Cheating In Stephen Crane's The Blue Hotel

“The Blue Hotel” by Stephen Crane takes place at the Palace Hotel near a train station in Nebraska. The proprietor of this hotel, that is strategically painted to attract customers, is an Irishman named Pat Scully. Every morning Scully goes to the train station to “work his seduction on any man that he might see wavering, gripsack in hand”. One winter morning he collars three passengers, a “shaky and quick-eyed Sweden”, a cowboy and a “little silent man from the East”. Upon arrival, the guest meet Scully’s son Johnnie and a farmer playing a card game called high-five. The guests are then offered water and a towel and have their luggage taken upstairs. The Sweden immediately begins to act frightened. The Sweden joins Johnnie, Bill and Mr. Blanc in a card game and gets suspicious because of the cowboy whanging the latter on the table after winning, he says “I suppose there has been a good many men killed in this room”. …show more content…
Scully manages to talk him into staying and the Sweden returns downstairs with a completely different demeanor. All seems well until the guests decide to play another game of cards which results in the Sweden accusing Johnnie of cheating. After agreeing, the two men go outside to fight the issue out leading to Johnnie getting beat up and the Sweden leaving the hotel proud and boastful. He makes it down to a local saloon where he drinks a couple of drinks and meets a gambler whom he irritates and picks another fight with. Surprisingly, the gambler stabs the Sweden, killing him. Later the cowboy and the Easterner meet to talk about the tragic event and come to the conclusion that Johnnie truly was cheating and that in fact they all have something to do with the Sweden’s