Although Chapter 9 unfolds with the high-stakes descriptions of István’s self-destructive grief and his life-or-death decision over whether to save Thomas from an overdose, this dramatic intensity soon gives way to the anticlimax of Chapter 10, which details István’s return to a life of monotonous, unambitious routine in Hungary. This structural juxtaposition frames his ascent into wealth and status as a temporary escape from the mediocrity to which he was always doomed. Because his life in England, with its country estates and luxury cars, was nothing but an empty performance, his return to Hungary marks a regression to his prior, lackluster reality. The flat, observational prose of the final chapter therefore mirrors István’s bleak resignation, and with the death of his mother—the last woman alive who has any reason to care for him—István’s story concludes in quiet obscurity.

However, before István arrives at this plain, unadorned outcome to his life, the narrative takes a series of sharp twists that fulfill the author’s broader examination of Masculinity as a Defense Against Powerlessness. This dynamic is extensively explored through István’s self-destructive behavior as he loses every aspect of his precariously built life that has any meaning to him. Stripped of his wealth, his family, and his professional standing, he engages in a series of nonsensical and even violent attempts to reassert control. His affair with Mrs. Szymanski is a prime example, for this ill-omened dalliance is rooted in his need for dominance of any kind as a way to ameliorate the helplessness he feels over Helen’s condition and his own impending financial ruin. The narrative dispassionately notes that the affair provides István with “[s]omething satisfyingly like violence” (326), serving as a physical outlet that allows him to inflict pain as a means of assuaging his own. 

The theme culminates in the indecision he faces while watching Thomas overdose. For several minutes, István holds Thomas’s life in his hands, experiencing a moment of ultimate power that contrasts with his otherwise powerless existence. Thus, like the rest of his life, his choice to call an ambulance is presented as an ambiguous, hesitant gesture with no redemptive value. In the end, it is only a final, fleeting assertion of agency before he recedes into insignificance.

The doomed relationships that István seeks out during this time frame once again highlight The Transactional Nature of Human Relationships as a fundamental condition of his existence. His affair with Mrs. Szymanski is a transaction of pain and self-loathing, and even his subsequent relationship with Bori is born of convenience, not love, as evidenced by István’s calm acceptance when Bori chooses to end the affair. István’s lack of protest in this moment reveals his belief that all such connections are temporary and conditional. His deadly emotional detachment marks the logical extreme to which a life built on transactions has pushed him. In István’s mind, the ultimate transaction is Thomas’s lawsuit, as this legal process has nullified their familial bond and formally stripped István of any remaining wealth. Even his act of saving Thomas fails to generate any connection, for Thomas refuses to see him, severing their final link. Left alone after his mother’s death, István experiences a form of solitude that reflects the bleak outcome of a life in which every relationship was a form of exchange that left him emotionally isolated.