The Bloody Bed Sheets Symbol Analysis

The bloody bed sheets, stained with Jules Peterson’s blood, symbolize the disposable nature of black lives in Tender is the Night. After Abe carelessly accuses an innocent black man of a crime he didn’t commit, Rosemary discovers Jules, a black man, murdered on her hotel bed. She rushes to find Dick and they quickly discover that the bed sheets are stained with his blood. Dick begins immediately to remove the covers and swap them for fresh ones, thus protecting Rosemary from any involvement in the horrid affair. Dick is unconcerned with Peterson’s fate and disposes of the man’s dead body uncaringly in the hotel corridor.

For Nicole, however, the bloody bed sheets carry much more significance. The sight of them in her bathroom triggers a new mental breakdown, and she screams with “verbal inhumanity” at Dick for his callousness. Throughout Book One, it remains ambivalent as to whether Nicole knows of Dick’s affair with Rosemary or not, but here it is possible that she perceives Rosemary’s bloody bed sheets as a symbol of her lost virginity. By dumping Rosemary’s sullied bed covers in Nicole’s bathroom, therefore, Dick can be seen to choose the young starlet over his wife, hence throwing Nicole into an uncontrollable fit. Ultimately, the bed covers epitomize the carelessness of Jazz Age expatriates like Abe and Dick. Both men continue to hurt those around them through their reckless lifestyles, facing little to no consequences for the pain they cause others in the process.