Домашнее чтение Уильям Сомерсет Моэм «Узорный покров» главы XXXIX - XLIII, 1 (Школьные сочинения)

1. Give a short summary of each chapter.

Chapter 39 started with the scene when Waddington sitting in the chair with a glass of whisky was speaking to Kitty about the convent. He told her about the Mother Superior who as he said was a very remarkable woman. Waddington was asked to inform Kitty that if she didn’t mind a journey through the centre of the epidemic, she would pay them a visit. Then Kitty asked Waddington about his religion, he admitted that he didn’t believe in anything very much. Waddington told her about the conditions under which the nuns worked and lived. There were six of them who survived. The first nuns came to Mei-Tan-Fu from France. Then he started overthinking about how French women sacrificed their calmness and peace.

Chapter 40 told us about their trip to the convent.

Kitty was being carried in the chair. Kitty noticed that the rhythm of the city had been stopped. There was hardly a man in the street, many of the shops were closed. People threw out garbage in the street so there was a terrible smell of it. As soon as they arrived Waddington advised her not to expect anything very grand because they were miserably poor. A Chinese girl opened the door and led them into a little room. In a moment a nun came in. Waddington called her Soeur St Joseph. She was pleased to talk with Waddington who gaily chit-chatted. Kitty was amazed by her because she had imagined nuns as women who were always cold and severe.

The next chapter started with the appearance of the Mother Superior. She slightly gave Kitty a nod. It was a great pleasure for her to make the acquaintance of the wife of Walter. He called him ‘our brave and good doctor’. She had ordered them some tea and apologized that it would be served in Chinese fashion. While they were talking the Mother Superior also emphasized that Waddington had taken them out of trouble many times, when they had no opportunity to feed their orphans. Their conversation was quite friendly but at the same time, it wasn’t trivial because at that very moment there were dozens of people suffering and dying in the next rooms. Kitty kept silent while scanning the Mother Superior. There was a huge extract in which Kitty’s thoughts were described. Her feelings were not clear, she felt both fear and sympathy for her.

In chapter 42 the Mother Superior asked Kitty to have a walk around the convent. She told, that Colonel Y had insisted on putting sick soldiers there, so they had to transfer the orphans to another place. They passed through different rooms. In the first one, there was a group of Chinese girls working at sewing. Since they were busy with the work it took their minds off the danger. In the other rooms, there were younger girls and only tiny children. The Mother Superior treated them with tenderness, while Kitty felt nothing but squeamishness. The Mother Superior told her that parents wished to get rid of them, so the nuns gave them a few cash for every child. Otherwise, they just murdered them. They passed to a door with the table ‘Infirmary’ hung on it. Kitty was terrified by the painful screaming behind the door. The Mother Superior told her that because of the lack of the beds they had to put two patients in one.

In the last chapter, Kitty and the Mother Superior were in the chapel. The nuns were very proud of it.

ut Kitty didn’t find it beautiful. It was vulgar for her. While the Mother Superior praised it as though it was a masterpiece. It was a place of mental rehabilitation. In the next room, Kitty saw four tiny, naked infants. It seemed to her that they weren’t humans, but small weird animals. When Kitty was about to go back, the Mother Superior with a great hope asked her to look after Walter, who as she said had been sent to them by Heaven.