The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky
By Stephen Crane
SYNOPSIS
Newlyweds Jack Potter and the bride are
aboard a train travelling through Texas, headed west
from San Antonio to the town of Yellow Sky. Riding on
an extravagant train, the couple is elated, yet nervous
and awkward. While the bride, who “was not pretty,
nor was she very young,” feels self-conscious and
anticipates the future that awaits her, Jack, the town
marshal of Yellow Sky, suffers from the disquiet
aroused from his returning home (243). Jack is
apprehensive about how his fellow townspeople will
respond to his unexpected marriage, for he feels as if
he “had committed an extraordinary crime” for not
consulting them about his marriage beforehand (245).
The couple receives “stares of derisive enjoyment” for
their affectations from the other passengers; however,
they are too absorbed in their anxiety to care (242).
Once the bride and groom arrive at Yellow Sky, they
hastily and stealthily head for Jack’s house.
Meanwhile, in Yellow Sky, six men are
leisurely conversing and drinking at the bar in the
Weary Gentleman Saloon: a traveling salesman, two
Mexican sheepherders, and three Texans. A young
man rushes into the saloon and reports that Scratchy
Wilson, a notorious local desperado, is drunk and on
the prowl with his gun. Upon this news, the locals take
safety precautions, for an impending shooting or
gunfight seems inevitable. The citizens inform the
perplexed foreign salesperson that when Scratchy
becomes intoxicated, there is bound to be a fray, and
the only man who will oppose Scratchy is Jack Potter,
who is, to their dismay, unavailable. Scratchy patrols
the streets of the town, bellowing an invitation for a
gunfight, but grows frustrated as his offers remain
unanswered. He first goes on a shooting spree and
then decides to visit the home of his rival, Jack Potter,
in the hopes of a duel.
At Jack Potter’s house, Scratchy encounters
Jack and his new bride. Scratchy points his revolver at
Jack, but is disappointed yet again when Jack answers
that he is unarmed, and thus is unable to engage in a
fight. Jack also announces that he had just gotten
married, to Scratchy’s surprise. Astounded, Scratchy
reacts to the shocking news by saying, “I s'pose it's all
off now,” and then walks away (250).
Yasmin Khodayari & Nicholla Viloria
Stephen Crane
(1871-1900)
Stephen Crane was born on November 1, 1871 in Newark, New
Jersey, to Jonathan and Mary Crane; he was the youngest of fourteen children.
He attended preparatory school at Claverack College and continued his
education for a short time at Lafayette College and Syracuse University. He
soon became a free-lance reporter in New York and began writing newspaper
articles, as well as short stories, poems, and novels. Crane published his first
novel called Maggie: A Girl of the Streets in 1893, a controversial story about
a young girl’s descent into prostitution which led to her suicide. Crane
continued to write, eventually publishing his next novel, The Red Badge of
Courage, in 1895. This war novel became one of his most famous novels and
helped him gain worldwide recognition as a writer. During his literary career,
Crane also published a collection of short stories called The Monster and
Other Stories, which includes titles such as “The Blue Hotel,” in addition to
other short stories such as “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky.” Stephen Crane’s
short stories are recognized for tending to portray underlying themes of
human nature and destiny. While on a voyage to Cuba, Crane unfortunately
grew very ill and developed tuberculosis. He died in 1900 at the age of 28.
“Every sin is the
result of
collaboration.”
- Stephen Crane
“You cannot choose your
battlefield, God does that
for you; but you can
plant a standard where a
standard never flew.”
- Stephen Crane
“Historically, there was supposed
to be something infinitely
humorous in their situation.”
(244)
“Face to face with this girl in San Antonio and
spurred by his sharp impulse, he had gone
headlong over all the social hedges." (245)
“If the citizens could dream of his prospective
arrival with his bride, they would parade the band
at the station and escort them, amid cheers and
laughing congratulations, to his adobe home.” (245)
“The man was playing with this town; it was a toy
for him.” (249)
“She was a slave to hideous rites, gazing at the
apparitional snake.” (249)
“He was like a creature allowed a glimpse of
another world.” (250)
“He was not a student of
chivalry; it was merely that
in the presence of this
foreign condition he was a
simple child of the earlier
plains.” (250)
Terms
• Theme - An aspect of human experience that the
author wishes to convey—the central insight or
controlling idea in a piece of literature. It does not
intend to teach or praise and is not directly presented.
The theme is abstract, but is made concrete through
the author’s literary style (plot, characters, setting,
etc.).
* The inevitability of change/progress
* The ‘passing of an era’ (‘old’ West  ‘new’ West)
* Marriage between two different social structures
• Plot - The author’s arrangement of events in a story
in order to achieve a certain effect. The plot consists
of a carefully devised, logical series of events which
progresses through a struggle of opposing forces,
called conflict, to a climax and a denouement.
• Setting - The time and location in which a story
takes place.
• Symbolism - The use of a concrete object to
represent an abstract idea. In literature, a symbol is
often a figure of speech in which a person, object, or
situation represents something in addition to its literal
meaning.
• Character - The person in a work of fiction and/
or the characteristics of a person.
Questions
(Please respond to two.)
1. Why does the narrator say, “Historically, there was supposed to be
something infinitely humorous in their situation,” when describing
the newlywed couple? Why do the other passengers on the train
survey the couple with humorous intent?
2. The bride traveling from the East to the western town of Yellow Sky
is symbolic. What is the symbolic significance of the bride? Is there
any significance in her not being "pretty" or "very young" and
being referred to only as "the bride"?
3. Why does Jack consider his not informing the Yellow Sky
townspeople about his marriage an “extraordinary crime,” which
made him feel that “he was heinous”? What compelled him to
marry in secrecy in the first place? (Consider the setting and the
social conventions the setting suggests.)
4. What theme(s) did you interpret from the story? Please provide
examples/concrete evidence from the text to support your
interpretation.
5. Why does Scratchy Wilson react the way that he does to the news
that his old rival, Jack Potter, is married and to the presence of the
bride? Which do you think had more impact on Scratchy—the
news or the bride? How do these distort or alter Scratchy’s
perception of reality?
6. What significance does the setting, the Texas frontier, have in
terms of the theme? How would the story be different if it took
place in a modern setting?
7. At the climax of the story, the
staple, stereotypical feature of
Westerns, the inevitable
gunfight, is averted. How does
Crane utilize this event to
establish or develop the theme
of the ‘passing of an era’?