The narrator then describes how the sole window in the cabin came to be boarded. Nature also appears as a theme. Learn about the themes of The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce. Zip. He lets his yard grow wild and provides for himself by selling animal skins. The man's name was said to be Murlock. Resting from his efforts, he does not hear as a panther comes through the window and attempts to drag his wife's body out of the window. Murlock was blinded by his grief. What are the Themes of ''The Boarded Window''? His own life, as evidenced in how he had given up having a farm, demonstrates that he blames himself for her death. However, we are given a choice through Murlock's example. Murlock is a man of the frontier, living in a log cabin that he'd built when he ventured to the Midwest to pursue a life of living off the land. The word ''actually'' does not appear in earlier versions of the story. He lived alone in a house of logs surrounded on all sides by the great forest. "The Boarded Window" is not a popular story; that is, reviewers rarely discuss it and reference to it among Bierce scholars is almost nonexistent. At this point, Murlock passes out. One day he returned from a hunting trip to find her struck down with a raging fever, and although he tried to nurse her back to health, she wasted and sweated away on her death bed in their woodland cabin. The code has been copied to your clipboard. It was not a time and place for medical examiners and newspapers. The Boarded Window by Ambrose Bierce | Summary & Significance, The Premature Burial by Edgar Allan Poe | Summary & Analysis, Julius Caesar Betrayal Quotes: Meaning & Analysis, A Municipal Report by O. Henry: Summary & Theme. It was so violent a crash that the whole house shook. This adds to the sense of mystery and uncertainty, increasing the . It seemed as if a heavy body was thrown against the table with a force that pushed against his chest. The narrator explains that the window was . . The story is told by an unknown narrator who originally heard the story from his grandfather. At the end of ''The Boarded Window,'' Murlock finds a panther trying to take his wife's body out of the window. Murlock himself and the people of the area had already forgotten where the wife was buried. He threw a stone at the house and ran away from the ghosts that were said to live there. A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality study guides that feature detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, quotes, and essay topics. Thanks for exploring this SuperSummary Study Guide of "The Boarded Window" by Ambrose Bierce. The narrator then tells of an earlier story in Murlock's life, also passed down from his grandfather. If he had been awake, he might have been able to scare the panther off right away and might have saved his wife's life. All rights reserved. Again, and nearer than before, sounded that unearthly cry upon his failing sense. They worked to clear their land in order to build a farm that would sustain them for the rest of their lives. The Boarded Window - A short story written by Ambrose Bierce was acclaimed for its sudden and surprise ending. I know only that with what was probably a sense of the fitness of things the body was buried near the cabin, alongside the grave of his wife, who had preceded him by so many years that local tradition had retained hardly a hint of her existence. Murlock had risen to his feet. 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. Read a summary of the short story, discover its in-depth analysis, and learn its significance in Bierce's writing career. Between the teeth was a fragment of the animal's ear. The narrator had been to the cabin after Murlock's death. Many of them had already forsaken that region for the remoter settlements, but among those remaining was one who had been of those first arriving. For Murlock was asleep. There is no known record of her name or details about her. In the flare of the gunpowder, he sees a giant panther dragging his dead wife toward the window by the throat. 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. Murlock was not close to his wife at all but was in a psychotic state of denial. Murlock, tells the narrator, lived by the "sale or barter of skins of wild animals" for things he could not grow or hunt. After this he gives up on cultivating his land, letting the fields return to saplings and the cabin decay into disrepair: Murlock has learned that mankind cannot hope to make civilized order of the wild chaos in nature if he cannot manage to make moral order from the animal chaos of his own damned soul. Plus, get practice tests, quizzes, and personalized coaching to help you Chapter-by-chapter summaries and multiple sections of expert analysis, The ultimate resource for assignments, engaging lessons, and lively book discussions. He did certain things wrong. Despite his attempt to nurse her back to health, she dies three days later, or so Murlock thinks. Murlocks boarding over of it may at first seem like a simple defense against further panthers. Definition. In that eastern country whence he came he had married, as was the fashion, a young woman in all ways worthy of his honest devotion, who shared the dangers and privations of his lot with a willing spirit and light heart. The flashing powder briefly illuminates the scene: to his horror, he sees his wifes body being viciously throttled by a panther (or mountain lion) which had grabbed her by the throat and is in the process of tearing it out. "The Boarded Window: An Incident in the Life of an Ohio Pioneer" is a short story by American Civil War soldier and writer Ambrose Bierce. Ambrose Bierce: Biography, Facts & Disappearance, The Boarded Window Comprehension Questions, The Death of Halpin Frayser: Summary & Analysis, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Imagery & Symbolism, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Characters & Conflict, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Foreshadowing & Irony, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Point of View & Tone, Chickamauga by Ambrose Bierce: Summary & Analysis, A Horseman in the Sky: Summary & Conflict, A Horseman in the Sky: Foreshadowing & Point of View, A Horseman in the Sky: Setting & Characters, Smarter Balanced Assessments - ELA Grades 3-5: Test Prep & Practice, NMTA Essential Academic Skills Subtest Reading (001): Practice & Study Guide, Holt McDougal Literature Grade 9 Common Core Edition: Online Textbook Help, Common Core ELA Grade 7 - Literature: Standards, Common Core ELA Grade 7 - Language: Standards, Common Core ELA Grade 7 - Speaking & Listening: Standards, Common Core ELA - Informational Text Grades 11-12: Standards, Common Core ELA Grade 7 - Writing: Standards, American Literature - Assignment 1: Characters Analysis, American Literature - Assignment 2: American Life Essay, Analyzing Literary Techniques in American Literature Readings: Essay Prompts, Comparing & Contrasting American Literature Readings: Essay Prompts, Mandatory Reading List for English 103: Analyzing and Interpreting Literature, Enumerative Bibliography: Definition & Examples, Simile vs. Metaphor: Differences & Examples, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. Short Stories: Study Guide & Homework Help, Psychological Research & Experimental Design, All Teacher Certification Test Prep Courses, Ambrose Bierce: Biography, Facts & Disappearance, The Boarded Window Comprehension Questions, The Death of Halpin Frayser: Summary & Analysis, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Imagery & Symbolism, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Characters & Conflict, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Foreshadowing & Irony, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge: Point of View & Tone, Chickamauga by Ambrose Bierce: Summary & Analysis, A Horseman in the Sky: Summary & Conflict, A Horseman in the Sky: Foreshadowing & Point of View, A Horseman in the Sky: Setting & Characters, Comprehensive English: Overview & Practice, FTCE Middle Grades English 5-9 (014) Prep, College Composition Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans, American Literature Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans, Study.com SAT Reading Test Section: Review & Practice, Study.com SAT Writing & Language Test Section: Review & Practice, AP English Literature Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans, Elizabeth Bishop: Biography & Famous Poems, Working Scholars Bringing Tuition-Free College to the Community. ______________________________________________________________, Try this Listening Quiz to check your understanding.. 4.6. They are retelling a story they heard from their grandfather. Bierce wrote: ''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.'' This is also the point in the story where the narrator discusses how Murlock took on the task of preparing everything in a painstaking manner. Download activities to help you understand this story here. I suppose it was agreed that he had died from natural causes or I should have been told, and should remember. Murlock reaches out over the table, despite his terror, and his wife's body is gone. Read the next short story; The Coup de Grace. He hears a scuffle; he reaches across the table for his wife, but her corpse is gone. Soon after he had finished his work he sank into a chair by the side of the table upon which the body lay. 'The Boarded Window' is told through a first-person narrator who is not personally related to the main conflict in any way. The story is set in an ''immense and almost unbroken forest'' located in Ohio near where Cincinnati now sits. Murlock grieved for the loss of his wife, but he was ashamed that he did not cry. The cabin made of logwood is understood in psychology as being the symbol of mans semblance of sanity or a stress reducer amid the darkness of his wilderness, that was his mind. The narrator never explains how his grandfather came to know the detailed information. The body lay near the window, where the beast had left it when frightened away by the flash and report of the rifle. The former resident - a recluse - is deceased. The Wife. Nature is depicted as unempathetic and opportunistic. All right, let's review. A large body hit the table, and Murlock stood and felt for his wife's body, finding the table empty. But there is something deeper to it than a gruesome mistake, something more powerful than the frightening results of a premature diagnosis of death. When he inspects her body, he finds a bleeding wound on her neck and sees that her hands are clenched. Arrhenius Base Overview & Examples | What is an Arrhenius Base? '', The supernatural also briefly appears near the end of the story as the panther is beginning its attack. In Murlock's sojourn to Ohio, he and his wife sought new life in a new land. During the night, something wakes him in the room. One day Murlock returned from gunning in a distant part of the forest to find his wife prostrate with fever, and delirious. ''The Boarded Window'' is a short story that was written by Ambrose Bierce. While Murlock is sleeping, an animalistic roar comes through the window from the outside. Murlock examined his wife's body. His emotional state might be partially to blame for his lack of observation. He tried but failed to stretch his hand across the table to learn if she was there. The narrator explains that everyone processes grief in their own way. The narrator's grandfather had known Murlock, but the narrator did not. From the throat, dreadfully lacerated, had issued a pool of blood not yet entirely coagulated. Joe has a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing and a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. In figure he was tall and spare, with a stoop of the shoulders--a burden bearer. Discover The Boarded Window summary. Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. He laid his arms upon the table's edge and dropped his face into them, tearless and very sleepy. And between the teeth was a piece of the animal's ear. This story tragically tells of the death of the wife of Murlock, the protagonist, who lives in the Ohio frontier. Terrified, he picked up his gun and fired. He saw a huge fierce panther dragging the dead woman toward the window. 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