Stephen Crane\'s Short Story \"The

¶ … Stephen Crane's short story "The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky" from 1898, Crane pushes classic western characters such as Jack Potter, the town marshal, and Scratchy Wilson, the town troublemaker, against the advancement or encroachment of civilization. The western setting of Yellow Sky, Texas, would suggest the dominance of the west, yet, in the end, the concept of civilization, as represented by the marriage of Jack Potter, defeats the wildness of the west.

In the first paragraph, the collision of east and west is apparent. The train representing the recent sprawl of civilization is making the Texas landscape appear to be "pouring eastward" in a mixture of natural items such as "mesquite and cactus" along with marks of man such as the "little groups of frame houses" (968). While the train slices across the wildness of Texas, the newly married couple is introduced.

The husband who is clearly uncomfortable in "his new black clothes" in contrast with his moving "brick-colored hands" (968) attempts to be confident and cosmopolitan for his new wife. The husband points out the finery of the train with its "sea-green figured velvet, the shining brass, silver, and glass" (969). He reminds her that he has some worldliness because he is at least familiar with the train and its appointments. He is a man of the wilderness, yet he knows that the world is progressing. In that, the husband is a dynamic character as he straddles the past and the future.

The wife, who is never named in the story, appears to be intimidated by progress. She is not the stereotypical pretty and blushing bride of so many stories. Instead, she is neither young nor pretty. Like her new husband, she is uncomfortable with her new position as bride and appearance in her finery. She is "embarrassed" by her fancy clothing and has limited expectations for herself. "It was quite apparent that she had cooked, and that she expected to cook, dutifully" (968). She expects to be a frontier wife to her frontier husband. Her expectation for herself is as a static character and the audience forms the same expectation.

The couple's naivete is obvious to everyone. Although it may seem racist to us today, Crane is careful to point out that even the Negro porter recognizes that these two are not a true part of the progressing world. The couple is taken advantage of by the porter who "bullied them with skill in ways that did not make it exactly plain to them that they were being bullied" (969). Their waiter in the dining car also manhandles them through their meal. It is obvious to everyone on the train that this couple represents the past of Texas. They do not know how to respond to this foreign environment of the train. A reader might well be surprised that a man who is a town marshal can be bullied by a porter on a train, but Jack Potter has no means to defend himself against that kind of attack at this point in the story.

Potter is intelligent enough to realize that the forces of civilization and wilderness are going to come into conflict with each other. He knows that introducing his wife into this setting may be uncomfortable. Marriage seems to symbolize a settling down of the wildness in his nature. By marrying, Potter fears that he has "committed an extraordinary crime" (970). For fear of his two worlds colliding too suddenly, Potter rushes his bride off the train and to his home so that he can more subtly introduce this bit of civilization into Yellow Sky.

Unknown to Potter, the representation of Texas' past is on the loose at the same time in his town. Scratchy Wilson as described by the bartender is "the last one of the old gang that used to hang out along the river here. He's a terror when he's drunk" (974). In stereotypical western fashion, Wilson wears dark clothing and plays the part of the wild outlaw who randomly terrorizes the town and its inhabitants. Crane provides ample evidence to show how citizens are frightened of Wilson and his acts of violence through the bartender's words to the traveling Drummer.

Further evidence is supplied by Wilson's actions when he shoots at the innocent dog and door of the bar. Yet, Wilson finds no relief from his western angst and is forced to seek the only man who will fight him, Jack Potter, at his home. As Potter and his wife rush "sheepishly and shamefacedly" to their home, they are unexpectedly confronted by Wilson and his gun. Uncharacteristically, Potter does not have a gun and must confess this to Wilson. As Potter is making this statement, his mind travels back to the beauty of the train, "the glory of the marriage, the environment of the new estate" (976). The collision of east and west has occurred in this passage. Potter does not have a gun because he has taken on the vestiges of the new world. Potter is not completely progressive himself, but he has played the part and been adopted into civilization.