# XV: The Last Chance explained — On a Chinese Screen

> Chapter companion for On a Chinese Screen by W. Somerset Maugham.

## What happens

The chapter introduces a single, thirty-year-old blonde woman in a treaty port who is desperately seeking a husband. Her efforts to appeal to every unmarried man are painfully transparent, and she is willing to adapt to any interest—from shooting to golf to billiards—to secure a match. Despite her good nature and genuine desire to be a good wife, her lack of subtlety and awkward attempts at allure make her a figure of pity and discomfort among the men.

## Themes in this chapter

### Colonial Ennui and Isolation

The woman's desperate attempts to fit in and find a husband highlight the loneliness and social constraints of expatriate life in a treaty port.

### Hypocrisy and Moral Compromise

She criticizes Chinese arranged marriages for lacking romance, yet her own calculated efforts to please every man reveal a different kind of transactional approach to marriage.

## Character check-ins

### Miss Lambert

The central figure of the chapter, a thirty-year-old blonde woman in China seeking marriage, whose earnest but clumsy efforts to attract a husband are painfully obvious to everyone in the treaty port.

## Key lines

> It was pathetically obvious that she had come to China to be married, and what made it almost tragic was that not a single man in the treaty port was ignorant of the fact.

Her purpose in coming to China was clearly to find a husband, and everyone in the port knew it, making her situation both sad and awkward.

_Establishes the central irony of the chapter: her transparent desperation._

> She was a thoroughly good-natured creature. She would have made any of those men, young or old, a perfectly good wife. And she knew it.

Despite her awkwardness, she was genuinely kind and capable of being a good wife to any of them, a fact she was well aware of.

_Highlights the tragic gap between her worth and her reception._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters/xv-the-last-chance
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters