The Leather Funnel story
A young man talks with the uncle of the girl he wants to marry, and is told a strange story about a curious funnel made of leather. While falling asleep next to the device, he has a presentiment that it was once used as an instrument of torture. Directed by: Alan Gibson. Story by: David Ambrose, based on the story by Arthur Conan Doyle.
14 total · 2 choice · 5 major · 7 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| crackpot theory | choice | Arnaud posited that physical objects maintain records of key events associated with them that can be accessed through dreams. In this manner, the titular leather funnel was revealed to be a torture device of unspecified function. |
| the supernatural | choice | At the heart of the story there were two distinct supernatural concepts that were explicitly contraposed with scientific thinking: The idea that strong memories could be imprinted on nearby objects and later be re-experienced by someone dreaming nearby; and the idea that an evildoer, perhaps by appealing to Satan, could be reincarnated in order to finish their wicked purpose. |
| greedy heir | major | Veronique alleged that her uncle was making up fibs in order to ruin her love prospects because he would lose control of her inheritance the day she married. |
| parricide | major | Marie Madelaine D'Aubray was condemned to death after being found guilty of devil worship and the murders of her father and two of her three brothers. By leaving the third brother alive, Marie had failed in her bid end the line of D'Aubray family. She vowed to return after death to finish the job, and Veronique may have been her second coming. |
| romantic love | major | Stephen was besotted with Veronique and intended to propose to her. He changed his mind after learning, by supernatural means, that she was a reincarnated family annihilator destined to end her former father's line. Stephen evidently didn't care for the marriage prospects thence implied, for he departed the scene in terror. |
| torture | major | A mystery left deliberately unresolved was that of what precise use the leather funnel had had in Marie's torture. Arnaud, perhaps breaking the fourth wall, commented disdainfully of such personality types that would feel urged to know the specifics of inventive torture methods. |
| uncle and niece | major | The story turns on Arnaud trying to alert Stephen that Arnaud's niece, Veronique, who was Stephen's love interest, was the reincarnation of a prospective family annihilator. |
| capital punishment | minor | Marie Madelaine D'Aubray was condemned to death by slow torture after being found guilty of of devil worship and the murders of her father and two of her three brothers. |
| coping with being tortured | minor | Marie Madelaine D'Aubray, who was at defiant, lost her nerve after the executioner walked her into the torture chamber and she took sight of the instruments with which she was about to be tortured. |
| devil worship | minor | Marie Madelaine D'Aubray was convicted of devil worship, a charge which she did not deny. |