Fear in Crane's The Blue Hotel Stephen Crane's "The Blue Hotel" is, according to Daniel Weiss, "an intensive study in fear." The story uses a game to show how fear reveals itself. He also discusses internal fears as opposed to fears existing in reality and the ways in which they generate each other in this tale. Weiss begins by pointing out how Crane used the stereotypical 1890s American West as a setting. The Swede arrives at the Blues Hotel with the belief that he will witness, if not be involved in, robberies and murders. The Swede already had internal fears about the West and when he was invited to participate in a friendly game of cards with Johnnie and the other guests of the Blue Hotel, his fears increased. When Scully calms the Swede's nerves by giving him something to drink, the Swede undergoes a complete transformation and becomes what he considers a Westerner. Drinking, according to Weiss, brings the Swede back to his original fears, but this time he is not afraid, he is "cannibalistic", devours his opponents and becomes very aggressive. He began to "beat on board" and eventually accused Johnnie of cheating. Weiss states that the card game was a "benevolent way for him to dispose of his aggressions in a harmless manner." However, when Johnnie began to cheat, the reality of crime and gambling prevailed and "cheating restored gambling to the world of outlaws, professional gamblers and gunmen." After the two got into a fight and the Swede triumphed, the Swede went to the local saloon where he started a fight and was killed by a professional gambler. The Swede was feeling a thrill of power and liberation when he ordered the other men in the bar to drink with him. When he is stabbed, the Swede returns to his previous attitude as a victim of the West. As for the "fear" in the story, Weiss says "The Blue Hotel" deals with paranoid delusions. The Swede goes from “cautious apprehension” to panic and “passive acceptance of annihilation,” to becoming an aggressor and pursuer, and then regressing to being persecuted again. It moves through these stages throughout the story and within the framework of the "game". Weiss writes that to avoid being hurt by his "pursuer", the Swede turns into the pursuer. Moving from a state of panic to a manic state, the Swede masters his feelings of self-worth, alienation and death..