The text I’m going to give a summary of is a play “Dangerous corner”. Its author is an
outstanding English writer John Boynton Priestly. It is devoted to the importance of honesty and
trust in relationships between people.
At the beginning of the story 4 women, Miss M, Betty, Freda and Olwen, are listening for
the play “The sleeping dog” on the radio. Then their husbands and friends, Robert, Gordon and
Stanton, enter the room and the start discussing the play. Olwen compares the sleeping dog with
the truth and then everyone shares their opinion if it’s healthy to disturb the dog or to reveal the
truth or not. Robert insists that the truth should be revealed, Betty says that there is nothing bad
in fibbing, Stanton denies the necessity of revealing the truth, bc it may be as harmful as
skidding round the corner at sixty. Olwen distinguishes 2 types of truth, the real one, which is
everything without missing a little thing, and half-truth, which simply gives you facts and
nothing about the person’s thought and feelings about them.
Then Freda, Robert’s wife, offers a cigarette to her guests and it turns out that the musical
box, where the cigarettes were, belonged to Robert’s brother, Martin, who committed suicide 6
month ago. And during the discussion of the box, we find out that Freda and Olwen visited
Martin the evening he died. Discouraged, Robert declares that now he has to find out the whole
story with Martin to the end. Betty gets nervous and persuades her husband, Gordon, to go home,
Stanton is leaving with them. The three of them, Robert, Freda and Olwen continue the
conversation. It turns out that Olwen is in love with Richard, Martin didn't steal the money and
Stanton made up the gissips about it. Robert calls Gordon on the phone and asks him and Stanton
to come back to find out everything.
As a result of a fierce discussion, it turns out that Frida loved Martin and was his
mistress, Martin took drugs, Betty is not as innocent as she seemed to be, because she is
Stanton's mistress, Stanton stole money to provide for Betty's whims, Robert’s in love with
Betty, and Martin did not commit suicide. In fact, Olwen accidentally shot him in an attempt to
defend himself, because he was under the influence of drugs. During the argument, Stanton
points out that Robert’s a fool, and is a good deal in common as his cracked brother. He can’t
face up to the reality, living in a fool’s paradise. Robert throws him out, Betty and Gordon also
leave the house.
Robert shares with Olwen and Freda that everything’s gone for him, and he can’t make
up illusions anymore bc he ran short of the stuff that creates them. They helped him to live and
now he has nothing to keep him going. He says that everybody around treated the conversation
as a silly little squabble about a hand at bridge. Olwen tries to calm him down saying that it
won’t seem like this the next day. He goes away, Freda remembers that he has a revolver in his
bedroom, but it’s too late and they hear a revolver shot.