Physician's Leeches

The leeches serve as the Physician’s deceptive tool, their mention triggering Susan’s visceral disgust and Barbara’s suspicion. Framed as a necessary medical treatment ('It's a simple matter of blood-letting'), they become the pretext for the Physician’s exit—and the sisters’ imprisonment. The leeches symbolize the regime’s perversion of care into control, their absence in the room (he must 'go out and collect them') exposing the ruse. Their role is purely narrative: to delay, distract, and ultimately trap.

The leeches serve as a macabre prop in the Physician’s deception, symbolizing the perversion of medical practice under the Reign of Terror. His insistence on collecting them—despite claiming he was already on his way to do so—exposes the bloodletting as a pretext to lock the door and trap Susan and Barbara. The leeches, a tool meant to 'treat' Susan’s fever, become a metaphor for the regime’s parasitic control, draining the life and trust of its victims. Their absence from the scene (the Physician never returns with them) underscores their role as a red herring, a distraction from his true intent: betrayal.

The Physician’s mention of leeches as a medical treatment serves as a false pretense to exit the room and lock the door, trapping Barbara and Susan. The leeches symbolize the regime’s twisted use of medical authority as a tool of control, reinforcing the theme of deception and manipulation. Susan’s visceral reaction to the idea of leeches underscores the unnatural and harmful nature of the regime’s practices, heightening the tension of the moment.