Question

How is Farquhar's perception of the sergeant significant? (An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge)

Answer 1

How is Farquhar's perception of the sergeant significant?  

(An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge)

• Farquhar’s perception of the sergeant appears not to be significant, as it is not mentioned in the story. We might assume that his perception of the sergeant is the same as the one we get from the narrator. This is that Farquhar perceived the sergeant as someone who was about to hang him, more specifically when the sergeant salutes the captain and places himself behind him. However, a much important meaning that we can get from this moment is when Farquhar and the sergeant are standing on the two ends of the same plank. This moment could be perceived as the two men, Farquhar and the sergeant standing at the same level, at the same plane, but with the big difference that the condemned was standing at the end of his life, and the sergeant was standing as an executioner, as an “ender” of lives. The condemned standing feeling everything, understanding that this moment, the last moment of his life, was the moment in which he was conscious of everything around him, even the hands of his watch, “…metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith’s hummer upon the anvil…” The sergeant standing feeling nothing, understanding that this moment was the moment of a cold justice, a cold justice that contrasts the anguish of the condemned.