# The Boarded Window explained — In the Midst of Life > Chapter companion for In the Midst of Life by Ambrose Bierce. ## 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. ## Character check-ins ### 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 lines > 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._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/chapters/the-boarded-window - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/in_the_midst_of_life_se/chapters