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The Ticking Watch
Farquhar’s wife and children lie beyond the enemy lines, and as the soldiers prepare for his execution, he wonders feverishly if he might be able to escape. He thinks, “My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance.” Then, miraculously, he suddenly finds himself free from the noose, and struggles madly to return to his home and family.
In one sense, the family represents hope: a kind of purity and joy that pulls Farquhar through his dark journey. This appears most prominently at the end of the story, when Farquhar believes he has returned home to find “his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet.” The power of that emotion is enough to pull him through his feverish (and at times nightmarish) escape, and even though it ultimately proves to be just a dream, it suggests a hope worth holding onto until the last instant of life.
This is also a story set during the Civil War, and in that context the family can be seen as a stand-in for antebellum society itself. It’s the world Farquhar thinks he’s protecting, a world where families like his live peaceful and dignified lives. Bierce, who fought for the Union and was involved in abolitionist causes from an early age, understood that that lifestyle was built on the fundamentally unjust notion of slavery. Once stamped out, it couldn’t be revived. In that context, Farquhar’s family represents an outdated way of living, one that Farqhuar and those like him can never go back to. Hence, they’re pulled away from him just as he reaches them: denying their comforts to both him and the cause he died for.
Farquhar’s Family Quotes in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
The An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge quotes below all refer to the symbol of Farquhar’s Family. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Quotes
He closed his eyes in order to fix his last thought upon his wife and children.
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In the moments before his hanging, Farquhar thinks of his family. This has a bearing both on what Farquhar did to earn his death sentence, and is what propels his final hallucination of escape and freedom. His wife and children, and the life they represent, are what occupy his final thoughts. This foreshadows their later appearance at the end of his strange and disturbing journey, and just as subtly, helps color his justification for attempting sabotage. In the most immediate sense, he’s trying to protect them and the purity he believes they represent. But he’s also trying to protect the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus.
“My home, thank God, is as yet outside their lines; my wife and little ones are still beyond the invader's farthest advance.”
As these thoughts, which have here to be set down in words, were flashed into the doomed man's brain rather than evolved from it, the captain nodded to the sergeant.
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This is the moment of transition in the story: when the hanging takes place and Farquhar experiences his final thoughts. Bierce appears to be laying the logical groundwork for the hallucination that follows: noting the use of words, which take time to read, to convey the briefest little instant in Farquhar’s mind. That provides an explanation for the hours and hours he seemingly experiences in the hallucination, despite occurring in the space of only an instant inside of his head. It also sets up Farquhar’s family as his central motivator for escaping and getting home. By fixing his final thoughts Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Qu
As he pushes open the gate and passes up the wide white walk, he sees a flutter of female garments; his wife, looking fresh and cool and sweet, steps down from the veranda to meet him.
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Farquhar’s thoughts were fixed on his family the moment the noose went taught, and throughout his escape he’s sought a way back home to them. Here, he finally reaches them, and they seem to embody all the relief from the pain he’s felt. It might be a vision of heaven: an ideal world full of love and joy surrounded by loved ones. Yet since Bierce has already undermined the “purity” of Farquhar’s family, this vision of heaven is itself very problematic: stemming from his impressions and emotions rather than the truth of his slave-owning status. His vision is strong enough Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut
As he is about to clasp her, he feels a stunning blow upon the back of the neck; a blinding white light blazes all about him with a sound like the shock of a cannon - then all is darkness and silence!
Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.
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The famous twist at the end of the story reveals that Farquhar’s escape was just a hallucination and that he was actually hanged for his attempted act of sabotage after all. It occurs just as he reaches his supposed destination and is about to clasp his beloved wife for the first time since his ordeal began. In addition to the obvious irony of ending up on the wrong end of a rope instead of in the arms of his beloved, it serves as a further commentary on Farquhar’s status as a slaveowner. The vision of his family stems from the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum d
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Farquhar’s Family Symbol Timeline in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
The timeline below shows where the symbol Farquhar’s Family appears in An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge
...of driftwood moving lazily down the stream. He attempts to set his final thoughts on his family , only to be distracted by a new detail: a steady, inexplicable booming sound, which...
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The man thinks of his family again and contemplates some final means by which he might escape his predicament: freeing his...
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...the front gate of his home. As he moves forward, his wife comes out of the family ’s house to greet him. Just as he is about to embrace her, he feels...
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