With this chapter we begin the final act of Part Three, thematically the most important section of this novel of conquest. Under cover of a simple love story, it employs a symbolic and allegorical code to portray the attempt to conquer conquest -- to step outside the cycle of violence and attain a world in which people of all classes live in harmony and equality. The tonal switch at this point from a novel of politics to a love story signifies the attempt to transcend politics for a world based on love. Note that chronologically, this section is the only part of the novel that lies outside its recursive time-shifts, in other words, beyond the present tense in which Captain Mitchell introduced the story in Chapter 1-2 (and to which he returned us in the last chapter). The placement reinforces the sense that we have transcended the rest of the novel and are dealing now with higher issues.

The love triangle of Nostromo, Linda and Giselle is allegorical. Giselle represents the world of absolute love unmarred by conquest or wealth; Nostromo's yearning, never-satisfied love for her represents the People's quest for the classless society. Linda represents lawful society -- the structures of private property and human restriction -- to which the People must show outward engagement while secretly pursuing the other.

This first chapter consists of a dialogue between Mrs Gould and Dr Monygham that sets up, in rather stilted and drawn-out fashion, the romantic triangle to come. Of greater interest is the relationship between the two characters themselves, who share a need and love for each other, but must conceal it to protect the propriety of her sterile, affectionless marriage. Their secret love mirrors the condition of the larger society of the material interests, which presents an orderly but "inhuman" face while forcing all political passions beneath the surface.

The love between Mrs Gould and Monygham also completes the allegorical bond between altruism and cynicism that has been developing throughout the novel. In this chapter, they meet each other halfway. The altruist Mrs Gould hears and accepts Monygham's cynical truth, that the material interests will be tyrannical in their turn, that history is an endless round of conquest and oppression. Monygham, in exchange, submits to Mrs Gould's insistence that he is "really good" at heart. To both characters, then, love is only possible within the loveless society, but this is grace enough to permit them to live a dubiously virtuous continuing life, deliberately shoring up the oppressive society that they both hate.