In this passage from The Boarded Window, the author Ambrose Bierce describes grief, and how it affects Murlock. To do this he uses many literary devices and strategies. He uses these to describe how grief works in general, how it affects others, and how it affects Murlock. First, Bierce describes grief as “An artist” and that grief “Has powers as various as the instruments upon which he plays,” He is using this metaphor to show that grief affects everyone in very different ways and that it has the power and tools to do whatever it wants to people. The author describes grief as having “the sharpest, shrillest notes” and for others “grave chords that throb recurrent like the slow beating of a drum.” This musical imagery shows that for people that are affected by the sharp and shrill notes, their grief is loud, immediate, and sharp, stabbing them in the heart, causing immediate pain. People that experience the low and throbbing drum-like notes, have grief that is not immediate but lasts for a long time but is not constant, it will stop but then begin again. This is how different people can be affected by grief.
Next, Bierce uses many similes to compare …show more content…
The author tells us that “He has no experience in grief” and that “his capacity had not been enlarged by use.” This tells us that Murlock does not know what grief does to people. So he is not prepared for the grief that he experiences, when his wife dies he is hit by the “blow of a bludgeon,” crushing him on the inside. When he is finished preparing his wife “he laid his arms upon the table’s edge, and dropped his face into them,” he is hit so hard by the grief that he passes out on the table. Murlock himself did not even know or think that he was grieving. He thought that he was fine, but because the way grief had struck him, he was disabled and the grief did its work on the inside of him and did not unveil itself