SOURCE: Fabó, Kingo. “Ambrose Bierce: ‘An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge’.” Acta Litteraria: Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 24, nos. 1-2 (1982): 225-32.

In the following essay, Fabó examines the structuring principles in Bierce's story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.”

Every one of Ambrose Bierce's short stories is about death; so is “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” in a cumulative way: the protagonist, Peyton Farquhar dies three deaths rather than just one—he is hanged, shot and drowned in rapid succession. The real protagonist of the story, then, is death or, since death cannot be experienced, the last instant preceding it. This, of course, requires someone to die, in order that the process might be presented through him. In other words, the fact of death and its portrayal are more important than the person who happens to be its subject (or rather object). And, indeed, the characters of the story...