He sleeps. The final lines read: ''From the throat, dreadfully lacerated, had issued a pool of blood not yet entirely coagulated. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. Download activities to help you understand this story here. These stories use premature burial as a metaphor for repression and denial. Murlock. He tried but failed to speak the dead woman's name. The all-knowing narrator, who confesses he is merely retelling a story first told to him by his grandfather, tells the tale. The flash from the rifle lit the room with a clear brightness. Failure is addressed multiple times in ''The Boarded Window.'' The storyteller was Shep ONeal. So what is going on in The Boarded Window? This means that his account of the events cannot be trusted. When he shoots, the room is illuminated, and he sees that a panther is dragging his wife's body away. 23 chapters | As a member, you'll also get unlimited access to over 88,000 Her hands are clawed as if she were gripping something. The story was passed from the grandfather, then through the narrator, who shares it with the reader. The last two sentences of ''The Boarded Window'' allude to the fact that Murlock's wife was not dead when he prepared her body for burial. The narrator speculates that Murlock was buried next to his wife, who lay near the cabin. In the flash from the shot, he saw a panther dragging his wife's body toward the window. And a pool of blood flowed from the horribly torn throat. He had not experienced intense grief before and he did not know how to handle the emotion. Murlock failed in farming, nursing his wife, and preparing his wife's body. She had died so many years before him that local tradition noted very little of her existence. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Doctors are far away, so he tries to help her, but she fades away and all signs of life depart. When Murlock built his cabin and began laying sturdily about with his ax to hew out a farm--the rifle, meanwhile, his means of support--he was young, strong and full of hope. The table shakes and there is movement but in the dark it is hard to discern. The story flashes back to Murlocks youth. His wife fell ill, became unconscious, and died. succeed. And none knew why it was so closed; certainly not because of the occupant's dislike of light and air, for on those rare occasions when a hunter had passed that lonely spot the recluse had commonly been seen sunning himself on his doorstep if heaven had provided sunshine for his need. Read the next short story; The Coup de Grace. His heart could not contain it all. He awakens to a bright day. If Murlock stuck to the cabin, it was because he was feeling guilty about what he had almost done to a living wife by burying her. Murlock and his young bride head west and carve a homestead out of the forest. It was first published in The San Francisco Examiner on April 12, 1891 and was reprinted the same year in Bierce's collection Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. Murlock loved his wife, though perhaps not ardently or expressively, and processes his sorrow with a quiet weariness that, as Bierce notes, can be read with ambiguity as all grief is different: Sitting there, beside the cold body, as night falls and the forest swells with the brittle music of insects and creeping animals, he falls asleep. . The story is set in an ''immense and almost unbroken forest'' located in Ohio near where Cincinnati now sits. The little log house, with its chimney of sticks, its roof of warping clapboards weighted with traversing poles and its "chinking" of clay, had a single door and, directly opposite, a window. The dramatic irony in the story is that it is Murlock's and his wife's settling in a new territory for a new beginning that actually brings their demise, both physically and psychologically. I would definitely recommend Study.com to my colleagues. Free shipping for many products! Again, and nearer than before, sounded that unearthly cry upon his failing sense. If his wife had died when he thought she did, the wound on her neck would not have bled as it did. The story begins with the narrator telling a story his grandfather told him about an old hermit, Murlock, who lived in the "great forest" in the Ohio frontier. One day Murlock returned from hunting in a deep part of the forest. He tried vainly to speak the dead woman's name, vainly to stretch forth his hand across the table to learn if she were there. The narrator had been to the cabin after Murlock's death. They worked to clear their land in order to build a farm that would sustain them for the rest of their lives. To another, it comes as the blow of a crushing strike. Learn about the themes of The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce. During the process, he also failed to realize that his wife was still alive. "People who had passed by had seen him sitting in the sun on his doorstep." Click the card to flip . The following year, in 1892, it was published in a collection called Soldiers and Civilians, and a revised version with the title ''In the Midst of Life'' appeared in a new version of Soldiers and Civilians in 1898. His occasional failures to accomplish some simple and ordinary act filled him with astonishment, like that of a drunken man who wonders at the suspension of familiar natural laws. Murlock was subject to the dictates of his mind, which was not exactly favorable to his wife. I never saw him; these particulars I learned from my grandfather, from whom also I got the man's story when I was a lad. As with so many of his stories, the payoff comes from a twist ending and a moment of dramatic irony, yet little has been said about it other than to say that it merits the attention of high school students because it has a great ending. The main themes of the short story "The Boarded Window" by Ambrose Bierce are death, the supernatural and seclusion, the author's intent being to show the way tragic events can impact one's personality and turn people into completely different persons. As he worked on his wife's body, Murlock did not cry (although the narrator assumes he felt immense grief). He saw a huge fierce panther dragging the dead woman toward the window. Multiple versions of the story were published over several years, with the first version appearing in 1891 in the Examiner. In . He couldn't lift it. Log in. Okno zabite deskami (1971), directed by Janusz Majewski, is a film adaptation of the short story. The major themes of Ambrose Bierce's short tale "The Boarded Window" are death, the supernatural, and solitude, with the author's purpose to highlight how terrible occurrences may change people's personalities and transform them into wholly new individuals. Here is Shep ONeal with the story. Murlock loved his wife, though perhaps not ardently or expressively, and processes his sorrow with a quiet weariness that, as Bierce notes, can be read with ambiguity as all grief is different: "Grief is an artist of powers as various as the instruments upon which he plays his dirges for the dead, evoking from some the sharpest, shrillest notes, from others the low, grave chords that throb recurrent like the slow beating of a distant drum. He awakes the next day to discover that the panther is gone, but there's something strange about his wife's body. That closes the final chapter of this true story--excepting, indeed, the circumstance that many years afterward, in company with an equally intrepid spirit, I penetrated to the place and ventured near enough to the ruined cabin to throw a stone against it, and ran away to avoid the ghost which every well-informed boy thereabout knew haunted the spot. In Murlock's sojourn to Ohio, he and his wife sought new life in a new land. He traded furs in town to make a living. The clothing was deranged, the long hair in disorder, the limbs lay anyhow. After shooting toward the panther, Murlock realizes that a piece of the panther's ear was in his wife's mouth, indicating that his wife was not dead after all, just unconscious. Something heavy falls violently onto the floor. The ribbon that tied her hands together in a death pose is broken; her hands are clenched. So Murlock tried to take care of his wife and return her to good health. Murlock situated his wife on a table in the cabin. Loud noises in the room terrify him, and he shoots at what he hears with his rifle. It represents the channel between the conscious and unconscious minds, through which the monsters of the forest (the dark thoughts of the unconscious) can access the physical world of the conscious. "The Boarded Window" Summary by Ambrose Bierce - Short Stories Short Stories Short Story Guide Subject/Theme Menu Abuse Absurdism Action | Adventure Actors Adapted to Film Affairs African-American Aging Allegories | Fables | Parables American Dream Ancient Times Animals Cats & Dogs Horses Appearances | Illusion vs Reality Art Assassins Audible Overcome by terror and sudden violence, Murlock collapses into unconsciousness. For Murlock was asleep. Instantly, he grabs for his rifle and fires it without aiming. The gunshot had scared away the panther. The ending of the story is foreshadowed, or hinted at, in later versions of the story. He fixed the hair and made finishing touches to the rest. Literary Essays on Horror, Ghost Stories & Weird Fiction. From what we know about a man like Murlock, we may try to imagine some of the details of the story told by my grandfather. Despite his attempt to nurse her back to health, she dies three days later, or so Murlock thinks. Murlock examined his wife's body. But the man did not move. ''The Boarded Window'' is a short story that was written by Ambrose Bierce. The state of his wife's body reveals that she was not dead when he prepared her body for burial. Kerry has been a teacher and an administrator for more than twenty years. With a fearless spirit I went to the place and got close enough to the ruined cabin to throw a stone against it. The narrator's grandfather knew Murlock, but the narrator did not. His senses were all alert. To one it comes like the stroke of an arrow, stinging all the sensibilities to a keener life; to another as the blow of a bludgeon, which in crushing benumbs.'' He lived alone in a house of logs surrounded on all sides by the great forest. When he was sure she was dead, Murlock had sense enough to remember that the dead must be prepared for burial. But this is too simple for Bierce: it isnt boarded over to keep out animals of the forest, but animals of the mind. The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce UPDATED WITH NEW ADDED FEATURES "The Boarded Window" by Ambrose Bierce is part of our Short Story Annotation Series designed to improve annotation skills, bolster reading comprehension, and cultivate literary appreciation. When all of the preparations for his wife's burial are complete, Murlock sits at the table in his cabin where his wife's body is laid out. Then something most frightful happened. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. ''The Boarded Window'' maintains Bierce's reputation. His arms and hands were like lead. From the throat, dreadfully lacerated, had issued a pool of blood not yet entirely coagulated. One day Murlock returned from gunning in a distant part of the forest to find his wife prostrate with fever, and delirious. He was terrified beyond the power to cry out or move. Estate liquidators make a living disposing of the personal effects of deceased persons. He flung his hands upon the table. He threw a stone at the house and ran away from the ghosts that were said to live there. The Boarded Window is one of the best regarded of Bierce's stories. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. The three main themes in the story include the supernatural, grief, and failure. He is so exhausted from his work and grief that he falls asleep at the table. One door, one window. Some heavy body seemed hurled against the table with an impetus that pushed it against his breast so sharply as nearly to overthrow him, and at the same instant he heard and felt the fall of something upon the floor with so violent a thump that the whole house was shaken by the impact. Then there was darkness blacker than before, and silence. His simple needs were supplied by selling or trading the skins of wild animals in the town. Murlock did not make the place prominent and identifiable even though she died very early. When he first came to the woods, Murlock had been married; however, there is no record of her name. Use tab to navigate through the menu items. He had had no experience in grief; his capacity had not been enlarged by use. She also holds a certificate in Instructional Design and Delivery. Murlock is afraid of his wifes spirit and is stuck in a sort of magnetic force to his logwood cabin. The story is told by an unknown narrator who originally heard the story from his grandfather. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. This tale is told by an unknown narrator who heard of the main character in the tale, Murlock, from his grandfather. 45 reviews A deserted cabin deep in the woods. When he shoots, it illuminates the room, and he sees a giant panther has his wife's body by the throat and is dragging her toward the window. The story most likely circulated as an absurd rumor, which the narrator's grandfather passed on to his grandchild. For decades, a white-haired man named Murlock has lived there; he looks 70 but is really 50. When he finishes the work that he must do, he takes one last moment to sit with her at his table, where her body is laid out. His gray, lifeless eyes were sunken. He threw his hands upon the table. The first mention of failure appears in the first paragraph of the short story. 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