Rain (short story)

"Rain" is a short story by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham. It was originally published as "Miss Thompson" in April 1921, in the American literary magazine The Smart Set.^[1]

The story is set on a Pacific island: a missionary's determination to reform a prostitute leads to tragedy.

Background

In December 1916 during a tour of the Pacific, Maugham and his secretary/companion Gerald Haxton, on the steamer Sonoma, visited Pago Pago, the capital of American Samoa. Delayed by a quarantine inspection, Maugham, Haxton and others took lodgings there. Other passengers on the Sonoma included a "Miss Thompson", and a medical missionary and his wife, who were models for the characters in "Rain".^[2]

Near Pago Pago is Rainmaker Mountain, which gives Pago Pago Harbor an unusually high rainfall.^[3]

Summary

On the way to Apia in the Pacific, a ship stops at Pago Pago. The passengers include Dr Macphail and his wife, and Davidson, a missionary, and his wife. (The story is seen from Macphail's point of view.) Because of an epidemic of measles (a serious disease for local people) on the island, the ship cannot leave until it is sure none of the crew are infected. The Macphails and the Davidsons find lodgings with Horn, a trader on the front. For most of their stay there is heavy rain which they find oppresive. Macphail hears from the missionary and his wife about the severity of Davidson in his work.

Also staying there from the ship is Miss Thompson. From her room is the sound of a gramophone and men's voices. They remember she came on board at Honolulu and is presumably from Iwelei, the red-light district there. Davidson is determined to stop her activities, and tries to get Horn to stop her having visitors. Macphail feels that Davidson is "mysteriously at work. He had an impression that he was weaving a net around the woman, carefully, systematically, and suddenly, when everything was ready would pull the strings tight."

Davidson sees the governor of the island and gets him to put Miss Thompson on the next ship, which goes to San Francisco. The governor, aware that the missionaries have influence, does not change his decision when Macphail visits him. Miss Thompson is distraught, as she will be sent to the penitentiary if she returns to San Francisco. Davidson is often with Miss Thompson, whom he now knows as Sadie; her personality changes and she becomes repentant. Davidson says to the Macphails, "It's a true rebirth. Her soul, which was black as night, is now pure and white.... All day I pray with her...."

A few days later Davidson's body is found on the beach; he has cut his throat with a razor. Macphail does not understand what happened until, returning to his lodgings, he finds Sadie Thompson has returned to her former ways, and says to him, "You men! You filthy, dirty pigs! You're all the same, all of you."

Adaptations

The story has been the basis of a number of adaptations.

• Rain (1922), a play by John Colton and Clemence Randolph. It ran for 608 performances, from 7 November 1922 to 31 May 1924, in New York at the Maxine Elliott Theatre, starring Jeanne Eagels.^[4]
• Sadie Thompson (1928), a silent film starring Gloria Swanson.
• Rain (1932), a film starring Joan Crawford.
• Miss Sadie Thompson (1953), a film starring Rita Hayworth.
• Rain (1997), an opera by Richard Owen.^[5]

References