How we cite our quotes: (Part.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He looked a moment at his "unsteadfast footing," then let his gaze wander to the swirling water of the stream racing madly beneath his feet. A piece of dancing driftwood caught his attention and his eyes followed it down the current. How slowly it appeared to move! What a sluggish stream! (1.4)
Though the stream is moving rapidly, the piece of driftwood seems impervious to its current. The creek both races and moves sluggishly. How might this parallel the nature of time in the story?
Quote #2
Striking through the thought of his dear ones was sound which he could neither ignore nor understand, a sharp, distinct, metallic percussion like the stroke of a blacksmith's hammer upon the anvil; it had the same ringing quality. He wondered what it was, and whether immeasurably distant or near by—it seemed both. Its recurrence was regular, but as slow as the tolling of a death knell. He awaited each new stroke with impatience and—he knew not why—apprehension. The intervals of silence grew progressively longer; the delays became maddening. With their greater infrequency the sounds increased in strength and sharpness. They hurt his ear like the thrust of a knife; he feared he would shriek. What he heard was the ticking of his watch. (1.5)
To a man who is about to die, the ticking of a watch – a tangible representation of the passing of time – can become a horrifying death knell (a bell rung to signal death). Farquhar hears time expand and contract as he loses control over his life.
Quote #3
From this state he was awakened—ages later, it seemed to him—by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation. (3.1)
Time becomes somewhat arbitrary in the face of death, and Farquhar's perception of the passing of time begins to weaken shortly before his hanging. After his hanging, Farquhar's perception of time is no longer reliable.
Quote #4
These pains appeared to flash along well-defined lines of ramification and to beat with an inconceivably rapid periodicity. (3.1)
Like Farquhar's military execution, pain is also highly regimented. Military justice and military time determine Farquhar's death and pain, but his own sense of time rebels against this structure.
Quote #5
Although no soldier, he had frequented camps enough to know the dread significance of that deliberate, drawling, aspirated chant; the lieutenant on shore was taking a part in the morning's work. How coldly and pitilessly—with what an even, calm intonation, presaging, and enforcing tranquility in the men—with what accurately measured interval fell those cruel words:
"Attention, company! . . . Shoulder arms! . . . Ready! . . . Aim! . . . Fire!" (3.6-7)
Like everything else about the soldiers in the story, the lieutenant's orders are regimented and precise. Through his words, the lieutenant enforces military time.
Quote #6
As he rose to the surface, gasping for breath, he saw that he had been a long time under water; he was perceptibly farther downstream—nearer to safety. (3.9)
Farquhar must rely on external evidence to measure time, since he no longer has a coherent grasp on the passing of time.
Quote #7
Doubtless, despite his suffering, he had fallen asleep while walking, for now he sees another scene—perhaps he has merely recovered from a delirium. He stands at the gate of his own home. All is as he left it, and all bright and beautiful in the morning sunshine. He must have traveled the entire night. (3.19)
As the story and Farquhar's life draw to a close, Farquhar's perception of time becomes less and less coherent. The verb tense's shift to present tense underscores the uncertain nature of time.