Discussion Topic
Analysis of key plot elements in Stephen Crane's "A Mystery of Heroism"
Summary:
In "A Mystery of Heroism," key plot elements revolve around Fred Collins's brave but ultimately futile effort to fetch water for his comrades during battle. Despite risking his life and returning with a bucket of water, it is accidentally spilled by two soldiers, highlighting the situational irony and Crane's theme of the futility of human efforts against uncontrollable events.
Explain the ending of Stephen Crane's "A Mystery of Heroism".
In this story, Collins, to the surprise of his officers and fellow soldiers, agrees to risk his life in the midst of battle to get water for the parched men. He takes five or six of their canteens and facing enemy fire, he heads for well. As he gets to well and begins to fill the canteens, he is terrified:
And now as he lay with his face turned away he was suddenly smitten with the terror. It came upon his heart like the grasp of claws. All the power faded from his muscles. For an instant he was no more than a dead man.
The canteens are filling so slowly that he abandons them for a bucket he sees lying near the well. He fills it, hurries back as best he can without spilling the water, tries to give some water to a dying captain, and at the captain's...
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request, hands the bucket to the thirsty men. Instead of drinking the water, two of them joke and jostle, spilling the water.
The irony, or unexpected outcome, is that the men, just by fooling around, spill the water that Collins risked his life to get for them. All of Collins's efforts have been for nothing.
Let us remember the three different types of irony that there are in literature before examining the end of this story. There is dramatic irony, which is when one of the characters and the audience knows something that other characters do not. There is verbal irony, when the opposite of what is meant is said, and finally there is situational irony, when the opposite of what we expect to happen occurs.
Thinking about the end of this excellent wartime story therefore, we can see that the way in which Fred Collins risks his life in the middle of battle with being blown apart all for one bucket of water automatically makes us assume that this costly prize will be enjoyed by the soldiers he is with. However, the precise opposite happens. The bucket full of water is dropped by two lieutenants who are joking around with it and the precious liquid falls to the ground. This is a classic example of situational irony.
This excellent short story represents yet another attempt of Crane to quantify the strange, baffling and dangerous experience of war by debating the true nature of heroism and questioning the overall value of the sacrifices that soldiers make during war. The story opens in the middle of a raging battle in the Civil War. Private Fred Collins is driven to distraction by a raging thirst, and thus decides to risk death to get some water. To do so, however, he must go through a field that would leave him open to enemy fire. His comrades cheer him on as he crosses this field to get to a well, fills an old bucket with water, and then returns to the rest of his company, dodging shells left right and centre. On the way back, however, he passes a dying officer, who asks for some water. Although Collins at first refuses, he then turns back and gives some water to the officer. When he finally makes it back, two lieutenants joke around with the bucket, spilling its contents all over the ground.
The "mystery of heroism" of the title seems to refer to the way in which Collins, without a thought for his own safety, instinctively turns back to give the dying officer some water. This is presented as being more heroic than the run to get some water itself, and Collins does this in "all terror," yet seems to reflect some kind of inner tendency towards heroism that is captured in the story. The fate of the water that so much has been risked for at the end presents us with the theme of fate and destiny. After all the effort to obtain the water, it is wasted, sugesting the futility of human efforts to alter, control or change the course of fate. Note how the story ends:
Suddenly there was an oath, the thud of wood on the ground, and a swift murmur of astonishment from the ranks. The two lieutenants glared at each other. The bucket lay on the ground empty.
The way that the story ends with the picture of the empty bucket lying on the ground seems to mock the attempt of Collins to defy fate and alter the course of events.
What is the exposition of Stephen Crane's "A Mystery of Heroism"?
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The exposition of this grimly realistic wartime tale plunges us into the middle of a brutal battle between the opposing sides of the Civil War. You might want to consider how even the opening sentence helps us to picture the scene:
The dark uniforms of the men were so coated with dust from the incessant wrestling of the two armies that the regiment almost seemed a part of the clay bank which shielded them from the shells.
Note how the two armies in an implied metaphor are compared to two wrestlers, fighting "incessantly" for dominance. Battle has been going on for so long that the soldiers are completely covered in dust and cannot be easily separated from the colour of the clay bank that they are hiding behind. The soldiers are hard pressed, and as we meet the story's protagonist, who is wishing he could have some water, the danger that they are under is emphasised by the death of the bugler by the "crimson terror of an exploding shell."
Thus the scene is set and the external conflict which will come to dominate the rest of the tale.