In the moment of his death he reverts to his social role, "the lover of Antonia," which is how he will be remembered (see the medallion earlier in the chapter in which he is Antonia's "betrothed" ). There is irony in this, of course, given his resistance to and final flight from her idealism, but Decoud is a complex character and his life may well be summed up as a failed love affair with Antonia, and all she stands for.