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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (1890)

• Ambrose Bierce

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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

• Journalist, essayist, fiction writer known for
  his biting wit and mysterious death
• Born in Ohio, 10th of 13 children, all with names
  beginning with A raised on farm in Indiana
• Worked as printers apprentice on anti-slavery
  newspaper
• Union soldier in Civil War, rose to rank of
  lieutenant at Kenesaw Mountain, bullet in skull
  behind ear

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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

• 1870s-80s journalist and writer in San Francisco
  (later with Hearst publications)
• 1872-75 magazine writer in London
• Wrote stories about the War and about California
  unsentimental disillusioned he read Stoic
  philosophy
• Married wealthy miners daughter in 1871
  divorced in 1905
• The Devils Dictionary (1911) is his often-quoted
  book of cynical definitions Happiness an
  agreeable sensation arising from contemplating
  the misery of another.

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Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914)

• 1900-1913 mainly in Washington as political
  lobbyist for Hearst and journalist
• Sept. 10, 1913, age 71 "I am going away to South
  America, and have not the faintest notion when I
  shall return.
• He posted a letter from Mexico, then vanished
  possibly killed in Mexican Civil War

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Occurrence setting northern Alabama
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Civil War (1861-65) Union (North) vs.
Confederacy (South)
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Film Version

• French, directed by Robert Enrico, 1962, 28 min.
  Starring Roger Jacquet
• Best short subject at Academy Awards, 1963
• Broadcast as an episode of the TV series The
  Twilight Zone, in 1964
• Images from the film are featured in this
  presentation

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Vision vs. Reality

• Occurrence plays games with vision and reality,
  on two levels
• The apparent Confederate soldier is in fact a
  Federal Union scout
• Farquhars apparent escape is only imaginary
• The confusion is not only Farquhars but the
  readers as well
• Ultimately vision reality are clearly defined
  no supernatural dimension as in Rip Van Winkle

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Structure

• Section I Present Realism Military Ritual of
  Hanging hint of subjectivity/fantasy
• Section II Flashback Realism/Satire Framing of
  Peyton Farquhar by Union spy
• Section III Present?Future Fantasy ends
  realistically in present

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Realism Military Ritual

• Section 1 1-2 Bierce establishes texture of
  reality through close description of execution
  scene bodily positions, military rank, physical
  equipment, etc.
• 2, end the formality of the scene associated
  with Death
• 3 description of protagonist appeals to
  historical reality and readers sympathy kindly
  expression

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Realism/Satire Framing of Peyton Farquhar

• Section II 8-17 Southern gentry portrayed
  through Bierces Northern satiric perspective
• Being a slave owner and like other slave owners
  a politician, he was naturally an original
  secessionist and ardently devoted to the Southern
  cause (8)
• the frankly villainous dictum that all is fair
  in love and war (8)
• Mrs. Farquhar was only too happy to serve him
  with her own white hands (9)
• Ultimate irony Soldier was a Union spy

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Subjectivity/Fantasy (1)

• Section 1 4, end subjectivity enters
  narrative
• Narrators detached intellect
• simple and effective
• unsteadfast footing quote from Shakespeares
  Henry IV, Part I
• Time appears to slow down
• stream racing madly? sluggish stream
• Slowing of his watch, increase in volume

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Subjectivity/Fantasy (2)

• Section I 6 Flash of thought expressed as
  words If I could free my hands. . . .
• Section III 18 loss of consciousness
  reawakening ages later, it seemed pain of
  hanging, unaccompanied by thought
• Thought restored impression that rope has broken
  and he is in stream
• 19 Detached from himself watched his hands
  free themselves and remove noose he surfaces

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Subjectivity/Fantasy (3)

• 20 Senses preternaturally keen and alert
  observes natural world
• Ripples of stream
• Leaves of trees, insects
• Dewdrops on blades of grass
• Gnats, dragon flies, water spiders, fish

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Subjectivity/Fantasy (4)

• 21 Sees his executioners their forms
  gigantic
• 22 One of sentinels fires rifle Farquhar sees
  his gray eye looking into the rifle sights an
  impossible perception
• Note Farquhars own eye is gray (3)
• 25 Bullets fired one lodges in his neck and
  he snatched it out (unrealistic detail)
• 30 cannon fired

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Subjectivity/Fantasy (5)

• 31 whirling Objects were represented by their
  colors only circular horizontal streaks of
  color similar to painterly expressionism, e.g.,
  The Scream (1893 same decade as Bierces story)
  by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944) see
  next slide

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Subjectivity/Fantasy (6)

• Details suggest artificial, dreamlike setting
• 31 Sand like diamonds, rubies, emeralds trees
  giant garden plants he noted a definite order
  to their arrangement
• 33 forest seemed interminable He had not
  known that he lived in so wild a region uncanny
• 34 Nightfall road wide and straight as a city
  street, yet it seemed untraveled. No fields
  bordered it, no dwellings anywhere.

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Subjectivity/Fantasy (7)

• Some details hint at menace, threat
• 34 black bodies of trees formed a straight
  wall on both sides
• strange constellations secret and malign
  significance
• whispers in an unknown tongue

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Re-emergence of Reality

• 35 Hints that Farquhar is still in the noose
• Neck pain
• Eyes congested, unable to close
• Tongue swollen, thrust out
• Feet suspended above ground

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Final Fantasy, Then Reality

• 36 Morning approaches home
• Wife standing to meet him fresh and cool and
  sweet, smile of ineffable joy
• Farquhar springs forwards with extended arms
  stunning blow to back of neck blinding white
  light darkness and silence
• 37 Peyton Farquhar was dead his body, with a
  broken neck, swung gently from side to side
  beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.

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Conclusion

• Occurrence is a psychological study of
  consciousness and its struggle against death
• Like the other stories in this section, it
  portrays a man lost in a journey beyond the home,
  trying to regain his place
• Like Rip Van Winkle, there is a political
  dimension here the Civil War
• Southern Plantation life portrayed as fantasy