"The Boarded Window" by Ambrose Bierce tells the story of an old man, Murlock, whom lived far from townspeople in the middle of the forest and kept to himself. The only aspect of his house, the boarded window, caused suspicion, and the narrator, besides his grandfather, only knew of the story. With this oral tradition, Murlock had a wife who was quite ill, and became unconscious. He believes his dead wife returns to haunt Murlock, but in the end Bierce creates a horrific story that causes a chill to pass throughout the readers spine. In the end, with many literary devices, it is noted that not everything seems at it appears. Within the story, immediately, the narrator becomes a key of symbolism. Although the omniscient unnamed narrator arises …show more content…
First and foremost, "the body lay near the window," symbolizes the importance of this boarded window. This window served as a possible escape, or better yet, entrance to others. "Where the beast had left it when frightened away by the flash and report of the rifle," Instantly noting on the word choice, Bierce sees this "beast" to be sensitive to flash concluding perhaps an animal was the predator. This predator must have been big, bigger ands stronger than the wife, "the clothing was deranged, the long hair in disorder, the limbs lay anyhow." By referring to a beast with limbs tells us the predator was not human, rather an …show more content…
His "terror may turn to madness; and madness incite to action," concluding he may have been mentally ill and unstable himself. As a result, he discharged the rife regardless of aim. From the statement, "The ribbon with which he had bound the wrists was broken; the hands were tightly clenched," shows she was trying to save her life, whereas Murlock see's this as a way of the predator eating at the dead body. Lastly, "between the teeth was a fragment of the animal's ear," sums up that his wife tried to survive, but could not. This predator killed her, meaning she was alive the whole