Owl Creek Bridge

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told that this man is a kind-hearted man and he is no vulgar assassin. Now we feel a touch of sympathy for the man, as we know he is either innocent or does not deserve such a penalty.
By now Bierce’s tone is established; dry, ironic, exact, almost pedantic and - the voice of a satirist. I say this because his point of view is ironic and obscure.
From the fourth paragraph we gather that the man is now even closer to death as the sergeant is using his own weight to keep the man from hanging, and we are taught the man had been using the plank to stay alive and not suffocate. This works by the sergeant standing on one end of the plank whilst Farquhar is using the other end to stand on. The sergeant is the only person who is keeping Farquhar alive. It is as if the sergeant has absolute control of Farquhar’s life, and he has the duty of standing away from the plank and letting it drop into the river, as Farquhar now is hanging on by the noose.
The words ‘unsteadfast footing’ are ...

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metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality…The intervals of silence grew progressively longer; the delays became maddening…They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch.’ This shows the man is obviously unaware of the general atmosphere and is now focusing on minute sounds which seem extremely exaggerated to him. I think this tells us that he is in his own world and completely obnoxious to the basic surroundings. We see that the man is falling deeper and deeper into a deprived state. The man was focusing on this sound, as it was the closest ...

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