Do you guys think it is implied that the woman and the man are arrested at the end or that they were just run off the property?
"At the end of life, we will be judged by love" ST John of the Cross
I believe they were just run off the property.
shareMy vote is "arrested."
The Hayes office (or whatever) always deemed that a malefactor was punished for his misdeeds. Hence, Bette gets knifed by the Eurasian woman. Who, in turn, is arrested for her crime. And so forth.
But it's sort of neat they way they left it unclear. Like maybe the two of them just got sharp cracks on their noggins with a hunk of bamboo and were then allowed to wander off unmolested.
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The play ends with Joyce telling Crosbie that he won't be able to buy the plantation in Sumatra because he unknowingly spent all of his savings on the letter. Joyce has fronted his own money from his children's tuition fund and he needs it back asap. After Joyce reads the letter he asks what it means and Leslie tells him that it means that Hammond was her lover. Crosbie understandably freaks out and leaves the room sobbing. It is clear that the Crosbie's cannot leave and buy the new plantation. Joyce tells Leslie that Crosbie will forgive her since he is so much in love and that her retribution can be to do good by loving him in return. Leslie dramatically closes the play by stating that her retribution is that she still loves the man she killed with all her heart.
The play is much more graphic about Leslie's depiction of the imagined attack and she states that Hammond tried to "rape" her instead of the movie version: "make love."
Maugham also decided to change the the playing version and instead of Leslie's speech about what really happened, he had a flashback scene with Hammond showing up and the conversation they had. Leslie really throws herself at his feet, which really is so dramatic since to most every one else she is so dignified. So the play really gets much more into the meat of the degradation that goes along with obsession.
Other notable aspects of the play include Joyce going alone with Ong to get the letter. In this scene the racism and hypocrisy of Colonial English is laid much more bare. Hammond's new mistress is not "Eurasian" (whatever that means), she is Chinese and she speaks Chinese and Malay. The play gets into how shocked the community was that Hammond was "lowering himself" by living in sin with a Chinese mistress. Joyce tells Crosbie before he shows him the letter that had the letter been produced with evidence Leslie would still have only gotten a manslaughter charge since the jury would definitely still believe that Hammond had tried to rape her. I mean hey, he had taken up with a Chinese so he must also be a rapist, right? RACISM. While Joyce and Ong are waiting for the mistress to come with the letter, the guy smoking dope tries to hawk his tea, jade, etc. to Joyce who tells him twice to "go to hell." Joyce also makes clear his disgust over the "natives" taking advantage of the rich white people to get them to pay for the evidence; when really, what they are doing is far worse. They are purchasing the acquittal of a woman who not only murdered a man in a fit of passionate jealousy and rage but who then went on the smear the dead man's reputation by telling everyone with perfect calm that it was because he had tried to brutally rape her.
I prefer the ending that was played with the flashback of the scene with Hammond, so according the Maugham I am an "amateur" since that was his excuse given for taking out the 2nd long monologue.
To be clear: Maugham meant that amateurs benefit from published plays and so when the play was published he made sure that the played version with the flashback scene was added at the end of his original work. I misinterpreted.
I would like to add that the play makes much more profound the character of Ong Chi Seng. After the transaction has been made with the letter Joyce continues to condescend to Ong who uses an English idiom that Joyce questions as it refers to "Our Lord." Ong's reply beautifully displays Ong's intellectual superiority over Joyce to which Joyce ironically defers to albeit sarcastically:
Joyce:
I have been wondering how much you were going to get out of this, Ong Chi Seng.
Ong Chi Seng:
The labourer is worthy of his hire, as Our Lord said, sir.
Joyce:
I didn't know you were a Christian, Ong.
Ong Chi Seng:
I am not sir, to the best of my belief.
Joyce:
In that case he certainly isn't your Lord.
Ong Chi Seng
I was only making use of the common English idiom, sir. In point of fact, I am a disciple of the late Herbert Spencer. I have also been much influenced by Nietzsche, Shaw and Herbert G. Wells.
Joyce:
It is no wonder that I am no match for you.