The leopard skin represents Elizabeth Lackersteen’s perception of her suitor John Flory, which is initially positive, but which is ruined over time, in large part by the schemes of corrupt Burmese official U Po Kyin. When Flory shoots the leopard on a hunting trip with Elizabeth, she is tremendously impressed by what she perceives as his manliness and skill. Afterward, they come to a tacit understanding that he will propose marriage to her, and Elizabeth plans to say yes. After Elizabeth learns that Flory has had a Burmese mistress (Ma Hla May), she jilts him before he can propose. Flory tries to create an opportunity to apologize and explain by bringing her the leopard skin, which he sent to have cured by an expert at the local jail—but when he goes to retrieve the cured skin, it has been ruined. The skin’s ruination symbolizes the ruination of the relationship between Flory and Elizabeth.
Interestingly, the reason that the curing process ruined the skin is that the jail’s skin-curing expert had recently escaped with help from the corrupt official U Po Kyin, who eventually destroys Elizabeth and Flory’s relationship beyond repair. He pays Ma Hla May to loudly and graphically confront Flory over their former sexual relationship while he and Elizabeth, who have temporarily reconciled, are in church. Thus, the leopard skin both represents Elizabeth’s ruined perception of Flory and foreshadows the role that U Po Kyin will play in Elizabeth and Flory’s final, definitive fight over Ma Hla May.
Leopard Skin Quotes in Burmese Days
If only he would always talk about shooting, instead of about books and Art and that mucky poetry! In a sudden burst of admiration she decided that Flory was really quite a handsome man, in his way. He looked so splendidly manly, with his pagri-cloth shirt open at the throat, and his shorts and puttees and shooting boots! And his face, lined, sunburned, like a soldier’s face. He was standing with his birth-marked cheek away from her.
He unrolled it on the table they had just picked up. It looked so shabby and miserable that he wished he had never brought it. She came close to him to examine the skin, so close that her flower-like cheek was not a foot from his own, and he could feel the warmth of her body. So great was his fear of her that he stepped hurriedly away. And in the same moment she too stepped back with a wince of disgust, having caught the foul odour of the skin. It shamed him terribly. It was almost as though it had been himself and not the skin that stank.