The novel finds its fullest pessimistic expression in the disillusionment of Charles Gould. Conrad explicitly states here that no ideal -- political, religious or otherwise -- will ever represent a lasting solution; that every attempt is futile; that their only result is "lives and deaths thrown away," a phrase that mourns misguided passion equally with death. "The problem," of course, is human nature itself, and how to make a conquest-minded species peacefully coexist in society.

Note the double meaning of the word "vain," referring to the effort to solve the problem -- it means both "futile" and "self-flattering."