summary of the terribly strange bed by wilkie collins!
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Explanation:
The narrator (Faulkner) is staying in Paris, after finishing his college education, and is exploring the amusements there. As a change from respectable establishments, he visits a low gambling house, where a variety of unsavoury characters are playing Rouge e Noir. He starts to win a great amount, which causes great interest and excitement among the other players. The atmosphere of the room, as a contrast to the respectable establishments he visited before, is powerfully described. This leads to a colourful depiction of a dissolute-looking elderly man, formerly a soldier in the French army, who encourages him to continue.
The narrator continues to win, until the bank is broken and playing ends. The old soldier advises him to keep his winnings safely tied in a handkerchief, and they drink champagne with the entire company. The old soldier brings coffee for them both, as the other players leave; he seems anxious that the narrator should not be drunk when he goes home with his winnings. The narrator feels giddy and the old soldier advises him to stay there overnight, as it would not be safe for him to go home.
The bedroom where he is to stay, on the first floor, is a peaceful contrast to the atmosphere below, but he is aware of possible dangers. He locks the door of his room and lies on the bed, which is a four-poster bed, with his winnings under the pillow. He cannot sleep. He tries to distract his mind by studying the items in the room, which include a wash-stand, chairs and a picture on the wall; thus a convincing image of the room is given to the reader. The moonlight in the room brings to his mind a moonlit evening after a picnic years ago, which he thought he had forgotten.
This recollection is brought to an end when he becomes aware that the top of the bed is slowly descending. He moves away as the canopy, which contains a mattress, approaches and reaches the bed, evidently to suffocate the occupant. It is moved by a wooden screw which goes through the ceiling. After a few minutes the canopy gradually returns to its original position.
He realizes his coffee was drugged, but too strongly for him to sleep as intended. He escapes from the room, which is on the first floor, through the window and down a drainpipe. He goes to a prefecture of police, where a sub-prefect, who happens to be discussing a recent murder with colleagues, becomes quickly interested in the narrator's story. He returns with the sub-prefect and several assistants, who arrest the residents of the gambling house and investigate the machinery which moved the bed canopy.
The sub-prefect speculates that many individuals found drowned in the Seine were victims of the gambling house, with fake suicide notes. The old soldier was master of the gambling house; he is one of several later brought to justice.
"A Terribly Strange Bed" is a story that informs us about karma and how misleading and risky it tends to be.
Terribly strange bed
- The storyteller functions as a voyaging picture painter. The quest for his calling has driven him all through England, and has taken him two times to Scotland and once to Ireland.
- This lifestyle carries him into contact with a wide range of characters who recount to the storyteller various stories. "A Terribly Strange Bed" is one of them, told by Mr Faulkner. Soon after his graduation Mr Faulkner turned out to remain in Paris with his English companion. They were both young fellows and carried on with rather a natural life in the superb city of their visit. When they reached the point where the betting round of Rouge et Noir was played.
- Mr Faulkner had played at it in each city in Europe, without, be that as it may, the consideration or the wish to concentrate on the Theory of Chances. However, that night he was fortunate to such an extent that none could beat him. Mr Faulkner couldn't stop and consistently raised wagers and that caused him serious difficulties.
- The story depends for its adequacy predominantly on the quick and affordable account, with essentially no advancement of character or examination of thought process and moderately little portrayal. The storyteller's shocking acknowledgement that the bed is intended to kill him is graphically portrayed, and the account overall additions from the utilization of the first-individual strategy.
- As in quite a bit of Collins' fiction, the custom of gothic repulsiveness stories has been changed and trained so a significant component is the presence of horrifying evil and clever wrongdoings in typical, even worn-out settings.
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