Rhodesia appears as the home of Doctor South’s daughter, a farmer’s wife whose separation from her father has lasted for years. Though the place is mentioned only briefly, it marks the distance behind Doctor South’s family estrangement and his growing attachment to Philip.

The Family Connection

Doctor South tells Philip that his daughter married a farmer in Rhodesia. He has quarrelled with her husband, and his daughter took her husband’s side; she has not returned to England for ten years, and Doctor South has never seen her children. Rhodesia is thus associated with a family bond left unrepaired across distance and time.

Significance in Doctor South’s Story

The mention helps explain Doctor South’s loneliness. He feels as if he had never had a wife or child, and the affection that separation from his daughter had extinguished settles, unexpectedly, on Philip. The distant family life in Rhodesia stands in contrast to this new connection: as Philip prepares to leave, Doctor South accompanies him to the station and feels depressed. The novel supplies no further description of Rhodesia itself; its significance here is relational, as the far-off setting of the daughter whose absence shapes Doctor South’s late-life solitude.