Published in 1921, W. Somerset Maugham's "Rain" is a short story about a fanatical Christian missionary who commits suicide after trying to save the soul of a defiant sex worker.
Set in Pago Pago Harbor in American Samoa, the story is told from the point of view of Dr. Macphail, a Scottish WWI veteran. While traveling to Apia with his wife, Macphail becomes acquainted with the Davidsons, a Christian missionary couple who have been away from their district in Samoa. Though they are meant to transfer to a different boat headed for Apia, the Macphails and Davidsons have to stay at a boarding house in Pago Pago because of an outbreak of measles among the boat's crew. During their stay at the dilapidated guest house, the couples realize that Miss Thompson, another guest, is selling sex to sailors in her room. Incensed by her immorality, Davidson obsessively tries to make the woman repent for her sinful behavior. Miss Thompson's defiant attitude steadily wears away and, to Davidson's delight, she begins to ask for Davidson to pray with her in her room. On the night before Miss Thompson's deportation back to San Francisco, where a three-year prison sentence she evaded awaits her, Davidson is found dead on the beach. Dr. Macphail deduces that Davidson killed himself by cutting his throat. After Mrs. Davidson identifies her husband's body at the morgue, she and the Macphails return to the boarding house, where Miss Thompson has taken up sex work again. Dr. Macphail is confused about the sudden transformation until Miss Thompson tells him that all men are the same, that they are all pigs. From this statement, Dr. Macphail understands she is referring to Davidson, who tried to commit adultery with her and then killed himself in shame.
Exploring themes of righteousness, condescension, privacy, and hypocrisy, "Rain" takes a critical view of the imposition of Christian morality on so-called "lost souls." Originally called "Miss Thompson" and published in The Smart Set, the re-titled story appeared in Maugham’s collection, The Trembling of a Leaf: Stories of the South Sea Islands. Four years later, the story was adapted into a stage play that had a successful 648-performance run on Broadway in its initial production. Thanks in part to Rita Hayworth’s incarnation as the title character in the film adaptation Miss Sadie Thompson, “Rain” has become one of Maugham’s most well-known stories.
