Gerald's Game

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses sexual assault, child sexual abuse, mutilation, and the desecration of dead bodies.

Jessie Burlingame is handcuffed to her bed while her husband, Gerald, grins at her. They are at their house at Kashwakamak Lake in Maine, experimenting sexually with a bondage “game.” Jessie is uninterested and thinks about how their sex life has declined. She criticizes Gerald’s weight, face, and erection in her mind. When Jessie says that she does not want to have sex, Gerald pretends that she is playing the game, in which she is supposed to act reluctant. Jessie hears voices in her head, which she does not think is abnormal, and a new voice suddenly appears, speaking roughly and telling her to reject Gerald.

Jessie repeats that she does not want to have sex and uses the words “stupid” and “ridiculous,” knowing that these will trigger Gerald’s memories of being bullied in high school. Gerald tells Jessie that she said this experiment would be fun, and the new voice in Jessie’s head speaks out loud, telling Gerald that she has changed her mind. The fear and anger that she feels remind her of the time she punched her brother in the mouth for “goosing” her in the rear during his ninth birthday party.