"I's a very indecent costume," said Mrs. Davidson. "Mr. Davidson thinks it should be prohibited by law. How can you expect people to be moral when they wear nothing but a strip of red cotton round their loins?"
In this passage, Mrs. Davidson's patronizing attitude toward Samoan culture is on full display. As Christian missionaries, she and her husband have come to their district of Samoan islands with the aim of converting the indigenous population to their religion and instilling in them a sense of sin and shame. While standing on deck with Dr. Macphail, Mrs. Davidson speaks disparagingly of the traditional lavalava skirt-like garment worn by Samoans. Although the garment is functional and comfortable in the hot climate, the Davidsons project their bias onto it, seeing it as not enough clothing to conceal a person's genitals. In order to curb the possibility of sex out of wedlock, they prefer to have the Samoans in their district dress in oppressive Victorian clothes.
Between the Macphails and the Davidsons, who were missionaries, there had arisen the intimacy of shipboard, which is due to propinquity rather than to any community of taste. Their chief tie was the disapproval they shared of the men who spent their days and nights in the smoking-room playing poker or bridge and drinking. Mrs. Macphail was not a little flattered to think that she and her husband were the only people on board with whom the Davidsons were willing to associate, and even the doctor, shy but no fool, half unconsciously acknowledged the compliment.
When introducing the characters, the narrator of "Rain" comments on how the Macphails and Davidsons became acquainted on the steamer ship not because they were natural companions but because they shared a distaste for the more lively, debauched activity on board. The narrator also makes note of the flattery the Macphails feel upon knowing they've been chosen by such a morally upstanding couple. The passage is significant because it establishes the elevated social standing the Davidsons enjoy as missionaries, and sets up the ironic turn of events that brings Davidson down from his exalted position.
"You see, they were so naturally depraved that they couldn't be brought to see their wickedness. We had to make sins out of what they thought were natural actions. We had to make it a sin, not only to commit adultery and to lie and thieve, but to expose their bodies, and to dance and not to come to church. I made it a sin for a girl to show her bosom and a sin for a man not to wear trousers."
When bragging to the Macphails about his success as a missionary, Davidson speaks of the efforts he has made to impose his religious beliefs on the Samoans in his district. While the people lived happily enough with their own culture and belief system, Davidson thought of it as his moral duty to save their souls by imbuing them with a Christian sense of sin. The passage is significant because it reveals Davidson's lack of self-awareness. There is no hint of second-guessing his own cultural background or colonizing impetus. He takes it for granted that his belief system is the correct one, and he delights in the opportunity to control an entire community through the imposition of fines and punishments for transgressing against his imported ideals.
"He had been a fine, powerful man, with a lot of fat on him, and he had a great big voice, but now he was half the size, and he was shaking all over. He'd suddenly become an old man."
As Davidson goes on about his accomplishments, Mrs. Davidson urges her husband to tell the Macphails about Fred Ohlson, a Danish trader who'd lived in their district before the missionaries' arrival. Having amassed a small fortune in the community, Fred Ohlson was reluctant to abide by the Davidsons' moral standards. Davidson delights in telling the Macphails how he steadily wore the man down until he was left bankrupt and starving. The passage is significant because it reveals Davidson's hypocritical maliciousness as a supposed messenger of God. Rather than treat the "lost soul" with compassion, Davidson did everything he could to seek revenge on the defiant trader. It is this obsessive drive to impose his rules on others that will lead to Davidson to break Miss Thompson's spirit.
"I expect to have my work cut out for me. I shall act and I shall act promptly. If the tree is rotten it shall be cut down and cast into the flames."
When telling the Macphails about his work as a missionary, Davidson predicts that the native Samoan he left in charge of the district will most likely have relaxed some of the strict rules the Davidsons imposed. In this passage, Davidson makes reference to the Bible, citing the holy scripture to bolster his authority over the community. It is revealing that Davidson references such violent imagery in his metaphor: rather than look upon the Samoans' behavior with compassion, he sees them as rotten trees in need of prompt destruction.
Two or three days went by. Now when they passed Miss Thompson on the road she did not greet them with ironic cordiality or smile; she passed with her nose in the air, a sulky look on her painted face, frowning, as though she did not see them.
As a first strike in his war against Miss Thompson, Davidson convinces Mr. Horn, the trader who runs the boarding house, not to allow her to have any more visitors (i.e. clients) in her room. Upon passing her in the street, Dr. Macphails notices a change in her demeanor. No longer friendly and outlandish, Miss Thompson is unhappy and aggrieved. The passage is significant because it shows how Davidson is applying the same tactic against Miss Thompson that he used on Fred Ohlson, first limiting her income as a means of limiting her personal freedom.
She gathered herself together. No one could describe the scorn of her expression or the contemptuous hatred she put into her answer.
"You men! You filthy, dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you. Pigs! Pigs!"
Dr. Macphail gasped. He understood.
The final three paragraphs of "Rain" give a cryptic answer to the question in Dr. Macphail's and the reader's mind: Why did Davidson kill himself? Having returned from the morgue, the Macphails and Mrs. Davidson encounter Miss Thompson in the boarding house. No longer meek and repentant, Miss Thompson is playing loud music again and chatting with a sailor outside her door. She spits in Mrs. Davidson's direction upon seeing her. Confused and appalled, Macphail turns off the gramophone and asks Miss Thompson what is wrong with her. In this passage, Miss Thompson tells Macphail that all men are the same, that they are pigs. In this climactic scene, Macphail understands that she is referring to Davidson when she says all men are the same. Without stating it directly, she lets Macphail know that Davidson exposed his hypocrisy and sinned against God when he tried to have sex with her. Out of shame for his actions, Davidson then killed himself on the beach.
