From here on there is a slow down of time and the narration at times begins to be fictitious. As Stuart C. Woodruff a literary analyst puts it, " somehow the reader is made to participate in the split between imagination and reason, to feel that the escape is real while he knows it is not" [Peter Stoicheff] It is to be noted that Bierce also gives the readers a subtle hint or two about the inconsistence of the account. For example his deliberately introduction of 'distortion of time' and narrational contradiction is obvious when Farquhar looks below and notices the "stream racing madly beneath his feet," while at the same time he seems to observe a slow drifting piece of wood and says 'What a sluggish stream'. For inventing these novel literary techniques Bierce was regarded as the "precursor of modern fiction" [Rena Korb] Farquhar is on the verge of being hanged and it is at this time that the author takes us on an elaborate sojourn of his escape where he manages to fall from the hanging rope, free up his tied hands and noosed neck, swim across the river and escape the gun fires from the soldiers. Then he walks and walks through a seemingly 'interminable' dense forest before he finally reaches his home. Another hint suggesting the illusory nature of the escape is when the author says, 'perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium'. By using a complex form of narration the author successfully maintains the deception and keeps the suspense alive till the very last. Finally the hint of romanticism is obvious when Farquhar reaches his house. He sports a sigh of relief on seeing her beautiful face. 'ha, how beautiful she is! He springs forward with extended arms'.[George Cheatham] Before he could feel her in his arms the final blow strikes and the author takes us back into reality. Farquhar is hanged, his neck broken and his life ebbing away, ending his wishful thinking and...
Literary elements such as imagination, deception, sarcasm, illusion and reality are skillfully intertwined into the plot. There is a neat blend of reality with fiction and fantasy in this short story. By mounting the tension and creating more suspense the author manages to take the readers on a trip from reality to fiction and sustains the momentum until the final moment when they are jolted back into reality. Ambrose Bierce was way ahead of his time in terms of his literary approach and is rightfully considered the 'precursor of postmodern fiction'.
Peyton Farquhar is not a soldier, but a wealthy plantation owner who was attracted to the possibility of dignifying himself by being of service to the South during the civil war. Tricked by a federal scout into trying to do something heroic for the South, he is about to hang from the bridge that he intended to burn. Bierce describes Farquhar's experience as one of extreme agony, followed by hope
Faulkner uses an unusual point-of-view: the first person plural, the point-of-view of the community in which Emily Grierson lived. Faulkner combines modernism with a few naturalistic elements in his story: Mrs. Emily's life is witnessed from the outside by the community, and the reader has no access to the story itself, but through the hearsay of the country folk. A Rose for Emily also has a surprise and grotesque
Mrs. Emily is described from the point-of-view of the townspeople as a very haughty person, respected by everyone because of her noble origins. Her refusal to pay taxes as well as all her other whims and peculiarities are accepted by everyone. When she dies however, the same community is shocked as they realize Mrs. Emily had entertained a perverse obsession during her secluded life, and has slept with the
Ambrose Bierce is not a preacher, and he does not preach through his stories. There are no good or evil men in this tale, and readers hoping for a moral, or even a strong sense of moralism, should stop at the noose in the third sentence, for this is all the moral Bierce will give you explicitly. What is, is, this story seems to say emphatically, and ironic, strange, or
hanging is a means of execution," this topic will be further elaborated and explained with the help of the examples from a short story written by Ambrose Bierce.This short story includes the subject which is "hanging," the examples from the story would be provided in the paper so as to back up the arguments which will be included in the paper. Hanging has been utilized as a mode of execution
Emily Grierson and Ambrose Bierce In works of fiction, traditionally the sympathetic characters do actions that are heroic and those that are supposed to be unsympathetic perform actions that are decidedly less so. Given that humans are very judgmental creatures, authors have tried to change reader perceptions by providing plots where characters that may perform unspeakable acts are arguably the most sympathetic creatures in the piece. It is difficult to see
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