On the surface, Nostromo is seeking reassurance that the Occidental Republic is really in the works. Allegorically, there is something touching in the People asking to "see" Charles Gould, i.e., to cement the new society on the basis of visibility, of some sort of honesty. Monygham, in the role of the Devil, refuses: the new society must be established on the basis of deception and estrangement between rulers and laborers.