The Western and The Bride

Most classic western stories all seem to have a certain set of characteristics; similar settings, characters and plot progressions. Stephen Crane’s short story, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky, contains some of these elements, but is also missing some, thus creating its own type of story by the time we reach the end product.

The classic western always seems to be set in a small town, with saloons and dusty streets. The Bride’s setting is very similar to the classic western, as it has all of those things. Another similarity would be the cowardly townspeople awaiting the arrival of a tormenting antagonist. The 1952 film, High Noon, is a great example of this: The townspeople discover that Frank Miller, the town marshal’s deadly enemy, is returning to town to take over and kill the marshal. Needless to say, the townspeople are scared to death, choosing to hide in their homes, giving no help to the marshal. Comparatively, in The Bride, townspeople hear that Scratchy Wilson, notorious for getting black-out drunk and going on shooting rampages throughout the town, is heading toward the saloon they’re in. The Barkeep locks the doors and they all hide quietly in the bar instead of going out and dealing with him. The barkeeper says, “I wish Jack Potter was back from San Anton…he would sail in and pull out the kinks in this thing” (Crane, 1878). Little do they know that Potter is due to arrive very shortly by train with his new wife.

Jack Potter, the town marshal of Yellow Sky, isn’t your typical western protagonist. He’s nothing like Clint Eastwood’s brave and confident man with no name, who is one the characters most associated with classic westerns. Potter is nervous on his train ride home to Yellow Sky, not of fighting or dying, but because he thinks his town will be upset with him for marrying a stranger so abruptly. Also, the bride is described as unattractive, which is so unlike the female stars of western classics like, the gorgeous Grace Kelly from High Noon. Potter is unsure of himself and if he made the right decision of marrying an out-of-towner so hastily. The contemplation of decisions is slightly similar to Gary Cooper’s marshal in High Noon, who isn’t sure if he made the correct decision of staying back to fight Miller and his gang by himself.

The anti-climactic ending of Bride is the most obvious difference from the classic western. Potter finally comes to town with his new wife and goes directly to his house. Waiting outside is none other than Scratchy Wilson. Scratchy draws, having the drop on Jack, but Jack doesn’t draw on him. This would be about the time in a classic western when Jack (the protagonist) would outmaneuver Scratchy (the antagonist) by whipping out his pistol with lightning speed, and unloading it just as fast, sending Scratchy falling to the dirt. But this doesn't happen. Potter reveals he has no gun and has just been married. Scratchy then gets upset, like his momma just told him to stop playing cops and robbers and come inside. Scratchy says, “Married?...No!..I s’pose it’s all off now” (Crane, 1878). Scratchy seems to understand that having a wife gives a man some kind of purpose or future life that should be left undisturbed, he then decides to just walk away. So unlike the typical western, there is no shootout; the marshal doesn’t even have a gun. Also, there isn’t the disregard for life like in most westerns where everybody and their dog can get shot in town, especially the marshal when he is walking around unarmed. All in all, The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky has similarities to the classic western, while also exhibiting some perplexing variations of the genre.

Works Cited

Crane, Stephen. "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky." Great American Short Stories. By Paul Negri. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002. 58-67. Print.

High Noon. Dir. Fred Zinnemann. Perf. Gary Cooper, Grace Kelly, and Thomas Mitchell. Stanley Kramer Productions, 1952. DVD. 

"Bartleby": A Prediction of Tragic Down Fall Due to Industrialization

“Bartleby, the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street" by Herman Melville depicts characters whose personalities reflect the evolving world of industrialization. “Bartleby” deals with several characters whose attitudes at work, suggest more about the environment than is explicitly told throughout the story. The subtitle, “A Story of Wall-Street,” of Melville’s story suggests one of two things: it is coincidental, or Melville believed there were issues big enough to write about in the economic and social aspects of the industrial revolution.  At the very beginning of the story we meet the lawyer-narrator who insists on telling the story of Bartleby, “who[m] was a scrivener the strangest [he] ever saw or heard of” (Melville 18). Melville is suggesting that strange things are happening to both the economic and social environment. People like Bartleby are becoming static beings due to uninteresting daily routines at the law office. In fact, Bartleby refuses to do his job as the days go by. Bartleby’s answer to any work suggestions made to him was, “I would prefer not to.” With the progression of the industrial world outside the law office, there was a great demand for copyists and/or scriveners to rewrite the words of another being, over and over. Bartleby, along with many others during this era, became tired of the repetition day-in and day-out.

Moreover, the narrator was an unreliable narrator, by which Melville suggests that people of higher class are unable to relate to people of lower class. Before the narrator begins to tell the story of Bartleby he says, “it is fit I make some mention of myself, my employees, my business, my chambers, and general surroundings” because this information plays a crucial role in understanding the story (Melville 18). The narrator’s first priority is to provide the reader with his background in order to prove his place in the social and economic aspects of society. The narrator is blinded by his role in society to the point that he is unable to connect and understand the underlying cause of Bartleby’s refusal to participate in the work environment. Moreover, the lawyer accounts his profession to be “a profession proverbially energetic and nervous, even to turbulence, at times, yet nothing of that sort have I ever suffered to invade my peace” (Melville 18). Which proves his inability to connect to any awful event that may have occurred to Bartleby; which in fact, asserts his distance from the “working class.” His elevation in society, distances him from the low and rustic people whose lives have been affected by the industrial world.

Bartleby’s ways become problematic for the narrator. The lawyer states, “The passiveness of Bartleby sometimes irritated me” (Melville 28). Bartleby’s passiveness was not the only issue; it's his ambiguity that also causes the lawyer to become irritated with him. Although Bartleby flusters him, he never takes the initiative to ask what bothers Bartleby. The narrator says, “Rolled away under his desk, I found a blanket; under the empty grate, a blacking box and brush… it is evident enough that Bartleby has been making his home here” (Melville 31). The lawyer and Bartleby’s actions represent the evolution of office jobs: they consume a beings time and energy and disregards their social lives. Bartleby’s ways signify the overwhelming changes during the industrial revolution. People without high quality skills or an education, had little or no hope in becoming more than the business world labeled them as.

“Bartleby” predicted a catastrophic downfall of people and towns due to the devastating focus on the industrial world. Of course, this would have only happened if things had remained the same.

Melville, Herman. "Bartleby." Great American Short Stories. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2002. 18-48. Print.

-Lily