“The Feather Pillow” is a short story by Horacio Quiroga and is probably one of his best known. It’s about a newly married couple, particularly the wife, Alicia, whose health takes a bad turn after only three months. Although the husband and wife love each other, their relationship isn’t warm. Alicia’s illness is mysterious and fast-acting. Here’s a summary of “The Feather Pillow”.
“The Feather Pillow” Summary
Alicia, a timid young blonde woman, is newly married to Jordan, a rough and silent man. For three months, they live in bliss. They love each other, although Jordan doesn’t show it and Alicia is more restrained herself in response. Their house is bare and white, with an unpleasant coldness. Alicia waits for Jordan to get home in the evenings, and doesn’t do much herself.
Alicia gets thin. She never recovers from a light bout of influenza and her health deteriorates. One afternoon, while Jordan helps her walk in the garden, he touches her head tenderly. She bursts into tears and they hold each other a long time.
The next morning Alicia feels faint and the doctor is called. He orders complete rest. The next day she’s worse, and it’s obvious she’s headed for death. She dozes all day in her lit bedroom. Jordan spends his time pacing in the lit drawing-room and occasionally in the bedroom.
Alicia starts having hallucinations, often of a crouching human-form, and stares wide-eyed at the carpet. One night she calls out to Jordan in terror and screams more when he appears before regaining her senses.
The doctor returns but can’t offer any hope. Alicia’s life is bleeding away inexplicably. Jordan is overwhelmed with hopelessness. Alicia’s hallucinations and weakness are worse in the evenings. She worsens at night and stays bad during the day.
It feels like there’s a heavy weight on her. She can hardly even move her head. She doesn’t want anyone touching the bed. She sees monsters dragging themselves toward the bed and settling on it.
Alicia loses consciousness and raves in her delirium for two days. The only sounds are her voice and Jordan’s pacing steps. Finally, Alicia dies.
While stripping the empty bed, a servant notices blood marks on the pillow that look like punctures on each side of the indentation. Holding it up to the light, the servant drops it in fear. It’s very heavy. Jordan takes it to the dining room table and slashes it open. Under the feathers is a living, viscous, swollen monster with hairy legs.
Each night, it had applied its proboscis to Alicia’s temples and syphoned her blood. Once she became confined to her bed, it only took five days to drain all the life from her. These creatures are normally very small. Under favorable conditions they can grow quite large. They seem to thrive on human blood and are sometimes found in feather pillows.
I hope this summary of “The Feather Pillow” by Horacio Quiroga was helpful.
