Perceived Time in "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge"
It is commonly and mistakenly believed that time is stable and similar for everyone. In fact, both philosophers and physicists have argued that time is not only different to everyone, but in fact does not even exist. For example, the philosophical theory of eternalism states that each moment of time (including those times that we call “past” and “future”) is real and exists along with all others (Trautman, 1966). In physics, the Newtonian concept of absolute time was challenged by the relativistic concept of time, which is focused on the observer (Crisp, 2007). Therefore, despite the fact that time is often seen as an absolute and similar to everyone, person’s perception plays a significant role in the description of time, its length and meaning. This perceived time might easily differ from the clock time (Aadland & Shaffer, 2012), making it seem either much longer or significantly shorter. Ambrose Bierce wonderfully shows the different time perceived by a man who has very little time left to live.
The hero of Bierce’s short story is going through a very complicated moment in life, as he is minutes if not seconds from being executed. The author has chosen this plot to show the differences of real and perceived time for a reason. It is said that in those moments before death one sees the whole life in front of one’s eyes. Therefore, time becomes much longer than it actually is for everyone around.
The story seems to slow down and everything moves in slow motion when the author begins to describe the thoughts of the main hero. In the case of Bierce’s hero this perceived time is seen, for example, through the way the stream with driftwood is perceived: “How slowly it appeared to move! What a sluggish stream!”. This is actually the first moment when the reader realizes that the hero’s time is different from the real one. It is much faster and more intense. In this time ticking of a watch sounds as “blacksmith’s hammer upon the anvil” and “as slow as the trolling of a death knell”. Therefore, the real time of a ticking watch meets the perceived time of Bierce’s hero and thus the reader is able to see the huge difference between the two. The time for the man slowed down so remarkably that he even managed to work out an escape plan. Unfortunately, the time for all the rest of the world moved as fast as it usually did and the hero was shortly executed.
It seems like the story itself lasts a very short period of time, but the author still manages to cover many different subjects while the man is standing and waiting for his death to come. The author uses descriptive method with bits of analysis to show the appearance of the hero and his executors, nature around the place, and even some geographical details. It is significant how many subjects the author managed to cover in a limited time, especially if one notes that around one third of a story is devoted to the thoughts of the to-be-executed hero.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge”is a short story that distinctively shows the difference between real time that is perceived more or less equally by the whole world and the perceived time that is very different for people in some unusual situations. In this case the author uses the perceptions of a man that will be executed very soon and therefore sees the world as something that moves very slowly. In this way the hero seems to have much more time for thoughts, memories and even plans. The author uses the ticking watch to show the exact difference between the perceptions of a person in a day-to-day situation and someone for whom time moves slowly, and so do the watch hands. Therefore, despite the fact that people commonly believe in stability of time and see it as an absolute, the perception of time by various people can be extremely unalike.
