ENG 113
Instructor Risch
“The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky” by Stephen Crane
Journal 4
Donna Stevens
January 13, 2011
My initial response to this writing is that the reason Jack Potter took a bride is to change his role in Yellow Sky. If he was a married man, then his life would be respected a little more than if he were single. Being a single marshal in a rough town like Yellow Sky, he was just asking for a challenge by his very existence. The bride he took was not young or pretty. Her redeeming quality was that she could provide a change of pace and maybe some security for him. In the end, his gamble proved to be a good one. The town drunk, Scratchy Wilson backed down and had a disappointed change of heart because the Marshal can no longer come out and play because he is now married. I liked the way Crane swirled the story around Scratchy. He was unpredictable, drunk and armed. I was afraid he would kill the bride and groom immediately. When he did not, then the theme of the story began to make sense. Jack Potter had an underlying motive for taking a bride. He needed to change his role in the society of Yellow Sky. Jack’s conflict was that he wanted to remain the town’s Marshal. He needed to maintain the respect and admiration of as many residents as possible without getting killed by Scratchy. He needed a solution to Scratchy’s constant threats while still maintaining dignity and manhood. The plot of the story was an exciting arrangement of action. I saw the bride and groom as very vulnerable to the unpredictable, drunk and armed Scratchy Wilson. They were so fascinated with the ride on the train that they could hardly afford. They were very sweet, until I realized that Jack had an ulterior motive for marrying her. Jack and Scratchy were very much alike. Jack was smarter because he used his bride to provide a greater status in society to protect him from Scratchy. Scratchy just wanted to fight, but knew if he killed a married man that his town would see that he died for it.
In comparison to Lonesome Dove, the setting was very similar. The western town, dust, liquor, trains, women and a sense of right and wrong were in both works. The characters were similar as well. Each had a Marshal and a bad guy. The action was similar because there was life and death suspense with the good guy winning in the end. Also, in both works the Marshal is the smarter one. The theme in Crane’s story is one where the Marshal is willing to marry someone in order to protect himself. This Marshal is not as honest as the one on Lonesome Dove. He did what he had to in order to survive, to live to fight another day, but Crane’s marshal may find that he would have rather been shot by Scratchy than to be married to a woman he does not truly love. In paragraph 17, he writes that Jack believed he loved her not that he truly loved her. I think that is all he thought he needed in order to make his plan work. He also took a risk by being unarmed when Scratchy threatened him again, but he knew it would be doubly disgraceful to kill an unarmed, married man. The nature of the conflict Marshal Potter feels on the train in Part I is that he is out of place on such a luxurious train. He and his bride are in clothing that they are totally unaccustomed to wearing. He continuously checks his clothing to make sure it is doing what it is supposed to and she is embarrassed by her sleeves. They are furthermore conflicted because they cannot actually afford to eat on the train, but they splurge. Jack Potter feels that he has committed a “crime” by bringing home a bride because he has. He has misrepresented himself to her. She is an insurance policy and not truly the love of his life. The function of the “drummer” in Part II is to provide insightful details and emotion to the story. He provides background information on the job of the marshal as he continues to ask question of the patrons at the bar. His conversations with the barkeeper also make the story more suspenseful. Mrs. Potter and Scratchy Wilson serve as foils for each other. Mrs. Potter highlights the qualities of Scratchy when her innocent, out of town, non-combative character is contrasted with his. Scratchy highlights her character because he is very comfortable in his clothes. He can afford what he had for breakfast. He is likes to pick fights, and has lived in Yellow Sky long enough to gain a reputation. Mrs. Potter represents a good, honest life and Scratchy represents everything dishonest, until he shows a morsel of respect for a married man. The significance of the setting is that this scenario would need to take place in the old west for an issue like shooting an unarmed married man to even matter. This story set in today’s time would not make any sense because our society today does not value marriage. Crane uses the drummer and the barkeeper to create suspense before Scratchy meets Jack. He even uses the dog of the barkeeper. The dog is even more vulnerable and undeserving of death than Jack. Crane also said that “Potter and his bride walked sheepishly and with speed” (Meyer 304). This helps the reader visualize the danger that Scratchy presents. I think that suspense is a major point in the story because Jack solves his problem and lives through this dangerous day. Without the threat of life and death, the story would not be much of a western. I did not find myself having any sympathy toward Scratchy. I felt that he had a bad habit of getting drunk and playing win lose or draw with the marshal. The meaning of his conceding that “I s’pose it’s all off now” is that Scratchy is going to have to find someone else to play with (Meyer 305). Taking out the marshal was something that was done in those days with some regularity and Scratchy had nothing better to do than to make that his life’s work. Scratchy is a static character. He did not and probably would not change for anyone. The details that support the story’s theme are that the bride wore very conservative dressy blue clothing. Scratchy was comfortable and could afford the clothes he was wearing. Crane used the color blue because it speaks to her innocence and quietness. Scratchy wore a red flannel shirt with red and gold gilded topped boots. This speaks to his loud personality. Also his clothing was made by working class people. Her clothing was blue cashmere and probably finely made. She was also described as a “drooping and drowning woman” a fact reiterated by the author because her outfit was blue (Meyer 305). She was fully outfitted with buttons buttoned to the max and he had a low collar because one could see the cords of his neck. Their clothing helped to describe her as an uptight innocent woman and Scratchy the casual, rough and rowdy gunslinger. The heroes in western stories are rarely married because they risked life and death on a daily basis. The men did not want to leave a widow with children because she would be defenseless and no woman in the west wanted to be widowed. Women could not defend much less support themselves in western times. Crane’s use of marriage is central to his theme because it is in the state of marriage that Jack Potter finds freedom from the threats of Scratchy Wilson. The potential homosexual issues that a gender critic might discover would be the fact that Scratchy Wilson was obsessed with Jack Potter. Also Scratchy wore colorful red clothes and gold gilded boots. This may imply that Scratchy had a feminine side. The fact that he was always threatening Jack may imply that he desired attention from Jack and when Jack took a bride, well, “I s’pose it’s all off now” (Meyer 305).
