One Summer Night Ambrose Bierce – Unseen
Crime Analysis
One Summer Night Ambrose Bierce – Unseen Crime Analysis
Weather reflecting a psychological disturbance – weather unusual for summer.
The paradoxes in the language and contrasting ideas of death – “Henry Armstrong was
buried but not seem to prove that he was dead”.
The gothic device of the man sitting upwards and men fleeing.
Stereotyping of the man who kills Henry – his body being defiled.
The extract tells the short tale of the dead body of Henry Armstrong which by the ending
appears to be not dead at all. The themes of the supernatural, building of tension, and use of
pathetic fallacy to create a sense of foreshadowing and an impending action which will occur
are all elements of crime which add to the readers overall interest to the extract. In this essay I
will discuss this.
Immediately as the extract begins a paradox is created in the contrasting ideas surrounding
death with the heterodiegetic narrator stating that; “The fact that Henry Armstrong was buried
did not seem to him to prove that he was really dead”. The contrasting ideas of death while still
being alive adds a sense of the supernatural and paranormal to the extract yet with the further
suggestion of a too early burial in the narrators declaration; “But dead – no; he was only very,
very ill”, suggesting to the reader that they are reading about a man about to be buried alive a
crime associated with far away centuries when deaths were common and building up. The man
is described as being at peace, at a point of sickness that he no longer cares about his future or
the events around him. Due to this it becomes clear that we are in a society and century where
measures to determine if the dead body is truly a dead body are not present. Due to this the
extract takes an ironic subversion of the Gothic genre by suggesting all paranormal activity
such as the man “tranquilly” sitting up being because he was never dead able to be given a
similar logical conclusion. Therefore, as we return to the graveyard which becomes the scene of
the crime with the “stretched naked” body of Henry Armstrong laying on a table “the head
defiled with blood and clay from a blow with a spade” it becomes unclear if the crime was an
intentional murder with the criminal stating “Iʼm waiting for my pay” or was it one of
misunderstandings? Through this the author uses the technique of emphasising the unknown
so the audience reflects further on it. As H P Lovecraft stated, “the oldest and greatest fear of
mankind is fear of the unknown” therefore by not knowing if the man was killed purposely or
accidently the story resonates in the readers minds with the conflicting ideas being debated.
The criminal Jess is described as “grinning all eyes and teeth” with the reference to his own
autonomy reminding the reader of his victim whose own body he violated. The contradiction of
destruction and creation are explored similarly in Frankenstein with the consequences of
Crime Analysis
One Summer Night Ambrose Bierce – Unseen Crime Analysis
Weather reflecting a psychological disturbance – weather unusual for summer.
The paradoxes in the language and contrasting ideas of death – “Henry Armstrong was
buried but not seem to prove that he was dead”.
The gothic device of the man sitting upwards and men fleeing.
Stereotyping of the man who kills Henry – his body being defiled.
The extract tells the short tale of the dead body of Henry Armstrong which by the ending
appears to be not dead at all. The themes of the supernatural, building of tension, and use of
pathetic fallacy to create a sense of foreshadowing and an impending action which will occur
are all elements of crime which add to the readers overall interest to the extract. In this essay I
will discuss this.
Immediately as the extract begins a paradox is created in the contrasting ideas surrounding
death with the heterodiegetic narrator stating that; “The fact that Henry Armstrong was buried
did not seem to him to prove that he was really dead”. The contrasting ideas of death while still
being alive adds a sense of the supernatural and paranormal to the extract yet with the further
suggestion of a too early burial in the narrators declaration; “But dead – no; he was only very,
very ill”, suggesting to the reader that they are reading about a man about to be buried alive a
crime associated with far away centuries when deaths were common and building up. The man
is described as being at peace, at a point of sickness that he no longer cares about his future or
the events around him. Due to this it becomes clear that we are in a society and century where
measures to determine if the dead body is truly a dead body are not present. Due to this the
extract takes an ironic subversion of the Gothic genre by suggesting all paranormal activity
such as the man “tranquilly” sitting up being because he was never dead able to be given a
similar logical conclusion. Therefore, as we return to the graveyard which becomes the scene of
the crime with the “stretched naked” body of Henry Armstrong laying on a table “the head
defiled with blood and clay from a blow with a spade” it becomes unclear if the crime was an
intentional murder with the criminal stating “Iʼm waiting for my pay” or was it one of
misunderstandings? Through this the author uses the technique of emphasising the unknown
so the audience reflects further on it. As H P Lovecraft stated, “the oldest and greatest fear of
mankind is fear of the unknown” therefore by not knowing if the man was killed purposely or
accidently the story resonates in the readers minds with the conflicting ideas being debated.
The criminal Jess is described as “grinning all eyes and teeth” with the reference to his own
autonomy reminding the reader of his victim whose own body he violated. The contradiction of
destruction and creation are explored similarly in Frankenstein with the consequences of
