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Chapter 12
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Burmese Days, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Imperialism and Hypocrisy
Status and Racism
Class, Gender, and Sex
Freedom of Speech, Self-Expression, and Loneliness
Friendship and Loyalty
Summary
Analysis
Flory visits Dr. Veraswami at the hospital, which is dirty and corruptly run despite Veraswami’s best efforts. Veraswami invites Flory for a drink at his house. On the way there, Flory apologizes for signing Ellis’s rude notice. Veraswami tries to cut him off, but Flory insists on explaining: no one forced him to sign the letter, but he failed under social pressure to conform with other white people instead of showing loyalty to his friend. When Flory promises not to do it again, Veraswami cuts him off, says it’s forgotten, and reveals to him the new trouble that’s brewing: Veraswami’s friends have told him that U Po Kyin is behind the growing peasant rebellion and plans to blame Veraswami for it.
By describing the hospital as corruptly run despite Veraswami’s best efforts, the novel hints that corruption in British Burma is not due to corrupt individuals but due to the exploitation and immorality inherent in the imperial project. Meanwhile, Flory’s apology to Veraswami makes clear that he knows exactly what he did wrong when he was disloyal to his friend—an apology that may foreshadow an improvement in Flory’s behavior in the future.
Themes
When Flory asks what Veraswami plans to do, Veraswami says he can only hope that his good reputation and “prestige” will carry him through—as “proof” and “evidence” aren’t really in play here. Uneasily, Flory realizes he has a duty to perform that he'd rather avoid. He asks Veraswami whether being elected to the club would help with “prestige.” When Veraswami admits it would, Flory offers to put forward Veraswami for membership at the next club meeting. When Veraswami tearfully thanks Flory, Flory says he can’t promise anything—Veraswami’s election will depend on the mood of Macgregor and the others.
That “proof” and “evidence” have no bearing on whether Veraswami’s reputation and government career will be ruined further emphasizes the corruption of the British imperial government in Burma. Meanwhile, the fact that “prestige” would protect Veraswami shows yet again the centrality of social status to the relationships in the novel. Finally, Flory’s offer to propose Veraswami for Club membership suggests that he wants to make up for his earlier disloyalty—indeed, that he feels he has an active moral responsibility to protect Veraswami because Veraswami is his friend.
Themes
Veraswami, still tearful, says that election to the club would solve all his problems—but he warns Flory to beware of U Po Kyin’s subtle and dangerous attacks. Then he explains to Flory that he would never presume to use the club if elected; membership would be more than enough for him. As Flory leaves Veraswami’s, he laughs to himself. He realizes that Elizabeth has inspired him to take this “small risk,” which he once would have avoided, by reminding him of England, “where thought is free” and the British aren’t always posing to intimidate non-white colonized people. He feels redeemed in an almost religious sense and terribly joyful.
Ironically, it is the racist Elizabeth who has inspired Flory to stand up to the racist norms of British imperial society according to which white men shouldn’t give loyalty and friendship to nonwhite men. The irony suggests that Flory fundamentally misunderstands England: he misremembers it as a place “where thought is free,” but Elizabeth—who represents England for him—is actually an unthinking proponent of imperialism and white supremacy. That is, Flory misattributes to England an ideal of free speech and free thought that may actually exist nowhere.
Themes
When Flory approaches his house, Ko S’la hurries out and informs him Ma Hla May is there. Flory pales, emphasizing his birthmark. Ma Hla May, disheveled, appears in the doorway and ushers Flory into the bedroom. When he asks her why she hasn’t gone home to her village, she demands to know how she can return to menial labor after having been a white man’s wife for two years—after he stole “her youth” and exposed her to “shame.” Flory, realizing Ma Hla May is “justified” in her outrage, offers her more money. She collapses to the floor, sobbing, and asks whether he thinks she only cares about money.
The emphasis on Flory’s birthmark when he realizes Ma Hla May has returned may foreshadow that their prior liaison will lead to further estrangement between Flory and the British community in Burma, as the birthmark has previously symbolized Flory’s social alienation. Meanwhile, Ma Hla May’s refusal to return to work after a high-status sexual relationship with a white man suggests an implicit parallel between her and Elizabeth: both feel that working would cause them to lose status, so both seek a high-status man to support them economically. Yet Ma Hla May has an additional “justified” complaint against Flory: he sexually exploited her in a highly unequal relationship when he was in his early 30s and she was perhaps 20—stealing her “youth” and then exposing her to “shame” when he was done with her. Unable to take back what he has done, Flory can only think to offer her more money.
Themes
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Flory tries to make Ma Hla May get up, but she wriggles along the floor, kisses his feet, and begs him to take her back, even as a “slave,” and even if he marries Elizabeth. Appalled, Flory lifts Ma Hla May onto her knees and says he’ll help her. Yet when she asks whether he’ll take her back, he refuses. She cries and hits her head against the floor. Counterintuitively, Flory is moved precisely because he knows she is devastated over losing status and money, not over love. “No sorrows are so bitter as those that are without a trace of nobility,” he thinks.
Here Ma Hla May intentionally debases herself in a desperate attempt to appeal to Flory’s sense of his own status and power, offering to be his “slave” and his adulterous mistress. It doesn’t work, perhaps because Flory is less invested in and more alienated from the economic, racial, and gender hierarchies that make him a desirable, high-status sexual partner to Ma Hla May. Yet he empathizes with Ma Hla May's "sorrow" precisely because they are “without a trace of nobility”—empathy that may foreshadow Flory suffering similar sorrows in the future.
Themes
Flory acknowledges that he has harmed Ma Hla May and promises to give her money, suggesting that she could open a shop and find a husband. He gives her 50 rupees. When she asks one more time whether he’ll take her back, he says he won’t. She leaves, deeply offended. Watching her go, Flory realizes that she’s quite right that he “robbed her of her youth.” He demands that, instead of breakfast, Ko S’la fetch him some gin.
After Flory first met Elizabeth, he refused morning alcohol—a sign that he was feeling hopeful and no longer need of a psychological numbing agent. After his confrontation with Ma Hla May, however, he returns to drinking in the morning. This regression suggests that it won't be as easy for him to escape his guilt at "rob[bing] her of her youth” and to gain a happy ending with Elizabeth as he initially thought.
Themes
