealized, societal self in which he lives entirely. Unlike Nostromo, however, Captain Mitchell's idealized self is based on forms and customs rather than personal vanity, enabling it to survive the trial unchanged while Nostromo's does not.