An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1890

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Background

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Character Analysis

Peyton Farquhar

Farquhar is the 35-year-old protagonist of Bierce’s story. Interestingly, he is the only named character in the story while the rest are known by their roles in society, and he at first goes unnamed. Bierce names him in Part 2. In Part 1, the narrator describes him as a “civilian, if one might judge from his habit, which was that of a planter. His features were good—a straight nose, firm mouth, broad forehead, from which his long, dark hair was combed straight back, falling behind his ears” (6). He is a civilian and not a soldier from the description, but the reader does not know how he has come to be hanged.

In Part 2, the reader learns that Farquhar is an Alabama plantation and slave owner from a highly respected family who dreams of glory. Scholar David M. Owens notes that “Farquhar is a romantic, idealistic man” (Owens, David M. “Bierce and Biography: The Location of Owl Creek Bridge.” American Literary Realism, 1870-1910, vol. 26, no. 3, 1994, pp. 85). He wants to join the Confederate army and is “ardently devoted to the Southern cause” (9). Despite wanting to become the hero, Farquhar chose to stay home from the war due to unknown circumstances. Critics agree that Farquhar’s notions of glory stem from what Sharon Talley calls the “Civil War hero-system” (Talley, Sharon. Ambrose Bierce and the Dance of Death. University of Tennessee Press, 2009, pp. 83). Civilians during the Civil War not only perpetuated the rhetoric of the hero-system but also fell victim to it. The “hero” of Bierce’s work is no different. The narrator says, “The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of persons, and gentlemen are not excluded” (6). Farquhar’s notions of heroism and glory lead him into the clutches of the Union forces and to his death.

Owens also looks at the protagonist’s name. He states, “Etymologically his mane means both ‘brave man of noble descent’ and ‘gray clad man’” (Owens 85). Bierce uses the first meaning to show Farquhar’s sentimental side. He wants to attack the Owl Creek Bridge to show that he is a patriot for the Confederate cause.

Mrs. Farquhar

Unnamed like the rest of the characters in the story, Farquhar’s wife is described by the narrators as “only too happy to serve [water to the gray-clad soldier] with her own hands” (10). She is an attentive woman. Scholar Afruza Khanom notes that “Mrs. Farquhar has no voice except as a presence of silent domesticity, happy to serve water to the thirsty scout” (Khanom, Afruza. “Silence as Literary Device in Ambrose Bierce’s ‘The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.’” Teaching American Literature: A Journal of Theory and Practice, vol. 6, no. 1, 2013, pp. 46). She is the person Farquhar thinks of as he is hanged and is his motivation for wanting to escape. The narrator says, “The thought of his wife and children urged him on” (19). The thought of her drives him to hold on to life in his dreamlike trance at the end of the story. She is also one of the last things he thinks about before he falls from the bridge.

Beyond this, Mrs. Farquhar has no other role. She serves as a reminder for Farquhar of how foolish he was to have tried to sabotage the railroad. In Part 2, Farquhar thinks, “My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader’s farthest advance” (8). His wife and children are left in jeopardy because of his actions. They will have to survive on their own and may be subject to the same fate as him. It is home that he wants to go back to and in his imagined reality is where he ends up. Before the darkness takes him, he sees “his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet” coming to meet him (21). She is his hope suggesting it is better to live a simple life than to die in glory.

Union Spy

In Part 2, readers are introduced to one of the few speaking characters in the story: a Union spy. Described as “a gray-clad soldier” (10), that is, wearing a Confederate uniform, he tells Farquhar about the advance of the Union forces. The reader learns at the end of Part 2 that this solder a Federal scout (11). The soldier tricks Farquhar into believing that he should sabotage the Owl Creek Bridge.

The reader learns that Farquhar initiates the conversation by asking about the front. The man responds that the “Yanks are repairing the railroads […] and are getting ready for another advance” (10). He then tells Farquhar about the order that anyone caught tampering with the railroad will be hanged. The purpose of this soldier and this scene is to show the reader how Farquhar came to be hanged. It is assumed that the soldier went back to report that someone may try to burn down the bridge.

Union Soldiers

The rest of the characters are lumped together as the soldiers of the Union. They are described by their positions. Bierce writes, “Some loose boards laid upon the ties supporting the rails of the railway supplied a footing for him and his executioners—two private soldiers of the Federal army, directed by a sergeant” (4). The third-person narrator states objectively what is happening in the scene.

The reader also sees the large size of the Federal army that Farquhar had been led to believe was no more than a single sentinel. As the narrator widens the view for the reader, we see “a single company of infantry in line, at ‘parade rest.’ The butts of their rifles on the ground, the barrels inclining slightly backward against the right shoulder, the hands crossed upon the stock” (5). The overwhelming presence of the Union soldiers shows the reader and Farquhar how hopeless the situation is.