Burmese Days

Maxwell’s death causes a profound shock in Kyauktada, and indeed all of Burma. No one misses Maxwell personally, as he had no friends and was not particularly liked, but club members are furious that “the unforgivable had happened – A WHITE MAN had been killed” (211). The only person happy about the matter is U Po Kyin, since he believes it will make people take his staged rebellion more seriously.

The funeral takes places the next morning and all the Europeans attend, except Verrall, who is practicing polo. Flory lingers after the service, hoping Elizabeth will speak to him, but she ignores him. In fact, all of the Europeans are now ignoring Flory since “the murder had made his disloyalty of last night seem somehow horrible” (212). Ellis demands collective revenge against the Burmese, but Westfield complains that their hands are too tied by law these days. Westfield and Verrall go out to arrest someone for the murder, while Ellis goes for a walk, fuming and wishing the natives would give him a pretext to kill them. Five teenage boys come down the road and smile as they pass Ellis, and so Ellis violently assaults one of them. The other boys try to fight back, but they are no match for Ellis, so they run to get rocks. Ellis hurls racist insults at the boys from the veranda in his office while they throw rocks at him, but the boys vanish when constables arrive. The injured boy is taken to a Burmese doctor, who accidentally blinds him while attempting to heal his injured eye.

Everyone except Westfield and Verrall meets at the club that evening. Flory continues to be shunned, so he sulks in the library. As nobody wants to return home, Ellis suggests having their dinners brought to the club so they can play bridge throughout the evening. As they sit down for cards, there are several loud bangs on the roof. A large crowd of villagers has assembled outside with weapons. On the path are twenty men with knives and sticks, and beyond the fence is an enormous crowd of two thousand people. Their leader steps forward and demands that Ellis be handed over—the boy he assaulted has gone blind, so they demand to punish him since they have no hope of getting justice in the courts. Macgregor insults them, “using his first oath in many years” (219), and the villagers respond by hurling volleys of stones. One rock smashes Macgregor’s glasses and everyone retreats inside, barring the door. Macgregor tells everyone that the Military Police will make their way through the crowd and rescue them, but Ellis complains that they should simply massacre the crowd with their rifles. A rock cuts Elizabeth’s arm and she begins crying and clinging tightly to Flory, much to his surprise. Flory volunteers to jump into the river and swim down to the police lines to get help. Macgregor tells Flory that once he gets to the police, he should order them to open fire and massacre the natives.

Flory jumps down from the veranda. The natives, seeing that he is not Ellis, let him leave. The river current carries Flory downstream until he pulls himself out near the police lines, and sees that the massive and dense crowd of natives has engulfed both the military and civil police. The crowd immediately swallows up Flory, but he manages to get clear and orders the police to get their rifles and ammunition. However, in defiance of Macgregor’s order, he commands the police to shoot above the heads of the crowd, rather than into it. As they fire, the crowd disperses in a panic.

Veraswami emerges from the crowd and hugs Flory, telling him that he has been trying to restrain the crowd from violence. U Po Kyin also emerges, also claiming heroism, “hurrying forth to grab a share of any credit that might be going” (226). Kyin angers Flory by smugly thanking him for helping put down the rebellion. The three men walk back to the club, while the weather rapidly changes and the rains finally begin.

The following day, the town is quiet. Except for a handful of people taken prisoner during the melee, the natives all have airtight alibis and there are no other arrests. Though the club’s gardens have been trampled, none of the houses has been looted and none of the Europeans has been injured. Westfield and Verrall arrive early in the morning, “bringing Maxwell’s murderers under arrest; or at any rate, bringing two people who would presently be hanged for Maxwell’s murder” (227). Westfield is disappointed he has missed an opportunity to kill a native.

Meanwhile, the rain has been unending and Flory goes outside naked to enjoy “the healing power of rainwater” (227). He dresses and goes to see Veraswami, who is overjoyed that Flory’s actions have made him, rather than U Po Kyin, the hero of the district. Flory’s friendship now elevates Veraswami’s prestige and his membership in the club seems a certainty. At the club, Elizabeth greets Flory warmly, having forgiven him due to his heroism. Flory kisses her, knowing she is no longer angry with him. Inside, Flory is welcomed as a hero and Macgregor praises Veraswami’s heroism during the riot, assuring his election at the next meeting. That evening, Flory sets out for his camp in the jungle. He no longer feels threatened by Verrall, since “young men of Verrall’s stamp do not marry penniless girls met casually at obscure Indian stations” (231). Flory realizes that Verrall is simply using Elizabeth and that when he abandons her, she will return to Flory.

U Po Kyin is furious at being taken unawares by the real riot and having to start his campaign against Veraswami over again. He continues to send anonymous letters accusing the doctor of various crimes, but Macgregor now believes Veraswami credible and ignores them. Kyin calls a war council of Ma Kin, Ba Sein, and a young man named Hla Pe. He angrily tells them that they must get rid of Flory since Veraswami is untouchable as long as he has Flory’s protection. U Po Kyin thinks silently for two minutes and then becomes so happy he almost starts dancing. He describes his secret plan, causing the others to burst out laughing: “The plan was really too good to be resisted. It was genius” (233).

The rainstorms continue. Verrall and Elizabeth continue their evening rides whenever the rains are not too strong, but their relationship has not progressed any further. One day, Elizabeth learns that Verrall is due to leave soon, but does not learn when. Elizabeth cannot ask Verrall directly about his plans, so she waits in anxious suspense. Verrall does not show up at the club, and Elizabeth does not see him for two days. She waits every evening at the club, hoping Verrall will arrive to say goodbye and ask her to marry him. Meanwhile, Lackersteen continues to make ever more sexually aggressive advances toward Elizabeth.

On the third evening, Elizabeth hears footsteps approaching the door but is disappointed to see a jovial young man no one has seen before. The man has just arrived to take over for Verrall, who is currently boarding his train to leave. Elizabeth and Mrs. Lackersteen bolt out of the club and call for their rickshaw to go to the station. Elizabeth is in agony, hoping that there was some mistake and that Verrall wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye. They arrive just after the train has left, departing earlier than scheduled at Verrall’s demand so that he could avoid his local creditors. The two women return home, and Mrs. Lackersteen remarks happily that Flory will be returning from the jungle tomorrow.

Flory meets Elizabeth in the club, and she confirms that Verrall has left. Flory moves to kiss her, but she is crying, so he thinks it is not the right time to propose. The Europeans gather that evening for the six-weekly church service. Flory does not pay much attention to the service, thinking instead of Elizabeth who is sitting across the aisle from him, with his birthmark facing her. Flory dreams of their married life together—how she would greet him when he came home, how they would walk in the jungle together, and how she would make his home into something better. Flory resolves to buy a piano as a symbol of his settled, civilized life, even though he cannot play.

A scream interrupts the sermon. A ragged Ma Hla May has come into the church and is screaming at Flory, demanding money. She shouts out a detailed account of her relationship with Flory and begins tearing her clothes off. Missionaries Francis and Samuel drag her outside, but the damage has been done: “the scene so violent, so squalid, that everyone was upset by it” (243). Elizabeth does not understand the words that May has spoken, but the meaning behind them is abundantly clear to her. When she looks across the aisle at Flory, his birthmark is now revolting ugly to her and she feels physically sick while looking at it. U Po Kyin orchestrated the whole scene, coaching Ma Hla May on what to say.

The priest ends the sermon quickly and Flory runs outside. As everyone leaves the church, Flory comes up to Elizabeth. He tries to explain himself, to apologize, and to ask her forgiveness, but Elizabeth acts distant and pretends that there was nothing ever between them. Flory pleads for her to stay with him, grabbing her wrists, but Elizabeth pulls away and states she does not ever intend to marry him. Flory begs, telling Elizabeth she is the only one who can save him from his horrible life, even promising they would never have to be physically intimate. Elizabeth states again she will never marry him and Flory begins crying. Flory lets go of her, and Elizabeth runs away from him. Elizabeth realizes that it was not what Flory did that turned her against him, but rather “the devilish ugliness of his disfigured face in that moment. It was, finally, the birthmark that had damned him” (248). Elizabeth despairs at having to return to the Lackersteens, her disapproving aunt and lecherous uncle, but now despises Flory so much that she would rather face death or spinsterhood than be with him.

At home, Flory ignores the dinner Ko S’la has laid out for him and shuts himself in his bedroom. Flory decides that “the half-comfortable lethargy in which he had lived was broken” (249) and that his life is no longer endurable. Someone will eventually marry Elizabeth, which he is sure he will be unable to bear. Flory retrieves his pistol, loads it, and calls his dog Flo into the room. The dog stops at the door, realizing something is wrong, but Flory drags her in. Flory shoots Flo in the head, and then shoots himself in the heart.

Ko S’la rushes into the bedroom and sees the two bodies. He sends Ba Pe for the doctor and drags Flory’s body onto the bed when the other servants refuse to touch it. Veraswami arrives and weeps at the sight of Flory’s corpse. The doctor regains his composure and wraps Flory in a sheet, noticing that “with death, the birthmark had faded immediately, so that it was no more than a faint grey stain” (251). Veraswami orders Ko S’la to bury the dog, telling him that he will inform Macgregor that Flory accidentally shot himself while cleaning his gun, since Veraswami will not have his friend remembered as a man who committed suicide.

Before catching his train the next evening, the priest gives Flory a quick burial service. Veraswami makes sure that the official cause of death is ruled an accident, which is also how Flory’s tombstone describes it. However, all the townspeople know that it was suicide—a common occurrence: “Probably no one, except Elizabeth, was much surprised at what had happened. There is a rather large number of suicides among the Europeans in Burma, and they occasion very little surprise” (252).

Flory’s death assures Veraswami’s ruin. Within three months, U Po Kyin succeeds in convincing the Europeans that the doctor is shok de, or untrustworthy. Veraswami is demoted and sent to a backwater hospital in Mandalay. There, he joins a second-rate club frequented by natives and only one European—a dull, alcoholic, Glaswegian electrician, who doesn’t meet Veraswami’s white-supremacy ideals: “The doctor, who will never believe that a white man can be a fool, tries almost every night to engage him in what he still calls ‘cultured conversation’; but the results are very unsatisfying” (253).

Ko S’la receives 400 rupees in Flory’s will and opens a teashop in the bazaar. However, the business fails due to the constant fighting between his two wives. He and Ba Pe have to work as servants again, but because during their long time in Flory’s service they became lazy, they are fired from one job after another. Ma Hla May works at a brothel in Mandalay where she is paid poorly and beaten frequently.

U Po Kyin is elected to the club over Ellis’ protests, and a few months later, he is promoted to Deputy Commissioner. He retires after a year, but makes 20,000 rupees in bribes alone. Shortly after retirement, U Po Kyin is summoned to Rangoon to be decorated for his loyal service and for his actions in crushing the rebellion. He decides it is time to prepare for the next life by beginning his project to construct pagodas. However, three days after the ceremony, U Po Kyin dies of apoplexy. Ma Kin imagines he will either be tortured in hell or return as a rat or frog.

Elizabeth decides to return to England penniless and unmarried, when Macgregor unexpectedly proposes. Elizabeth accepts and takes to her new position quickly: She terrorizes her servants, doesn’t learn any Burmese, memorizes the Civil List, and gives dinner parties where she puts the wives of lesser officials in their place—“she fills with complete success the position for which Nature had designed for her from the first, that of a burra memsahib” (255).