The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky Analysis

A lawman has returned to deal with the town‟s notorious “terror.” Telling you that this story took place in the old west, the knee-jerk reaction is to expect this confrontation to be settled with pistols at dawn. Our hero, however, has crossed a threshold that is foreign to most of the western heroes we‟re familiar with, changing the dynamics of the game entirely. He‟s just gotten married.

Speaking of Stephen Crane, Donald Vanouse of the State University of New York writes,

“Crane is comparable to both naturalists and impressionists in his desire to shock readers with new and often disturbing ideas and perceptions” (516). Although Crane arguably lets readers down with his rather anticlimactic ending in “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,” he certainly

Blondie, with few friends and his own set of rules, never regretted anything he did.

Potter, on the other hand, is left feeling “heinous” and guilty of “an extraordinary crime,” having never consulted the “innocent and unsuspecting community” he has been charged to protect

(535). Potter is not a lone ranger who is free to come and go as he pleases. More realistically, however, he has a reputation, friendships, and a title to uphold. Ironically, however, as Eric

Knickerbocker points out, the first member of this “innocent and unsuspecting community” to hear the news of Potter‟s marriage is Scratchy Wilson (par. 21). Even though Scratchy is not considered one of Potter‟s close friends who we would think to be hurt by Potter‟s seemingly hasty lack of consideration, Scratchy is arguably the most affected by the news. This startling revelation to Scratchy causes the opponents‟ relationship to shift dramatically and dynamically.

The new Mrs. Potter breaks the formulaic mold as well. The damsels in distress in classic westerns are usually young and beautiful. Potter‟s wife is described as being neither.

Neither is she even a damsel in distress. In fact, it is her presence that sends Scratchy