The naturalistic imagery, building towards crescendo, becomes perhaps a little too repetitive here, but remains symbolic. It translates to a negative vision of Man as locked in a prison ("closed" by a "bar") made up of dreams, illusions and subjectivity (silver, clouds and the "stillness" of the Placid Gulf itself), while interacting with a hostile larger world (the "surf-fretted seaboard"). Significantly, the image occurs as Linda experiences the "torture" of certitude that Nostromo and Giselle will meet. It is as if to say, in this negative worldview, lorded over by this oppressive machine of society, why wouldn't the People flee to the dream of utopia? It is these thoughts (occurring to Linda on the allegorical level only) that cause the voice of law to sweat, as if with doubt in her convictions.