In the Midst of Life · Chapter
The Boarded Window explained
Murlock, a frontiersman living alone in a remote cabin, is haunted by the memory of his wife who died of fever.
What happens
Murlock, a frontiersman living alone in a remote cabin, is haunted by the memory of his wife who died of fever. After her death, he prepares her body for burial, but falls asleep at the table. He awakens to terrifying sounds and, in a panic, fires his rifle, revealing a panther dragging her body toward the boarded window. The story is framed by the narrator's recollection of his grandfather's tale and the local legend of the boarded window.
Themes in this chapter
Death and Mortality
The chapter centers on the death of Murlock's wife and his subsequent grief, as well as his own death years later.
Isolation and Alienation
Murlock lives alone in the forest, cut off from society, and his grief further isolates him from the living.
Madness and Psychological Trauma
Murlock's terror and confusion after his wife's death, including his hallucinatory experience and maddened actions, illustrate psychological trauma.
Characters to notice
- Murlock
The protagonist, a frontiersman who loses his wife and later dies alone in his cabin.
- Mrs. Farquhar
Murlock's unnamed wife, who dies of fever and whose body is attacked by a panther.
Key passages
“He was terrified beyond the power to cry out or move. Perforce he waited—waited there in the darkness through seeming centuries of such dread as one may know, yet live to tell.”
He was so frightened he could not scream or move, and he endured an eternity of terror in the dark.
Describes Murlock's paralyzing fear during the panther attack.
“Grief is an artist of powers as various as the instruments upon which he plays his dirges for the dead, evoking from some the sharpest, shrillest notes, from others the low, grave chords that throb recurrent like the slow beating of a distant drum.”
Grief affects people differently, producing intense sorrow in some and a dull, persistent ache in others.
Narrator's reflection on the varied nature of grief.