Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard

After swimming ashore, Nostromo hides during the day in the ruined fort overlooking the harbor. He sleeps for many hours and feels disoriented and shaken when he wakes. For the first time in his life, his sense of continuity and purpose has been broken. From the ramparts of the fort, Nostromo surveys the harbor and the town of Sulaco. He sees ships at anchor, Sotillo’s steamer at the jetty, and the darkened outline of the town beyond the Custom House. The realization that he can no longer move openly through the streets, admired and recognized as before, makes Sulaco seem unreal to him. He reflects bitterly that only Decoud, now stranded on Great Isabel, would care if he were captured. He repeats old Giorgio Viola’s belief that the powerful exploit men like animals for their own ends.

Deprived of public recognition and daily admiration, he feels destitute for the first time. He considers escaping aboard one of the foreign ships and returning to Italy, imagining familiar ports and landscapes, but the idea of arriving home with nothing fills him with self-mockery. His pride collapses into a sense that he has been “betrayed” (301). He concludes that the Europeans and political leaders have abandoned him, using his courage and loyalty without regard for his fate. He convinces himself that the removal of the silver meant surrender all along. Haunted by Teresa Viola’s “scornful reproaches” (394) and unsettled by superstition, Nostromo believes her death is a judgment upon him. He decides to seek out Giorgio Viola but hesitates, unsure what he expects. Instead, he moves instinctively toward the harbor and the Custom House. Avoiding detection, he enters the vast, smoke-filled building and notices two lighted windows upstairs. Inside, he senses a presence and glimpses a shadow cast on the wall but retreats cautiously, unwilling to reveal himself.

As he exits, Nostromo collides with Dr. Monygham. The doctor is stunned to see him alive. Nostromo warns him to be quiet and tells him there is someone upstairs. Inside the room, Nostromo discovers the truth behind the shadow: It is the body of Hirsch, tortured and shot dead, still hanging from a beam. Nostromo recognizes Hirsch and is horrified. Dr. Monygham explains that Sotillo questioned Hirsch, learned of the silver, and believes the lighter was sunk with the treasure. Hirsch’s terror convinced Sotillo of much, but not everything. Crucially, Sotillo believes the silver was removed from the lighter before it sank and remains hidden somewhere near Sulaco. Monygham admits he has deliberately encouraged this belief to keep Sotillo’s officers loyal and prevent desertion. The revelation enrages Nostromo. He accuses the leaders of sacrificing him for their purposes and realizes that his loyalty has been exploited. Monygham, however, remains focused on the larger political struggle and the need to protect the mine. He entertains his “own schemes with Machiavellian subtlety” (311). He sees Nostromo’s return as providential and intends to use him as a messenger to Cayta. Nostromo, now mistrustful and deeply wounded in pride, declares that the Capataz of the Cargadores is finished. His former identity, built on reputation and public admiration, has been destroyed.

The narrative returns to the time before Hirsch’s execution. Colonel Sotillo spends the morning in mounting anxiety as the bells of Sulaco announce the arrival of Pedrito Montero. His plans have failed completely. He has neither secured the town, nor seized the “enormous booty” (317), and he has achieved no military success to justify his position. He orders his battalion to stand ready on the shore, though nothing stirs between the town and the harbor. Late in the afternoon, an emissary from Señor Fuentes arrives alone, requesting a conference. Fuentes, newly installed as political chief, seeks to secure both harbor and mine. The envoy, a disreputable notary recently freed from jail, hopes to lure Sotillo into Sulaco for talks with Pedrito Montero. Sotillo, terrified of placing himself in Pedrito’s power yet equally afraid of open defiance, pretends to be struck by a sudden fever. He buries himself theatrically in ponchos, claiming to be a “half-delirious invalid” (319), and begs that Dr. Monygham be sent to attend him. The ruse succeeds, and the envoy departs convinced of Sotillo’s illness.

Once alone, Sotillo’s panic intensifies. He realizes that any information Monygham carries will fall into Pedrito’s hands. Suddenly he remembers that he still holds Hirsch prisoner. Though reluctant and sickened by the man’s terror, Sotillo resolves to force a confession. Hirsch, who has already endured hours of torture, is dragged before him. He remains silent, vacant, and broken. As Sotillo orders Hirsch tortured further, the captive’s screams echo through the Custom House and across the harbor, reaching Captain Mitchell on the balcony of the OSN Company offices. As evening falls, Sotillo returns repeatedly to the torture chamber, demanding the location of the silver. Hirsch remains silent. At last, in a frenzy of desperation, Hirsch spits in Sotillo’s face. Startled and appalled by his own loss of control, Sotillo shoots him twice, killing him instantly. Officers rush in, and Sotillo lies that Hirsch “confessed everything” (324) before dying. Greed and fear make the officers accept the lie. Sotillo orders an immediate retreat from the harbor and marches out, forgetting entirely to prepare for Dr. Monygham’s possible return. Hirsch’s body is left hanging in the Custom House.

Later that night, Nostromo and Dr. Monygham find Hirsch’s corpse. Nostromo blames the doctor for planting the idea of the treasure in Sotillo’s mind. Dr. Monygham attempts to persuade Nostromo to act as a messenger to General Barrios. Nostromo, feeling used and betrayed, rages against the elites who exploit men like him. When the doctor suggests eventually directing Sotillo to search for the silver on Great Isabel, Nostromo explodes, explaining that such a lie would quickly be exposed. Instead, he proposes telling Sotillo that the silver was sunk in the harbor, where the colonel will waste days dragging the seabed in obsessive pursuit since his greed will be “worse than thirst at sea” (331). Dr. Monygham accepts the plan. Nostromo storms away, threatening violence, and the doctor chases him across the plain. After a bitter argument, Nostromo refuses to reenter the town but agrees to hide temporarily. He returns instead to the Albergo d’Italia Una, where he finds Giorgio Viola sitting in darkness, shattered by his wife Teresa’s death. Viola welcomes Nostromo as a son returned from the dead. He recounts Teresa’s final words, calling on Nostromo to save the children. Haunted by her curse and driven by hunger and despair, Nostromo eats the meager food Viola offers. Nostromo sits in silence, weighed down by superstition, responsibility, and the unresolved fate of the silver.

Years after the Monterist revolution, Captain Mitchell works as a tour guide in the regenerated Sulaco of the Occidental Republic, where he narrates the history of the revolution to visiting foreigners, emphasizing the rescue of the town, the San Tomé mine, and the decisive actions of Nostromo and General Barrios. 

In Captain Mitchell’s story, Nostromo, aboard one of Barrios’s transports approaching Sulaco, spots the lighter’s dinghy drifting alone in the gulf. Recognizing it instantly, he is seized by a powerful compulsion to investigate. Despite Barrios’s mockery and refusal to stop the ship, Nostromo leaps overboard and swims to the boat. Once aboard, he confirms that it is the dinghy left with Decoud on Great Isabel. He discovers a dark brown stain on the gunwale that he recognizes as blood. The transports continue toward Sulaco, leaving Nostromo alone at sea.

Beset by a “queer, faint feeling” (353), Nostromo rows to Great Isabel and rushes inland to the ravine where the silver was hidden. He finds that the concealment has been carefully completed, but a spade has been left in the open. Digging, he discovers that one of the boxes has been cut open and that four silver ingots are missing. The presence of blood and the missing silver convince him that Decoud is dead, though the circumstances remain unclear. Nostromo “gloomily” (355) sits for hours, unable to comprehend what he has found.

The narrative then reveals Decoud’s final days in solitude, reconstructing what Nostromo can never know. Left alone on the island, Decoud endures “absolute silence” (356), sleeplessness, hunger, and isolation. Over several days, his sense of identity collapses. He loses faith in his political ideals, in Antonia, and in himself. Haunted by exhaustion and despair, he becomes convinced that all action is meaningless. On the tenth day, overwhelmed by solitude, believing in “nothing” (359), he resolves to die. He takes four silver ingots from the hidden treasure, rows out into the gulf, and shoots himself, sinking beneath the water weighted by the silver. His death goes unnoticed, and the story of his drowning with the lighter becomes accepted truth. The narrative returns to Nostromo on the island after Decoud’s death. He sits guarding the treasure through the night, realizing fully that Decoud is gone and that he alone knows the secret of the silver. He recognizes that both Teresa and Decoud were abandoned by him in their final moments. Yet his recognition gives way to immense pride. Nostromo resolves to keep the silver hidden and “grow rich very slowly” (360) to guard his secret.

Years after the Sulaco revolution, the province prospers rapidly through the wealth of the San Tomé mine. Economic growth transforms the town and its people, bringing material success alongside quieter changes in character and relationships. Captain Mitchell has retired to Europe, while Dr. Monygham remains in Sulaco, older and steel-grey, sustained by his private devotion to Mrs. Gould. During the Goulds’ “prolonged” (361) absence in Europe and the United States, the doctor has lived uneasily in their empty house, finding its familiarity painful rather than comforting. As the date of their return approaches, his agitation grows. When the Goulds arrive aboard the mail steamer Hermes, Dr. Monygham greets them with restrained emotion. He returns with them to Casa Gould, where Mrs. Gould invites him to lunch the next day. Charles Gould announces that he will leave early for the mine, continuing his established routine. After lunch, Mrs. Gould and the doctor walk together in the garden, recalling the Sulaco revolution and the fates of those involved. Dr. Monygham remarks bitterly that each participant received some “reward” (363), even as idealism faded. Mrs. Gould expresses unease that the lessons of the revolution seem forgotten.

Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of Antonia Avellanos and her uncle, Father Corbelán, now elevated to Cardinal-Archbishop of Sulaco. Antonia argues passionately that Sulaco has a moral duty to liberate the rest of Costaguana from oppression. Dr. Monygham retorts cynically that only annexation would succeed, while the Cardinal warns that the people may yet rise to claim wealth and power. After they depart, the doctor reveals that conspiracies continue among refugees and political idealists, many centered around Nostromo, now known as Captain Fidanza. Nostromo’s influence among workers has increased, and he is rumored to support populist revolutionary movements. Dr. Monygham then relates troubling rumors concerning Nostromo’s personal life. Nostromo regularly visits the Great Isabel lighthouse, where Linda Viola tends the light, but has been seen returning “very late” (369) at night, raising suspicions. A former protégé of Nostromo, Ramírez, now Capataz of the cargadores, becomes violently jealous, accusing Nostromo of exerting dangerous influence over both Linda and her sister, Giselle. After a public confrontation, Ramírez disappears from Sulaco. Disturbed, Mrs. Gould declares that she will speak to Nostromo herself about “marrying Linda at once” (371) to put a stop to these rumors.

As evening settles, Basilio informs Mrs. Gould that Charles will remain overnight at the mine. Left alone, Dr. Monygham silently curses Charles Gould for his devotion to “material interests” (374). Mrs. Gould, resting in the garden, reflects despairingly on her life. She realizes that the San Tomé mine has consumed her husband completely, leaving no room for personal intimacy or rest. She foresees herself surviving alone, surrounded by wealth but emptied of her early ideals, as the mine dominates Sulaco with a power more relentless than any tyrant.

Nostromo’s secret possession of the San Tomé silver increasingly dominates his life. Each secret visit to the island to remove a little more of the silver risks exposure. Though his public reputation remains intact, inwardly he feels corrupted. The construction of a lighthouse on the Great Isabel threatens to expose the ravine where the silver lies hidden. For a moment, he contemplates suicide but concludes that death would not end disgrace. Instead, realizes that if Giorgio Viola and his daughters are installed openly on the island, he can visit without suspicion. Captain Mitchell arranges this by appointing Linda Viola as assistant lighthouse keeper, and the Viola family moves into the cottage near the tower. Nostromo believes this will allow him to reach the treasure more freely. 

Nostromo asks Giorgio Viola for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Giorgio accepts calmly, summoning Linda, who agrees to the betrothal. The “appalled” (381) Nostromo’s thoughts, however, were actually fixed on the younger sister, Giselle, whose beauty and indolent charm have awoken a violent and jealous passion in him. He does not know how to tell Giorgio and Linda that it is Giselle whom he wants to marry. Alone with Giselle, Nostromo confesses that he loves her, not Linda. Giselle, frightened but deeply drawn to him, begs him to take her away at once. He refuses, explaining that something stands between them: the silver treasure. Nostromo reveals that he stole the treasure. Instead of recoiling, Giselle accepts him and the promise of wealth. She urges him to act quickly, but when she presses him to reveal the treasure’s location, he cannot speak. Tormented, he leaves abruptly to retrieve more silver that very night. Later, after completing another dangerous expedition to the ravine, Nostromo returns to Giselle’s window and warns her that she loves a thief and that it will take time to retrieve all the silver. She agrees to wait. Nostromo embraces her, bound more tightly than ever to the treasure that now governs his love, his future, and his fate.

On the afternoon of Mrs. Gould’s reception in Sulaco, Nostromo arrives later than usual on Great Isabel. He finds Giselle seated outside the lighthouse cottage. Their brief exchange reveals the strain of secrecy and fear under which she lives. She urges him to take her away and abandon the silver, comparing her love to the treasure that enslaves him. Nostromo promises to return later but is warned not to come that night, as Linda and their father have been uneasy and discussing Ramírez. Linda soon appears, visibly altered by anxiety and illness. Nostromo greets her absently, and her quiet suffering contrasts with Giselle’s restless passion. Old Giorgio Viola, uneasy about threats to his family’s honor, speaks guardedly with Nostromo, concealing his suspicions. After Nostromo leaves, Linda sits beside her father, her certainty of betrayal complete. She recalls the moment Ramírez accused Nostromo on the wharf, which shattered her trust. Though determined to remain silent, Linda’s jealousy and pain intensify. The tension between the sisters grows.

That evening, old Giorgio patrols the island with his gun, convinced Ramírez may attempt to abduct Giselle. Linda tries to calm him, while Giselle secretly believes Nostromo will keep his promise not to come. Unknown to her, Nostromo has returned to the island to retrieve more silver from its hiding place. As night deepens and Linda lights the beacon, she is overwhelmed by jealousy and confusion. She resolves to speak to her father, but before she can, a gunshot rings out. Linda rushes toward the sound and finds her father standing motionless with his rifle. He calmly tells her he has shot Ramírez, believing he was protecting Giselle. In shock, Linda realizes the truth too late. Under the tree where Decoud once lingered, she hears Giselle sobbing beside the wounded Nostromo, who has been shot while moving toward the ravine. Nostromo speaks weakly, claiming he came only to see Giselle once more.

Meanwhile in Sulaco, Dr. Monygham arrives late at Casa Gould and urgently asks to see Mrs. Gould. He explains that Nostromo has been brought ashore mortally wounded and has asked for her specifically. Mrs. Gould, deeply troubled by memories of the lost silver, agrees to go. At Nostromo’s bedside, he confesses that Giselle is “innocent” (309) and calls himself a thief, declaring that the spell of secrecy is broken. He speaks bitterly of betrayal and of the silver that has held him captive, offering to reveal its hiding place. Mrs. Gould refuses to hear it, insisting the treasure should remain “lost forever” (401). Nostromo dies soon after, alone and silent. Later, Dr. Monygham travels to Great Isabel and finds old Giorgio collapsed over his Bible, dead without understanding whom he has killed. Linda remains at the lighthouse, proclaiming her undying “love and grief” (405). The light continues to shine steadily over the gulf and the hidden silver.