# VII explained — The Last Man

> Chapter companion for The Last Man by Mary Shelley.

## What happens

The chapter describes the devastating journey of the survivors through France, marked by the deaths of Lucy Martin, the Countess of Windsor, and other companions. The narrator reflects on the extinction of humanity and the loss of all hope, as the group reaches Dijon and prepares to continue toward Geneva.

## Themes in this chapter

### Grief and Memory

The chapter is saturated with grief over the deaths of Lucy, the Countess, and others, and memory of the lost world is evoked through the Countess's death.

### Isolation and Solitude

The dwindling group of survivors faces utter isolation as humanity nears extinction, with the narrator lamenting the loss of all community.

### Nature and Humanity

The natural world continues indifferent to human suffering, as the narrator questions whether mountains, streams, and seasons will persist without human perception.

## Character check-ins

### Lucy Martin

Dies at Dijon after nursing the sick; her death is mourned as the loss of peculiarly English feminine virtues.

### The Countess

Dies at Dijon, the last tie to the ancient state of things; her death evokes memories of the past world.

### Clara

Present at the Countess's deathbed; the Countess entrusts her to Adrian's care.

### Adrian

Leans against a tree reading, but his thoughts are absorbed by the surrounding tragedy.

### Lionel Verney

The narrator; reflects on the deaths and the hopelessness of the journey.

## Key lines

> that our utmost efforts would not preserve one human being alive.

The survivors realize that no matter what they do, they cannot save anyone from death.

_Expresses the final abandonment of hope._

> Poor Lucy herself only survived, till we arrived at Dijon.

Lucy lived only until the group reached Dijon.

_Marks the death of a devoted caregiver._

> The venerable lady survived this scene only twenty-four hours.

The Countess died within a day of her conversation with Verney and Clara.

_Highlights the rapidity of her decline._

> The species of man must perish; his frame of exquisite workmanship; the wondrous mechanism of his senses; the noble proportion of his godlike limbs; his mind, the throned king of these; must perish.

Humanity, with all its physical and mental perfection, is doomed to extinction.

_A philosophical lament on the end of the human race._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_last_man_se/chapters/volume-iii-vii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_last_man_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_last_man_se/chapters