An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge - Effect of the Dramatic Point of View

An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Ambrose Bierce Ambrose Bierce weaves a tale of intrigue and captivation, by using shifts of voice and time in the story An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge. In the first four paragraphs, Bierce begins the story using third person, and in this point of view, he creates reality. We can view the situation and all aspects while it is written in third person; we know precisely what is going …

…revealed: "Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body, with a broken neck, swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of Owl Creek Bridge."(P.72) It is here that we realize we have been cleverly mislead; strung along by hope and fantasy, only to come to the realization that Peyton did not live "happily ever after". Ambrose Bierce knits a story of fascination and deception by something as simple as shifts in point of view.