Themes

The colonial theme is prominent in numerous stories and novels by Maugham, who sought in his travels to find eccentric and interesting colonials to serve as models for fiction. Usually such characters seek to retain and advance English standards and mores while living in lands far different from their homeland. In "Rain" Maugham demonstrates that the efforts made by colonial settlers have brought significant disadvantages to people living in the South Pacific. Mrs. Davidson emphasizes to the skeptical Dr. Macphail that Mr. Davidson had great difficulty bringing a sense of sin and guilt to South Sea islanders. A related theme concerns the inability of Europeans to retain their cultural values in an exotic setting. By presenting the clergyman as a rigid extremist on sexual morality, Maugham prepares the reader for his lapse. For readers this outcome represents high irony, not without comic overtones. But for Mr. Davidson the...