# A Wireless Message explained — Can Such Things Be?

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

## What happens

In the summer of 1896, Mr. William Holt, a wealthy Chicago manufacturer separated from his wife, becomes lost while walking in central New York. He experiences a mysterious, intense red light that illuminates the sky, during which he sees an apparition of his wife holding their child. The vision vanishes, and Holt returns home haggard. A telegram soon arrives revealing that his wife and child died in a house fire at exactly the same time as his vision.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and the Supernatural

Holt's vision of his wife and child at the moment of their death suggests a supernatural connection across distance.

### Isolation and Terror

Holt's solitary walk in a lonely region and the inexplicable red light evoke a profound sense of isolation and dread.

### Fate and Inevitability

The predestined telegram and the simultaneous vision underscore an inescapable fate linking Holt to his family's tragedy.

## Character check-ins

### William Holt

Protagonist who experiences a supernatural vision of his wife and child during a nocturnal walk.

## Key lines

> In that unearthly illumination he saw near him, but apparently in the air at a considerable elevation, the figure of his wife, clad in her night-clothing and holding to her breast the figure of his child.

In the strange light, Holt saw his wife floating in the air, dressed in her nightgown, clutching their child.

_Describes the central supernatural vision._

> An hour later came the predestined telegram. Holt’s dwelling in one of the suburbs of Chicago had been destroyed by fire.

An hour afterward, a telegram arrived confirming that Holt's Chicago home had burned down.

_Reveals the tragic real-world event coinciding with the vision._

## Links

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