Summary
The next day Dr. Macphail is returning from the local hospital, where he’s been spending mornings, when Mr. Horn tells him Miss Thompson is sick. Miss Thompson’s skin looks yellow, but she says she isn’t actually sick, she just wanted to speak with Dr. Macphail. She says it’s inconvenient for her to return to San Francisco, and that the governor told her she could go to Sydney in another two weeks instead, if Davidson will accept it. She asks Dr. Macphail to convince Davidson on her behalf. She says she can get a lawful job in Sydney. However, Davidson tells Dr. Macphail that the governor has ordered Miss Thompson to be deported on the next boat. He says he won’t stand in the way of the order, and that Miss Thompson’s “presence is a peril here.” He asks why she doesn’t want to go to San Francisco and Dr. Macphail says he didn’t ask because it wasn’t his business. Dr. Macphail says he thinks Davidson is harsh and tyrannical. Davidson replies that his heart bleeds for Miss Thompson, but he is only doing his duty.
At a break in the rain, Davidson leaves for a walk. Miss Thompson stops him and asks how it went with Davidson. Dr. Macphail tells her he won’t change his mind. She sobs. Macphail tells her it’s a shame the way she is being treated and that he will go speak to the governor himself. She brightens and becomes optimistic. On the way to the governor’s, Macphail wonders why he agreed to advocate for her. He tells the governor he will guarantee Miss Thompson’s good behavior while she waits to go to Sydney. The governor insists he must stand by his order. Macphail grows frustrated, remembers Davidson’s threats to the governor, and says Davidson is a busybody. The governor says he has not formed a favorable opinion of Davidson either, but the man was right to point out the danger of a woman like Miss Thompson being among enlisted men stationed among a native population.
Dr. Macphail returns to the house crestfallen. Dr. Macphail avoids Miss Thompson but conveys the disappointing news to Horn, who says he knew the governor wouldn’t dare go against the missionaries. Later Miss Thompson comes to the parlor, where the couples sit after meals. No longer the “flaunting hussy who had jeered at them in the road,” Miss Thompson appears broken and frightened. She tells Davidson he has her beat and begs him not to send her to San Francisco. Davidson stares at her and then gasps. He says, “The penitentiary.” Miss Thompson falls at his feet and clasps his legs. She swears to God she’ll be a good woman. She admits she escaped before she could be locked up; if she returns, she’ll be imprisoned for three years. Dr. Macphail says Davidson must change his mind now that he knows she’ll be locked up. Davidson insists she must accept her punishment.
Davidson leads the distraught Miss Thompson down to her room. She is sobbing and requires restraint as Dr. Macphail administers an injection to calm her down. When he returns to the parlor, Davidson opens a Bible and says they must pray for Miss Thompson’s erring soul. Surprised and sheepish, Dr. Macphail kneels with the others. The missionary prays in a loud, loquacious manner. Afterward, Dr. Macphail goes to check on Miss Thompson. She is in a rocking chair. Dr. Macphail tells her to lie down. She asks for Davidson, who comes down. Miss Thompson says she has been a bad woman and wants to repent. Davidson turns to Horn and Dr. Macphail. He says God has answered their prayers, then tells them to leave him alone with Miss Thompson. The doctor lies awake until two, listening to prayers through the walls.
In the morning, Davidson’s eyes shine with an inhuman fire. He is filled with joy. He says he was with Sadie Thompson so late because she couldn’t bear to have him leave her. He brought a lost soul to the arms of Jesus. Dr. Macphail goes to see Miss Thompson, who is disheveled-looking in the rocking chair. She asks when Davidson is coming again, telling Dr. Macphail that it doesn’t feel as terrible when Davidson is with her. She says she is still sailing to San Francisco on Tuesday. She tells Dr. Macphail that there is nothing he can do for her now, only Davidson can help her.
Over the next three days, Davidson spends all his time, aside from meals, with Miss Thompson. He is visibly exhausted but exuberant. He tells the others over dinner one evening of how Miss Thompson’s soul, once black as night, is now pure and white like fresh snow. He says her remorse for her sins is beautiful. Dr. Macphail mentions again that Davidson might want to save her from three years in prison, but Davidson says it’s necessary: he says his heart bleeds for her and that all the years she is in pain, he’ll be in pain for her. Dr. Macphail calls this “bunkum.” Davidson says he doesn’t understand: he wants her to suffer as a sacrifice to God, and to accept it joyfully. Davidson’s lips tremble with excitement.
Days pass slowly. Miss Thompson’s terror numbs her. She can’t let Davidson out of her sight. They pray together, she cries, she reads the Bible. She looks forward to Tuesday as an escape from her current anguish. The other people in the house look forward to the day as well. Dr. Macphail feels he will breathe more easily once the inevitable happens and Miss Thompson is gone. The Monday night before, Davidson says he plans to walk on board with her to see her off. That night, Dr. Macphail wakes to Horn touching his arm and beckoning him to come with him. Usually dressed in more covering clothing, Horn is barefoot and wearing the lava-lava. Dr. Macphail sees that Horn is heavily tattooed. Horn leads him outside, where six natives are gathered. Together they all go to the shore, where Davidson’s body lies. Dr. Macphail turns the body over and sees Davidson’s throat is cut from ear to ear. In Davidson’s right hand is a razor. Dr. Macphail says he is cold and so must have been dead for some time.
Horn says one of the boys found Davidson on his way to work and came to tell Horn. He asks if Dr. Macphail thinks Davidson killed himself. Dr. Macphail says yes and tells Horn to send someone to the police. Horn sends the youths away. Dr. Macphail stands by the body and smokes cigarettes while they wait for the police. Horn asks why Davidson did it. Dr. Macphail shrugs. Soon police arrive with a marine and put the body on a stretcher. Dr. Macphail returns to the house, where his wife is dressed. She says Mrs. Davidson is worried about her husband, who left Miss Thompson’s room at two and hasn’t returned. Dr. Macphail tells her Davidson is dead and asks his wife to tell Davidson’s wife.
Dr. Macphail’s wife goes to tell Mrs. Davidson while Dr. Macphail shaves. His wife tells him Mrs. Davidson wants to see the body at the morgue and that she’s trembling like a leaf. The couple accompanies Mrs. Davidson to the morgue. Mrs. Davidson is dry-eyed. She views the body alone, then says she is ready to go back, her voice hard and steady. At the house, ragtime music plays loudly and harshly from Miss Thompson’s gramophone, causing Mrs. Davidson to gasp. Inside, Miss Thompson chats with a sailor in her open doorway. No longer broken-looking, she is dressed in her white finery again, and her face is made-up. She looks like “the flaunting quean that they had known at first.”
Miss Thompson breaks into a jeering laugh when they come in. She collects spit in her mouth and spits at Mrs. Davidson, who blushes and runs upstairs with her face covered. Outraged, Dr. Macphail pushes into Miss Thompson’s room and tears the record off the gramophone. Miss Thompson asks what the hell he is doing in her room. She gathers herself, indescribable scorn in her face. With contemptuous hatred, she says, “You men! You filthy, dirty pigs! You’re all the same, all of you. Pigs! Pigs!” The story ends with Dr. Macphail gasping as he understands the implication behind her words.
Analysis
Davidson’s lack of compassion for Miss Thompson arises again when she attempts to bargain for a later deportation to Sydney, Australia, rather than to San Francisco. Finding himself Miss Thompson’s only advocate, Dr. Macphail brings the request to Davidson. Although the governor would allow it, Davidson refuses to ease up on her. Dr. Macphail’s irritation with the fanatical missionary finally breaks as he accuses Davidson of being harsh and behaving like a tyrant. Davidson replies with a condescending sense of calm, claiming hypocritically that he has compassion for Miss Thompson but, again invoking his duty to God, saying that the events he has set in motion are beyond his control. Davidson is also suspicious of Miss Thompson’s reasons for not wanting to return to the U.S. But because Dr. Macphail believes in a person’s right to privacy, he hadn’t thought to ask. Seeking to bypass Davidson’s authority, Dr. Macphail goes to the governor to advocate for Miss Thompson; however, the governor is too afraid of incurring Davidson’s meddlesome wrath and refuses to help.
The mystery of why Miss Thompson doesn’t want to return to San Francisco is solved when she comes to the parlor to plead with Davidson. Admitting defeat, she swears she will reform herself as long as Davidson takes mercy on her and doesn’t send her back to the States, where she has evaded a three-year prison sentence. Davidson refuses to concede to her wishes, and Dr. Macphail and Horn restrain the distraught woman in her bed. After waking from the sedative Dr. Macphail injects her with, Miss Thompson finally accepts her need to repent and calls for Davidson to pray with her.
Delighted that he has justified his extreme tactics and can claim to have saved Miss Thompson’s soul, Davidson obsessively prays with Miss Thompson, who has lost all her former defiance. Davidson brags to his wife and the Macphails of how beautiful her remorse is, how pure her soul has become, yet he insists she must still return to San Francisco to receive her punishment honorably. Dr. Macphail, still finding Davidson overly tyrannical, recommends that he have leniency on Miss Thompson, but Davidson claims he will suffer the same pain as her—a claim Dr. Macphail calls out as condescending nonsense.
The story reaches its climax when Dr. Macphail is woken by Horn with unexpected news: Davidson’s body was found dead on the shore. Dr. Macphail follows Horn and a group of Samoans to Davidson’s body. He sees Davidson has killed himself with a razor blade. Both Horn and Dr. Macphail cannot understand why Davidson would have suddenly cut his own throat, but the evidence is clear.
The final paragraphs of “Rain” provide a cryptic answer to the question of why Davidson killed himself. After the Macphails accompany Mrs. Davidson to the morgue to identify Davidson’s body, they return to the boarding house to find Miss Thompson has returned to her former self, and is no longer the meek, repentant, God-fearing, broken woman she had briefly become. She again wears her attention-grabbing clothing and is playing ragtime music from her gramophone, a symbol for her shamelessness. Seeing Mrs. Davidson, Miss Thompson spits toward the missionary with contempt.
When Dr. Macphail confronts Miss Thompson about her disrespectful attitude, Miss Thompson accuses him of being a pig, like all men. The story ends with Dr. Macphail gasping at the realization that Miss Thompson is referring to Davidson. With this cryptic line, Maugham suggests that for all his Christian righteousness, Davidson revealed himself to be a hypocrite when he tried to commit the sin of adultery with Miss Thompson. Having likely been rejected by Miss Thompson in disillusionment and disgust, Davidson ended his life in shame. With this ironic reversal of the power balance between Davidson and Miss Thompson, Maugham shows how Davidson’s disregard for Miss Thompson’s privacy and obsessive need to impose his will on her results in his demise.
