Can Such Things Be? · Chapter
I: The Review as a Form of Welcome explained
A man stands on a hill at night, observing a silent procession of ghostly soldiers marching along a moonlit road.
What happens
A man stands on a hill at night, observing a silent procession of ghostly soldiers marching along a moonlit road. He is disoriented and fearful, thinking the army may be Confederate forces moving on Nashville. The column vanishes as dawn breaks, leaving him bewildered in a peaceful pastoral landscape.
Themes in this chapter
The Uncanny and the Grotesque
The silent, ghostly army marching in moonlight and its sudden disappearance evoke an uncanny, unsettling atmosphere.
Isolation and Terror
The man's profound disquiet and sense of personal peril amid the lonely, silent landscape highlight themes of isolation and terror.
Fate and Inevitability
The inexorable march of the spectral column suggests an inevitable, fateful progression beyond the man's understanding.
Characters to notice
- Halpin Frayser
The unnamed man on the hill, disoriented and observing the spectral army.
Key passages
“It is so, perhaps, that we shall act when, risen from the dead, we await the call to judgment.”
The man's disorientation mirrors how we might feel after resurrection, waiting for judgment.
Connects the scene to a supernatural, post-mortem experience.
“The entire column had passed out of sight: the straight white road lay bare and desolate in the moonlight!”
The army vanished instantly, leaving the road empty and eerie.
Highlights the mysterious disappearance of the ghostly procession.