Part 1 of Essay
The plot is about a man who has been wrongly accused and is now being hanged by an organised military group. The man gradually is deprived of oxygen as the noose is tightened. He then begins hallucinating and the reader is lead astray to thinking that the man is escaping, when in reality he is simply distorted due to the ....

Part 2 of Essay
.... and makes us wonder why he is at the bridge about to be hanged. ‘The liberal military code makes provision for hanging many kinds of people, and gentlemen are not excluded.’ However we are also told that this man is a kind-hearted man and he is no vulgar assassin. Now we feel a touch of sympathy for the man, as we know he is either innocent or does not deserve such a penalty. By now Bierce’s tone is established; dry, ironic, exact, almost pedantic and - the voice of a satirist. I say this because his po ....