# XXXIX: The Missionary Lady explained — On a Chinese Screen

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

## What happens

The narrator describes a formidable missionary lady, a woman of unwavering conviction and confident authority, who engages him in a conversation filled with platitudes and clichés. He attempts to match her with his own banalities, leading to a mutual but hollow exchange of ideas, highlighting the absurdity of their intellectual posturing.

## Themes in this chapter

### Hypocrisy and Moral Compromise

The missionary lady's self-assured charity and the narrator's ironic participation in a dialogue of empty clichés expose the hypocrisy beneath their moral and intellectual posturing.

### Colonial Ennui and Isolation

The setting 'so far away from civilisation' and the trivial, disconnected conversation underscore the isolation and ennui of colonial life.

## Character check-ins

### The Stranger

The narrator, who engages in a conversation of platitudes with the missionary lady.

## Key lines

> She was certainly fifty, but a life of convictions harassed by never a doubt had left her face unwrinkled.

At fifty, her unwavering certainty had kept her face smooth and unlined.

_Introduces the missionary lady's unshakeable confidence._

> Her conversation had the admirable volubility of a politician at the end of an electioneering campaign.

She talked as fluently and tirelessly as a politician finishing a campaign.

_Highlights her relentless, practiced speech._

> I confess that I was staggered, but I determined to do my part. It was only civil.

I was taken aback but resolved to match her platitudes out of politeness.

_Shows the narrator's ironic compliance in the absurd exchange._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters/xxxix-the-missionary-lady
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/on_a_chinese_screen_se/chapters