The image of mists or clouds recurs in its link with dreams or illusions. On the surface, the bad dream from which Charles Gould is escaping is Pedro Montero as such. However, if Charles Gould has indeed been awakened to the skeptical outlook of power for power's sake, then Pedrito's "Caesarism," flaunting a moral and even democratic pretense for absolute power, would be the "oppressive dream" (or "monstrous illusion," to use Gould's term ) that idealism inflicts upon mankind.