An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge Delusion Essay

Some people believe before you die you remember your favorite memories about your life. In the short story An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, written by Ambrose Brice, Peyton Farquhar experienced just that. The suspense throughout the story makes it seem as if everything going on is really happening but was it really all a delusion Farquhar created? There is evidence that helps prove this claim.
Delusions or imaging things that aren’t really happening are caused when you are under extreme stress, Peyton Farquhar was experiencing this during the story. He was standing on the edge of a wood platform, 20 feet from his death. In the third section of the story it says “As Peyton Farquhar fell straight down through the bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead.” This description foreshadows the ending of the story where it says “Peyton Farquhar was dead; his body… swung gently from side to side beneath the timbers of the Owl Creek bridge.”
He shows how things looked like through the eyes of Farquhar instead of what was truly going on. "Suddenly he felt himself whirled round and round - spinning like a top. ...objects were represented by their colors only; circular horizontal streaks of color - that was all he saw." This is showing evidence that he is starting to lose his consciousness and things are slowly becoming vague and uncertain. In conclusion, telling whether Peyton Farquhar was dreaming is pretty clear. There is countless evidence showing proof and supporting the belief that he was being delusion to what he wanted to happen then to face reality to what was truly happening. It was pretty clear throughout the story there was evidence to show he was dreaming. The title of the story has the word “occurrence” this is another example that everything was an illusion. All in all it was very clear he was dreaming about how he wanted things to