Discussion Topic
Determining the dream-like elements in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge."
Summary:
The dream-like elements in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" include the surreal and distorted passage of time, heightened sensory details, and the protagonist's vivid, almost hallucinatory perceptions as he imagines his escape. These elements create a sense of unreality that culminates in the revelation that his escape was a mere illusion experienced in the moments before his death.
In "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge," what textual clues suggest Peyton's journey is a dream?
The truth of Peyton's experience is certainly foreshadowed in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge." In fact, one may suggest that there is a dreamlike sense of unreality that runs across his entire vision. Consider, for example, the details surrounding the soldiers as he escapes: initially, he observes that they are all unarmed (save for the captain, who has a pistol), but next there is a man with a rifle on the scene. They later seem to become a firing squad, and later still produce a cannon. These discrepancies can easily be explained through the overall confusion produced in his attempted escape, but while they are not, in and of themselves, irrefutable evidence for a dream, there is a sense of dream logic here nonetheless.
As he escapes to the shore, this sense of unreality continues to build, with his description of the trees and the sand, not to mention...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
the "strange, roseate light" and the wind resembling "olian harps," and you can observe these dreamlike qualities continuing to accumulate as he flees into the forest. At the same time, there is also the detail of his swollen neck, which provides no small clue to his actual fate.
In fact, it might even be argued that Bierce actually states the truth of Peyton's experience quite clearly at the very beginning of the story's third and final section, where he writes,
As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead.
Note the specific wording here: "Was as one already dead." The violence of this image is vivid, and it is joined with additional details regarding "a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation." These details, as the story's ending makes clear, pertain to Farquhar's death by hanging.
How can we determine that Peyton is dreaming in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"?
We do not know with absolute certainty that the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar, is dreaming in part 3 until the very end, when his neck snaps in the noose, though there are many helpful clues. At the end of part 1, Farquhar's perception of time seemed to be slowing down. He tried to fix his final thoughts on his wife and children, but he was distracted by the ticking sounds of his watch, which "hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife." The "intervals of silence" between ticks "grew progressively longer." It would seem, then, that Farquhar's sense of time is no longer reliable.
Then, in part 3, not only does he perceive that the rope has broken, but he is also able to swim away and escape the shots fired by all of the federal soldiers at him. The narrator tells us that his "physical senses... were... preternaturally keen and alert." Farquhar is able to see, from his position in the river, details as minuscule as the veins on the leaves in the trees, and the rainbow of colors in "all the dewdrops upon a million blades of grass." He could even hear the body of a fish sliding through the water beneath him. Such a thing really is not possible, and so these details provide good clues that these events are taking place within Farquhar's mind rather than in reality.