Explain how Bierce's use of stream of consciousness techniques adds to the story's drama.

Stream of
consciousness narrations are often characterized by a lack of clarity between one thought and
the next, the absence of punctuation and/or capitalization, perhaps even varied and
ungrammatical sentence structures. The narration in this story does not look quite like what we
might be used to in other texts that make use of this technique.However, in the third part of
this story, Bierce employs a kind of stream of consciousness to show readers what it is like in
Peyton Farquhar's mind as he falls from the Owl Creek bridge into the noose.This time would just
consist of a second, or even a fraction of a second, and, yet, Part III is the longest part of
the narrative.Toward the end of Part I, Farquhar experienced the sensation that time was slowing
down, and this perception sets the stage for Part III.

The stream of consciousness increases the drama of the story because this section is
full of strange events that make us question their reality and, yet, we are inclined to believe
that Farquhar has, indeed, escaped execution.He experiences neck pain, certainly, but he also
can perceive every minute insect crawling on the leaves in the forest, even the veins of the
leaves themselves, from a significant distance.Things feel somewhat mystica or magicall -- the
forest is full of strange noises and voices that speak in some "unknown tongue" -- and
we can tell that all is not quite right in Farquhar's head, that he is confused and anxious and
frightened and exhausted, and we are held in suspense, waiting to find out just what is going
on.]]>