By Dorothy Nixon

"The Soul of Man wanders through the ultimate regions of the universe and she, 'woman' seeks to imprison it in the circle of her account book." By repeating and reframing this paradigm, Maugham endorsed many misogynist suppositions of the time whose advocates ranged from Kipling to D.H. Lawrence. Christoper Lane ...The Ruling Passion...page 143.

I put these words "I think he is a misogynist" in my grandmother's mouth, as a device to show her 'competing' with my mother for attention. My grandmother, educated at a Quaker co-education school, clearly preferred the company of men. All very ironic. Also, rather ironically, I adored Maugham's short stories as as youth. The craftsmanship is impeccable. Maugham's famous story "The Letter" was taken from a scandal of the time in the news. Indeed, a Canadian I know, claims her grandfather, a journalist out there at the time, told him of it.Scholars have only recently taken to studying the experiences of colonial women. Until now, Maugham's version has held sway.

I hope my 'play' helps demystify the colonial women's experience a bit, and erase some of those long-held misogynist suppositions. At one point I put this line in my grandmother's mouth "women are better used to making do in confined spaces" which is my way of countering that Soul of Man statement.