Owl Creek Bridge Foreshadowing

Rogelio Ochoa
Freed
Period 2
Feb 8, 2023
Perception of Owl Creek Bridge One may see something as they want it to be instead of how it really is. The story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce takes place in Alabama. Peyton Farquhar the protagonist of Beirce’s story is a man who is to be hanged and takes place on Owl Creek Bridge. Farquhar was told that anyone who tried interfering with the railroad construction that was happening on the bridge would be hanged. Farquhar stands on the bridge, hands tied and able to see all that's around him. He stands over the river thinking of his family and the possibility of escaping. He begins to fall into the river and tries to make his way home escaping death. He finally arrives home with

Bierce wrote “As Peyton Farquhar fell straight downward through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead.” (Bierce 8). What the quote is foreshadowing is that Farquhar is still actually in the hemp waiting for his death to arrive, and one can infer that Farquhar falling downward through the bridge and the many events that happen afterward are all of Farquhar’s delusions. Everything that Farquhar saw and experienced, or perceived wasn't actually the truth nor was it his reality. Another way Bierce uses foreshadowing is when he wrote “His neck was in pain and lifting his hand to it found it horribly swollen. He knew that it had a circle of black where the rope had bruised it. His eyes felt congested; he could no longer close them. His tongue was swollen with thirst…” (Bierce 12). This too, like the last quote, helps foreshadow that Farquhar is still in the hemp. Everything Farquhar is feeling are all signs that he is still in the hemp; he’s feeling all of the hemps’ effects. It isn’t only a sign that Farquhar is still in the hemp, but that the hanging has commenced. Farquhar felt pain in his neck and found it swollen as well; the black circle on his neck as well were signs that the noose had tightened around Farquhar’s neck. Farquhar’s eyes felt congested to the point where he could no longer close them, and his

The use of irony is shown when “.. a gray-clad soldier rode up to the gate…” (Bierce 6) and the soldier tells Farquhar that the Federal soldiers are doing construction on the Owl Creek Bridge. It is mentioned a few sentences later that “...after nightal, he repassed the plantation, going northward in the direction from which he had come. He was a Federal Scout.”. The significance of irony in this quote is that Farquhar was lied to. Farquhar was lied to, though it was unbeknownst to him; the reader is aware of what is happening. Farquhar was a slave owner sitting outside of his plantation when the soldier arrived. The soldier was wearing the color gray which the confederate soldiers wore. Farquhar believed that this soldier was an ally of the south, an ally to himself. Farquhar’s perception of the soldier made him believe what he wanted to believe, but his beliefs turned out to be incorrect. Farquhar trusted what he saw, but it turned out to be a lie. The soldier’s trick is what got Farquhar into the situation of being hanged, though that is the realistic aspect of living in the time of the civil war. Each side is doing what they can to win and stay far ahead; the Federal soldier was only testing Farquhar to see if he would head to the bridge. Farquhar so happened to fail the test. Another example of irony that Bierce used was when he had written that “... the large