Circle of Black

Ignoring the pain of his neck and the “circle of black” on his neck, Farquhar runs to his beloved wife. Just a few more steps and he would be in the arms of his love. In a flash Farquhar is dead, by the “circle of black”, underneath the Owl Creek Bridge. Peyton Farquhar, the main character of the historical short story, “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” written by Ambrose Bierce, is being hanged by the union army after being set up by the federal soldier. The reader is misled by Bierce to think that Farquhar escapes and survives. In reality Farquhar is being hanged and was imagining himself surviving. The author uses many subtle hints during Farquhar’s “escape” to show that. Using literary techniques: imagery, preternatural plot elements, and allusions, Bierce foreshadows the true fate of Peyton Farquhar.

In the beginning of part three, Bierce first mentions the pain and feeling of the rope around Farquhar’s neck after he falls. “…by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation. Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs.” Although this sentence never mentions that Farquhar still had the noose on it is implied since there was no statement before it that claimed that he took it off. Farquhar’s neck would’ve also been fine because if he had escaped then the pain would’ve subsided since the pressure of all of his weight would’ve been gone. In reality, if he really escaped, all of his focus would’ve been to swim instead of the “pain” in his neck. After he supposedly took off the noose and got out of the hanging, he still felt pain in his neck from the noose. “His neck ached horribly; his brain was on fire, his heart, which had been flu...

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...h sides.” This is a Greek Mythology reference of the River Styx, a river which separates the living and the dead. The black bodies of the trees shows that it was dark and based off paintings, there were walls of darkness around the River Styx. The River of Styx is also a way to death or the path of death. Bierce uses the River of Styx to foreshadow that Farquhar is actually at “death’s door”.

Ambrose Bierce uses the following literary devices: imagery, preternatural plot elements, and allusions to foreshadow the real ending of “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”. The author misled the readers to think that Farquhar survives even with the subtle foreshadowing. With the ominous mention “circle of black” near the ending of the story, the readers are still misled by the plausible imagination of Farquhar. Peyton Farquhar finally succumbs to the “circle of black”.