A Focus on the Character Peyton in Ambrose Bierce's "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"

In the story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge written by Ambrose Bierce the main character is Peyton Farquhar. Farquhar is a wealthy plantation owner and a confederate supporter, who was incapable of joining the army. He is a husband and a father, the story does not incorporate how many children he has.

At the beginning of the story the scne of Farquhar entwined in a noose, standing on wooden planks, and dangling over a raging river. During this scene he is surrounded by military officials waiting for their captains signal to remove the boards causing Farquhar to dangle freely over the water, until he has taken his last breathe.

While the military officials were awaiting their lieutenants orders Farquhars attention focuses on a piece of driftwood being taken by the current down the stream, he watches the wood until his attention is caught by a consistent ticking noise, which was his watch. He opens his eyes once again and imagines untying his hands, and removing the noose from his neck.

He then pictures himself plummeting into the water and reaching safety.

Farquhar gets so deep into thought about reaching safety and returning home to his family, that he actually leads himself to believe that the noose breaks and he finds himself under the current of the water. His first thought is now that he will be shot at as soon as he is spotted, so he pictures himself untying the rope from his hands and removing the noose. His vision gets intense when he fights the rapid water to reach the surface in order to gasp for air, when he comes up for water he envisions one of the northern soldiers peering at him through the scope of a gun, then the soldier shoots off two rounds both of them missing him.

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When he hears the Lieutenant instruct his men the fire, he takes another large gulp of air, and dives underwater where the bullets cannot reach him. A canon is fired but misses him, so he expecting the shot from the canon will be a large amount of grape sized balls being pelted at him, and then he is suddenly pulled under water and wakes at the edge of the water that is out of sight of the northern army.

As he is recollecting his thoughts, the sound of a canon fire reminds him of where he is and the circumstance he is under, so he runs into the forest. He walks down a remote road until he reaches the outside of his home being greeted by the face of his wife; he reaches out to hold her when he feels the sharp excruciating pain on his neck, and is engulfed by a white light.

Farquhar has envisioned this occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge within a matter of seconds, his attention slips to this when he hears the ticking of his watch, and reminding him how much time he has to live. At the end of his vision when he is about to hug his wife, the planks are removed by the soldiers and his body is dangling freely off the bridge.

Before Farquhars vision of reaching safety we learn that he and his family are visited by a soldier informing them that the bridge is opened by the northern army in hopes to another advance of the Confederates. Farquhar is informed of this information by a northern soldier in disguise as a confederate, telling Farquhar that if any one attempted to disrupt the bridge they would be hung. Farquhar decided to take matters into his own hands and set fire to the driftwood located next to the bridge from a prior flood, only being set-up by the soldier in disguise.