The Blue Hotel As a recently published book on the works of Stephen Crane, it is somewhat disappointing to see some of the key moments left out by Stanley Wertheim's critique in A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia of the short story "The Blue Hotel ." Wertheim leaves out a key point in the characterization of the Swede and in the plot of the story. This happens at the point in the story where Patrick Scully convinces the Swede to stay in his hotel despite his fears and inhibitions about the Wild West by making him drink and not worry. This in itself is a crucial event because the Swede believes he is about to be killed or poisoned as Scully pulls out the bottle. Another event comes later when Wertheim simply glosses over the Swede's murder. Both of these events are based on extreme emotional feelings and actions that cause the reader to question the motive behind the Swede's actions and his characterization. Wertheim does a great job of bringing out other points in the novel. The setting he states is "a seedy prairie town in northern Nebraska" with the fictional feel of a dangerous Western setting. The blizzard that occurs later in the story, Wertheim continues, represents a "hostile manifestation of nature" that ironically does not kill the Swede. When Wertheim finishes his critique with the final section of the story, he introduces several arguments about the guilt of the Swedes' deaths and the player's punishment. He introduces the question of the "affirmation of the Howellsian doctrine of complicity" and the "existential necessity of human brotherhood in a vital society"..