# A Creature of Habit explained — Can Such Things Be?

> Chapter companion for Can Such Things Be? by Ambrose Bierce.

## What happens

In a Montana mining camp in 1865, gambler Henry 'Gray Hank' Graham murders miner Dreyfuss after a card dispute, is swiftly tried by vigilantes, and hanged. After the body is cut down, it bizarrely runs through the panicked crowd until Dr. Arnold Spier cuts the rope and lays it flat, remarking that dead bodies are creatures of habit.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and the Supernatural

The hanged man's corpse exhibits unnatural movement, blurring the line between life and death.

### Violence and Mortality

The murder and public execution highlight the brutal reality of frontier violence and death.

### The Uncanny and the Grotesque

The corpse's grotesque 'prancing' and the crowd's horrified reaction evoke a deeply unsettling scene.

## Character check-ins

### Henry Graham

Gambler known as 'Gray Hank' who murders Dreyfuss and is hanged by vigilantes.

### Dr. Arnold Spier

Physician who pronounces Graham dead and later cuts the rope, stopping the corpse's macabre run.

## Key lines

> The dead are creatures of habit.

Corpses tend to behave in predictable ways based on their last living actions.

_Dr. Spier's explanation for why the hanged man ran when placed upright but lay still when laid on his back._

## Links

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- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/can_such_things_be_se/chapters