Только что нашла, мнение с англоязычного сайта :http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20090501091248AAPtoF0The clue might be in the title. Annette is France or more broadly all victims of violence. Her body is violated, her emotions are tampered with, she is desperate for food. Yet more important than her body, her health, her life itself is her integrity. Nothing about her is conquered apart from her body and she is more than her body. France is defeated and occupied but not conquered since France is more than the land it occupies it is the spirit of Joan of Arc, of Charlemagne, of Louis the Bold and the Emperor Napoleon. Remember Maugham lived in France and wrote the story after the Germans forced him to flee. Basically his main idea was that the Germans would get what was coming to them because their violence produced hatred in response.