Themes

Some of the most important themes in the short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” by Ambrose Bierce are the distortion of time, reality versus imagination and death. All these themes are explored with the sub-theme of war, namely the American Civil War.

The distortion of time

The author explores the distortion of time in two different ways in the short story. On the one hand, the story is not constructed chronologically; there is a jump from the present time to the past (flashback) and then another jump back to the present. On the other hand, time is distorted when Farquhar enters a different realm, that of hallucination. In his hallucination, he has the impression that he travels the entire night and that he manages to arrive at his home, which is about thirty miles from the place of his execution. At the end of the story, the author reveals that time was distorted in Farquhar’s mind, as he died as soon as he was dropped from the bridge, in a matter of seconds.

The distortion of time and Farquhar’s passage into a different reality is hinted at from the moment when the ticking of the clock is described:

“He awaited each new stroke with impatience and—he knew not why—apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness.” 

As the ticking of Farquhar’s watch becomes slower and slower, time becomes distorted, and Farquhar finds himself emerged in a new reality, a prod...