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Anxious representations of uncertain masculinity: the failed journey to self-understanding in Ambrose Bierce's "The Death of Halpin Frayser".

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From: The Journal of Men's Studies
Date: 20060322
Author:Talley, Sharon

In his gothic tales, as Rubens (1978) observes, Ambrose Bierce uses dreams "to create another world where some manifestation of man's inner terrors and desires can be accorded objective reality" (p. 29). Of all of his short stories, "The Death of Halpin Frayser" (1891) best demonstrates Bierce's use of the gothic to probe the borders of consciousness in a deliberate attempt to appeal to his readers' absorption with themes of identity crisis. (1) The immense popularity of gothic tales like this one suggests that anxiety associated with gender identity may be fundamental to the ...

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