imagine yourself to be the valet who entered the speaker's room in the morning. Write a short paragraph on what happened when you went into the room.
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Answer:
An Uncomfortable Bed
Have you ever been in a situation where you had the feeling that something bad was going to happen? Maybe it was a bad report card that you knew you'd be in trouble for when you got home. Perhaps you had a minor fender bender in your spouse's car and were just waiting for them to discover the dent. Whatever it was, as the old saying goes, you were waiting for the other shoe to drop.
''Waiting for the other shoe to drop'' means you're anticipating something - usually something bad - happening. Much like the narrator of our story, ''An Uncomfortable Bed,'' by Guy de Maupassant, you're prepared for the worst. Our narrator, however, prepares for the worst ... and nothing happens! Nothing except his own suspicions that get the best of him.
Characters & Setting
When the story opens in a chateau in Picardy, France, we're introduced to a group of friends who have gotten together for hunting season. The narrator provides us with one critical detail about these friends: these guys are jokesters who like to play practical jokes on each other and everyone else. This is a fact that the narrator doesn't object to because he tells us, ''My friends were fond of practical joking, as all my friends are. I do not care to know any other sort of people.''
Plot & Synopsis
Upon the narrator's arrival at the chateau, we discover that he is immediately distrustful of his friends' welcome. The pack of friends engage in some hunting, but all the while, the narrator is waiting for the other shoe to drop: ''Look out, old ferret! They have something in preparation for you,'' he says.
Dinnertime arrives and, still, the narrator is suspicious. His friends' mirth (or amusement) is too great, the narrator concludes. Surely the friends are up to something. Yet, the evening continues without incident. But that doesn't stop the narrator from examining every word uttered during their time together. He's even suspicious of the servants in the residence.
Bedtime Comes
At last, the hour for bedtime arrives, and each friend prepares to retire for the evening. The narrator, already in his room, hears laughter and whispering in the hall. Surely, now, the practical joke is close to happening.
The narrator looks around the room: from the curtains to the armchair. He lights every candle in the room, fearful that his single candle will go out and that he'll be the subject of a great joke in the dark.
The bed, the narrator decides, looks particularly suspicious: ''I was going perhaps to receive a cold shower-bath from overhead, or perhaps, the moment I stretched myself out, to find myself sinking under the floor with my mattress,'' he offers.
To thwart any possible practical joke attempts, the narrator decides to pull the mattress off of the bed's frame and position it in the center of the room. It's here that he settles in for the night and eventually falls asleep.
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Additional Activities
''An Uncomfortable Bed'': Further Exploration
This lesson explained the important elements of Guy de Maupassant's ''An Uncomfortable Bed,'' a short story about expectations and irony. Use the following activities to learn more.
Character Analysis
As this lesson stated, the protagonist of this story knows that his friends like to play practical jokes. He does not, however, think that this is a bad thing; in fact, it is something he thinks is an important quality in all of his personal relationships. Knowing this information, why do you think that he puts himself to so much trouble to avoid his friends' practical jokes? Write a paragraph or essay explaining what you think this character's motivations and personality traits are.
Irony
This story is centred around irony: in attempting to avoid his friends' practical jokes, the main character goes to great trouble and ends up suffering misfortune anyway. For example, think about how you would define irony as it is used in this story. Can you think of any other stories that use irony as a major plot point? Write an essay or detailed list comparing and contrasting this story's use of irony with irony in another story.
Write Your Own
Now that you understand the themes, characters, and plot points in ''An Uncomfortable Bed,'' try writing your own short story in which a character's suspicions get the best of them. You can keep your tone relatively light, as in this story, or tell a darker, more serious story about a more serious mistake that a character makes.
Explanation: