# III: What Happened in the Rue Maule explained — The Return of Tarzan

> Chapter companion for The Return of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

## What happens

Tarzan visits his friend D'Arnot in Paris, who urges him to claim his title and estates as Lord Greystoke. Tarzan refuses, preferring to remain a nameless vagabond and not rob Jane Porter of the wealth and position her marriage to Clayton will bring. Later, Tarzan is lured to a room in the Rue Maule by a woman's cries for help, where he is ambushed by apaches led by Rokoff. Tarzan fights them off with savage ferocity, but the woman falsely accuses him of attacking her when the police arrive. Tarzan resists arrest, overpowering the officers.

## Themes in this chapter

### Civilization vs. Wilderness

Tarzan's thin veneer of civilization falls away during the fight, revealing the savage beast within as he uses teeth and brute strength.

### Deception and Betrayal

The woman's false cries for help and subsequent false accusation against Tarzan exemplify deception and betrayal.

### Identity and Heritage

Tarzan rejects his noble heritage and title, choosing to remain a nameless vagabond, highlighting his struggle with identity.

## Character check-ins

### Tarzan

Tarzan refuses his title and estates, preferring to remain a nameless vagabond. He is lured to the Rue Maule and fights off apaches, but is falsely accused by the woman.

### Lieutenant D'Arnot

D'Arnot urges Tarzan to claim his birthright and offers him financial support and friendship.

### Nikolas Rokoff

Rokoff orchestrates the ambush in the Rue Maule, waiting outside to ensure Tarzan's death but fleeing when the plan fails.

### Countess Olga de Coude

The woman who lures Tarzan to the Rue Maule with cries for help, then falsely accuses him of attacking her.

## Key lines

> You must be mad, my friend, thus lightly to give up not alone wealth and position, but an opportunity to prove beyond doubt to all the world that in your veins flows the noble blood of two of England's most honored houses—instead of the blood of a savage she-ape.

D'Arnot tells Tarzan he is crazy to renounce his wealth and the chance to prove his noble lineage.

_D'Arnot's argument for Tarzan to claim his heritage._

> Let me see red in anger but for a moment, and all the instincts of the savage beast that I really am, submerge what little I possess of the milder ways of culture and refinement.

Tarzan admits that when angered, his savage instincts overwhelm his civilized behavior.

_Tarzan's self-awareness of his dual nature._

> As though it had been but a brittle shell, to break at the least rough usage, the thin veneer of his civilization fell from him, and the ten burly villains found themselves penned in a small room with a wild and savage beast, against whose steel muscles their puny strength was less than futile.

Tarzan's civilized facade shattered instantly, revealing the wild beast within as he overwhelmed the ten attackers.

_Description of Tarzan's transformation during the fight._

## Links

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- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_return_of_tarzan_se/chapters