The line and the setting recall our first sight of Nostromo, the heroic figure coming to the rescue of this building in Chapter 1-4. That rescue stood for the People's old, fully honest loyalty to the benevolent society of Giorgio Viola, a society that could be trusted to act for their protection and betterment. This scene is pervaded by the opposite sense: of the Republican ideal being dead and discredited, and the socialist People slinking guiltily into the shell of the trusting society with duplicity in their hearts.