Part 1: Analysis
- Which story did you read?
I read The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce.
- Describe the physical setting of the story. Which words or descriptions contribute to the emotional setting or mood? What is the mood that results from the author’s use of description?
The mood is slightly dark and gloomy, but at the same time it’s also very mysterious. “He lived alone in a house of logs surrounded on all sides by the great forest, of whose gloom and silence he seemed a part, for no one had ever known him to neither smile nor speak a needless word.” The author’s words show how mysterious Mr. Murlock, as well as the actual story is. The descriptions show a very vague picture of everything that happens; the lack of words sometimes shows just as much as actual words will. Because of this, the reader is left wondering more about what is going on as the story moves forward.
- What is the theme? How do the final lines of the story influence the meaning or theme of the story?
Our fear of something can hold us back from protecting ourselves against that which we fear. Murlock was so afraid of his wife coming back from the dead to haunt him, that when we did come back he wasn’t able to protect her against the panther.
- What techniques does the author use to create a surprise ending?
The author reveals a certain fact that leads us to believe that his wife did not truly die, as the piece of the animal’s ear in her mouth leads us to believe that she was alive and struggled to defend herself against the panther. (It is ironic that she was buried alive, considering the fact that we just worked with a story about a man who feared being buried alive.) So in simple terms, the technique was discovery; a character discovered something that could mean that his wife had originally not died.
- Were you surprised by the twist? If so, why? If not, what should the author have done to make the ending more surprising and effective?
The ending was certainly not what I had expected. Considering the summary of the story, I was thinking that maybe the ghost of Murlock’s wife was trying to hurt him, or perhaps it someone took control of him which was why he locked himself inside the house and boarded up the window.
- What was your experience in reading this story? Did it evoke fear or physically have an effect on you? Why or why not?
If anything, I think this story was rather confusing. It seemed that the narrator couldn’t decide how to tell the story or what he wanted to include, and that everything he did include didn’t seem to add up. The unreliable narrator technique certain did help at to the element of shock and surprise; you really couldn’t see what was going to happen. The technique used may have actually been more like what it would have felt like to have the story actually happen to you instead of just observing it.