Ambrose Bierce wrote An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge in 1890, 70 years after the publication of Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. By this time, Gothic literature - which focuses heavily on setting, mood and plenty of words - had ceased to be as popular as it once was. One clear demonstration of this is in the descriptions used; while Irving described his characters through many past events, Bierce tells little about his characters' past lives, focusing primarily on the story being told.
In Sleepy Hollow, Irving focuses strongly on characters and mood. In Owl Creek Bridge, by contrast, Bierce focuses entirely on the rapid events of a few minutes (with the exception of a short back-story).
The stories are are not without similarities, however, as there are common themes. For example, both stories contain significant delusions. The theme of danger is also shared between them, to an extent; in Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane imagines that he is in great danger, but in Owl Creek, Payton Farquhar actually is killed. Both stories also feature great changes in the lives of their protagonists, as Crane relocates to another city and Farquhar relocates to the afterlife.
As far as my personal preferences, I thought Mr. Bierce's story to be the superior of the two. Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge is much more clearly defined and does not waste words like The Legend of Sleepy Hollow did, telling a more substantial story in a shorter time.
Ambrose Bierce definitely had the better story of the two because he stuck to the facts and descriptions. Washington Irving did kind of slow the story down to fit in minute details, which, although they give a better word picture, really make the story a more challenging read than An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge.
ReplyDeleteI found your comparison of the description of the two writers to be very interesting/true, and also agreed with your other contrasts. However, I would have to say i preferred "the Legend of Sleepy Hollow" because i enjoyed its element of mystery, and found it to be more complete and interesting overall.
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