The physical loneliness of Mrs Gould signifies much more, set as it is in the
discussion of the "inhuman," "polished" world of the material
interests, where all passions (political and romantic) have been forced into secrecy,
and the only surviving ideal is that of the lonely subjective self. But we readers
must also receive the loneliness of our world "without flinching," with
our faces "set and rigid," for in the merciliess logic of Nostromo
it is, to use Monygham's words, "the only remedy."