Short Fiction · Chapter
Bed No. 29 explained
Captain Épivent, a handsome and celebrated officer in Rouen, enjoys a public affair with the beautiful Irma before being sent to war.
What happens
Captain Épivent, a handsome and celebrated officer in Rouen, enjoys a public affair with the beautiful Irma before being sent to war. Upon returning, he learns Irma is in a hospital's syphilis ward, bed 29. She reveals she was infected by Prussian soldiers and deliberately spread the disease to avenge herself. The Captain, horrified and disgusted, visits her briefly but is eager to leave.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Desire
The passionate but ultimately superficial affair between Captain Épivent and Irma, driven by public display and physical attraction.
Cruelty and Suffering
Irma's deliberate infection of Prussian soldiers as an act of revenge, and the Captain's visceral disgust at her diseased state.
Illusion vs. Reality
The contrast between Irma's former beauty and her current ravaged appearance; the Captain's romanticized memory versus the grim hospital reality.
Characters to notice
- Irma
The beautiful kept woman who becomes Captain Épivent's mistress; later found in the syphilis ward, bed 29, having deliberately infected Prussian soldiers.
- Guy de Maupassant
Author of the story, narrating the tale of Captain Épivent and Irma.
Key passages
“For my part, I would rather be a butcher than a soldier. Then if there’s blood on my table, it is the blood of beasts, at least. And he is useful, is the butcher; and the knife he carries has not killed men.”
The narrator prefers the honest work of a butcher to the killing done by soldiers.
Opening lines establish a critical view of militarism.
“Among the kept ladies of the town it was a struggle, a race, to see who would carry him off.”
The courtesans of Rouen competed to become Captain Épivent's lover.
Highlights the Captain's reputation as a conqueror of women.
“It was those beasts of Prussians. They took me almost by force and then poisoned me.”
Irma blames the Prussian soldiers for infecting her with syphilis.
Reveals the cause of her illness and her motive for revenge.
“No, the desire to avenge myself came to me when I should have broken away from it. And I poisoned them too, all, all that I could.”
Irma deliberately spread the disease to as many Prussian soldiers as possible.
Shows her transformation from victim to agent of vengeance.