Introduction
‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek’ is set in the American Civil War and tells of the execution of Peyton Farquhar, a civilian confederate sympathizer (Sparknotes.com, 2007). The story throws us to different times: the ‘present’ moment of the execution, the past that led to the execution and most notably, to an ‘imagined present’ (Sparknotes.com, 2007).
But there’s is no clear distinction between the reality and the imagination if each is to be judged on its own right. Just as the real world has people who can be hungry and tired and in need, so is the world that Farquhar imagines. It is this playing around with time, this irregular time sequence that makes this story famous.
From a psychoanalytic point of view, it is quite evident how Bierce’s own life is an influence to this story. Besides having himself been a soldier, Bierce was an outspoken opponent of realism, which insisted on reflecting life as it is, ‘without any subjection whatsoever to creativity of the mind (Sparknotes.com, 2007).
Analysis
The story is a reflection of some of the issues that Bierce seemed to have been interest in. These include:
Reality versus Illusion: Bierce seemed to be of the thought that the line between reality and illusion is not a very obvious one; that these two work side by side (Sparknotes.com, 2007).
Bierce, to an extent, manages to bring the audience with him into this thought. The final section, Peyton’s escape to his family, is quite believable in its own right. Of course, there’s a possibility of the reader being confused. Here’s why.
The final sentence in section I is “The sergeant stepped aside” (Sparknotes.com, 2007), at this point, we expect that Farquhar is plunging to his death. Now in section III he is ‘really’ escaping to his family; the reader is caught between a fact, as told by the storyteller, and the reality of Farquhar’s escape as created by words.
The confusion created by a conscious/subconscious awareness that Farquhar is plunging to his death vis-à-vis his escape, or the acceptance that he is actually escaping, are a reflection of Bierce’ success at making us see that, in spite of the gap between them, the difference between reality and illusion, what it takes to move from one to another, is not so obvious.
Bierce also explores the aspect of liquidity of time (Sparknotes.com, 2007). The story moves from the present to the past and finally to the imagined. This structure reflects how fluid time is, as well as the conflict between its competing variants.
Section II interrupts the continuing process of Farquhar at the edge, starting to plunge down to his death (Sparknotes.com, 2007). In section III, Peyton has gone into a completely timeless realm, free from the hands of time as counted down by the actual second-hand of a clock.
Farquhar manages to do in his mind/imagination what can’t be done in the actual world within the seconds it takes him to go over the edge and the rope breaking his neck. In the end, Bierce’s seems to say that time is subjective, that it can be manipulated to suit need, as does Farquhar.
Bierce’s story was seen as a breach of the traditional rules of narration, especially the ending of the story. Bierce’s conclusion is not really of the expected form as it questions the nature of resolving a story (Sparknotes.com, 2007). The conclusion here becomes a distortion of the reality as it is known; Farquhar, in a sense, manages to ‘outlive’ his execution because though his life ends in the first section, his story still extends.
Bierce’s unique plotting sees conflicting versions of truth live side by side inside the same story (Sparknotes.com, 2007). In spite of this, Bierce still does his story within the conventions of literature: the story starts, develops and ends; he employs tropes such as motifs and symbols, as well as features of drama such as realism, foreshadowing and tone (Sparknotes.com, 2007).
Realism involves making an imaginary world as believable as possible. For authenticity, Bierce gives a vivid and believable description of the setting at the bridge where Farquhar is to be executed: from the time to the position of planks and rope; from the positioning of the soldiers and their guns to their conduct at the ritual of execution (Sparknotes.com, 2007).
Again, although the revelation at the end of Farquhar’s imagination is unexpected and shocking, Bierce, by talking of how things ‘seem’ to Farquhar as opposed to what is actually happening is a foreshadowing (helped by the change of tone) of the actual death of Farquhar.
Conclusion
Finally, it is quite notable the way that Bierce uses imagination to get into Farquhar’s head. Here is a dying man who does not speak his mind, he only imagines it. Yet Bierce takes the “seat of God”; that he’s able to get into Farquhar’s head (Sparknotes.com, 2007). In the end it is this fruit of imagination that brings all that makes this story different and remarkable, both in the arena of literary works, as well as for the reader.
Reference
Sparknotes.com. (2007). An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Web.