Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Send a Question for the Book Club or a Story Request
"Fear has no brains; it is an idiot."
Ambrose Bierce, a rather prolific short story writer, is known for his whit, but scholars have often noted that The Moonlit Road is a piece that is not talked about enough. This traditional gothic tale, uses rather unconventional storytelling to deliver a piece that is not only gripping, but also deeply moving. Rae Wilson shares her observations on Bierce's tragic tale and and invites you question the both the power of love and the power of perspective.
Support the Show & Get Exclusive Stories: Stories with Rae | Patreon
Music by:
Sneaky Snitch by Kevin MacLeod http://incompetech.com
Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0
Free Download / Stream: http://bit.ly/sneaky-snitch
Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/7-rXQALDv-4
-------------
Dread by Rae Wilson
------------
Dark Shadows - by David Fesliyan
https://www.fesliyanstudios.com/
★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★In the oral tradition of storytelling, Echoes in the Dark, delivers classic works of gothic fiction weekly. Hosted and curated by Ms. Rae (an award-winning educator, actor, and literary analyst) the collection of stories spans popular works by authors like Edgar Allan Poe as well as lesser known works by authors such as Guy de Maupassant. Each story is followed by a literary analysis.
If you’re looking to enjoy more classic literature, struggle to find the time to read, hate reading, or just love listening to stories, then this podcast is for you.
A Note on Content: While these stories are generally appropriate for listeners aged 12 and up, classic Gothic literature frequently explores themes of murder, romantic affairs, and "tortured souls." Stories are performed exactly as written in their original historical context.
If you are looking to learn more ways to boost your literary analysis visit:
Speaker: Welcome to Echoes in the
Dark, a podcast dedicated to the
oral
Speaker: tradition of storytelling.
Speaker: If you're looking to enjoy
more classic literature, struggle to
Speaker: find the time to read, hate
reading, or just love listening to
Speaker: stories, then this podcast
is for you.
Speaker: At the end of each story,
I'll share my analysis on the
story's
Speaker: deeper meaning.
Speaker: The Moonlit Road by Ambrose
Beerce is a short story that was
originally
Speaker: published in 1907 in a
Cosmopolitan magazine.
Speaker: It is estimated that Bierce
wrote some 120 to 160 short stories.
Speaker: He also wrote fables and
poems.
Speaker: The entire story is told in
first-person perspective and is told
Speaker: over three chapters with
three different characters sharing
their
Speaker: point of view.
Speaker: If you want to follow
along, you can get a copy on my
website,
Speaker: better essaywriting.com.
Speaker: And if you'd like to hear
more works by Beerce and his
contemporaries,
Speaker: pick up some underused and
possibly archaic words, then join me
Speaker: on Patreon.
Speaker: That's Patreon CW Stories
with Ray R A E.
Speaker: Or click on the link in the
show notes.
Speaker: The Moonlit Road by Ambrose
Here.
Speaker: Statement of Joel Hetman
Jr.
Speaker: I am the most unfortunate
of men.
Speaker: Rich, respected, fairly
well educated and of sound health,
with
Speaker: many other advantages,
usually valued by those having them
and
Speaker: coveted by those who have
them not.
Speaker: I sometimes think that I
should be less unhappy if they had
been
Speaker: denied me.
Speaker: For then the contrast
between my outer and my inner life
would
Speaker: not be continually
demanding a painful attention.
Speaker: In the stress of privation
and the need of effort, I might
sometimes
Speaker: forget the somber secret,
ever baffling the conjecture that it
Speaker: compels.
Speaker: I am the only child of Joel
and Julia Hetman.
Speaker: The one was a well-to-do
country gentleman, the other, a
beautiful
Speaker: and accomplished woman to
whom he was passionately attached
with
Speaker: what I now know to have
been a jealous and exacting
devotion.
Speaker: Family home was a few miles
from Nashville, Tennessee, a large,
Speaker: irregularly built dwelling
of no particular order of
architecture,
Speaker: a little way off the road,
in a park of trees and shrubbery.
Speaker: At the time of which I
write, I was 19 years old, a student
at
Speaker: Yale.
Speaker: One day I received a
telegram from my father of such
urgency that
Speaker: in compliance with its
unexplained demand, I left at once
for
Speaker:home.
Speaker: At the railway station in
Nashville, a distant relative
awaited
Speaker: me to apprise me of the
reason for my recall.
Speaker: My mother had been
barbariously murdered.
Speaker: Why and by whom none could
conjecture.
Speaker: But the circumstances were
these.
Speaker: My father had gone to
Nashville intending to return the
next afternoon.
Speaker: Something prevented his
accomplishing the business in hand,
so
Speaker: he returned on the same
night, arriving just before the
dawn.
Speaker: In his testimony before the
coroner, he explained that, having
Speaker: no latch key and not caring
to disturb the sleeping servants,
Speaker: he had, with no clearly
defined intention, gone round to the
rear
Speaker: of the house.
Speaker: As he turned an angle of
the building, he heard a sound as of
Speaker: a door gently closed, and
saw in the darkness, and distinctly,
Speaker: the figure of a man which
instantly disappeared among the
trees
Speaker: of the lawn.
Speaker: A hasty pursuit and brief
search of the grounds in the belief
Speaker: that the trespasser was
someone secretly visiting a servant
proving
Speaker: fruitless, he entered at
the unlocked door and mounted the
stairs
Speaker: to my mother's chamber.
Speaker: Its door was open, and,
stepping into black darkness, he
fell
Speaker: headlong over some heavy
object on the floor.
Speaker: I may spare myself the
details.
Speaker: It was my poor mother, dead
of strangulation by human hands.
Speaker: Nothing had been taken from
the house, the servants had heard
Speaker: no sound, and excepting
those terrible finger marks upon the
dead
Speaker: woman's throat, dear God,
that I might forget them.
Speaker: No trace of assassin was
ever found.
Speaker: I gave up my studies and
remained with my father, who
naturally
Speaker: was greatly changed.
Speaker: Always of a sedate,
tactical disposition, he now fell
into so
Speaker: deep a dejection that
nothing could hold his attention.
Speaker: It's anything, a footfall,
the sudden closing of a door,
aroused
Speaker: in him a fitful interest
one might have called it an
apprehension.
Speaker: At any small surprise of
the senses, he would start visibly
and
Speaker: sometimes turn pale, then
relapse into a melancholy apathy
deeper
Speaker: than before.
Speaker: I suppose he was what is
called a nervous wreck.
Speaker: As to me, I was younger
then than now.
Speaker: There is much in that.
Speaker: Youth is Gilead, and which
is balm for every wound.
Speaker: Ah, that I might again
dwell in that enchanted land.
Speaker: Unacquainted with grief, I
knew not how to appraise my
bereavement.
Speaker: I could not rightly
estimate the strength of the stroke.
Speaker: One night, a few months
after the dreadful event, my father
and
Speaker: I walked home from the
city.
Speaker: The full moon was about
three hours above the eastern
horizon.
Speaker: The entire countryside had
the solemn stillness of a summer
night.
Speaker: Our footfalls and the
ceaseless songs of the Caedids were
the
Speaker: only sound aloof.
Speaker: Black shadows of bordering
trees lay athwart the road, which,
Speaker: in the short reaches
between, gleamed ghostly white.
Speaker: As we approached the gate
to our dwelling, whose front was in
Speaker: shadow, and which no light
shone, my father suddenly stopped
and
Speaker: clutched my arm, saying
hardly above his breath God what is
that?
Speaker: I hear nothing, I replied.
Speaker: But see he said, pointing
along the road directly ahead.
Speaker: I said Nothing is there.
Speaker: Come, father, let us go in.
Speaker: You are ill.
Speaker: He had released my arm and
was standing rigid and motionless in
Speaker: the center of the
illuminated roadway, staring like
one bereft
Speaker: of senses.
Speaker: His face in the moonlight
showed a pallor and fixity
inexpressibly
Speaker: distressing.
Speaker: I pulled gently at his
sleeve, but he had forgotten my
existence.
Speaker: Presently he began to
retire backward, step by step, never
for
Speaker: an instant removing his
eyes from what he saw or thought he
saw.
Speaker: I turned half round to
follow, but stood irresolute.
Speaker: I do not recall any feeling
of fear unless a sudden chill was
Speaker: its physical manifestation.
Speaker: It seemed as if an icing
wind had touched my face and folded
my
Speaker: body from head to foot.
Speaker: I could feel the stir of it
in my hair.
Speaker: At that moment my attention
was drawn to a light that suddenly
Speaker: streamed from an upper
window of the house.
Speaker: One of the servants,
awakened by what mysterious
premonition of
Speaker: evil, who can say?
Speaker: And in obedience to an
impulse that she was never able to
name,
Speaker: had lit a lamp.
Speaker: When I turned to look for
my father, he was gone.
Speaker: And in all the years that
have passed, no whisper of his fate
Speaker: has come across the
bordered land of conjecture from the
realm
Speaker: of the unknown.
Speaker: Chapter 2 Statement of
Caspar Rotten.
Speaker: Today I'm said to live.
Speaker: Some doubtless will go
further and inquire, who was he?
Speaker: In this writing I supply
the only answer that I am able to
make
Speaker: Casper Groton.
Speaker: Surely that should be
enough.
Speaker: The name has served my
small need for more than twenty
years of
Speaker: a life of unknown length.
Speaker: True.
Speaker: I gave it to myself, but
lacking another I had the right.
Speaker: In this world one must have
a name.
Speaker: It prevents confusion even
when it does not establish identity.
Speaker: Some though are known by
numbers which also seem inadequate
distinctions.
Speaker: One day for illustration, I
was passing along a street of a city
Speaker: far from here, when I met
two men in uniform, one of whom,
half
Speaker: pausing and looking
curiously into my face, said to his
companion,
Speaker: That man looks like seven
sixty seven.
Speaker: Something in the number
seemed familiar and horrible.
Speaker: Moved by an uncontrollable
impulse, I sprang into a side street
Speaker: and ran until I fell
exhausted in a country lane.
Speaker: I have never forgotten that
number.
Speaker: Always it comes to memory,
attended by gibbering obscenity,
peals
Speaker: of joyless laughter, the
clang of iron doors.
Speaker: So I say a name, even if
self bestowed is better than a
number.
Speaker: In the register of the
potter's field I shall soon have
both.
Speaker: What wealth Of him who
shall find this paper I must beg a
little
Speaker: consideration.
Speaker: It is not the history of my
life.
Speaker: The knowledge to write that
is denied me.
Speaker: This is only a record of
broken and apparently unrelated
memories,
Speaker: some of them as distinct
and sequent as brilliant beads upon
a
Speaker: thread.
Speaker: Others remote and strange,
having the character of crimson
dreams
Speaker: with interspaces blank and
black, witch fires glowing still and
Speaker: red in a great desolation.
Speaker: Standing upon the shore of
eternity, I turn for a last look
landward
Speaker: over the course by which I
came.
Speaker: There are twenty years of
footprints, fairly distinct the
impressions
Speaker: of bleeding feet.
Speaker: They lead through poverty
and pain, devious and unsure as of
one
Speaker: staggering beneath a
burden.
Speaker: Remote, unfriended
melancholy slow.
Speaker: Ah the poet's prophecy of
me, how admirable How dreadfully
admirable.
Speaker: Backward beyond the
beginning of this Via Dolorosa, this
epic
Speaker: of suffering with episodes
of sin, I see nothing clearly.
Speaker: It comes out of a cloud.
Speaker: I know that it spans only
twenty years, yet I am an old man.
Speaker: One does not remember one's
birth, one has to be told.
Speaker: But with me it was
different.
Speaker: Life came to me full handed
and endowed me with all my faculties
Speaker: and powers.
Speaker: Of a previous existence, I
know no more than others, for all
having
Speaker: stammering imitations that
may be memories and may be dreams.
Speaker: I know only that my first
consciousness was of maturity in
body
Speaker: and mind, a consciousness
accepted without surprise or
conjecture.
Speaker: I merely found myself
walking in the forest, half clad,
foot sore,
Speaker: unutterably weary and
hungry, seeing a farmhouse.
Speaker: I approached and asked for
food, which was given me by one who
Speaker: inquired my name.
Speaker: I did not know, yet knew
that all had names.
Speaker: Greatly embarrassed I
retreated, and night coming on lay
down
Speaker: in the forest and slept.
Speaker: The next day I entered a
large town which I shall not name,
nor
Speaker: shall I recount further
incidents of the life that is now to
end.
Speaker: A life of wandering always
and everywhere haunted by an
overmastering
Speaker: sense of crime and
punishment of wrong, and of terror
and punishment
Speaker: of crime.
Speaker: Let me see if I can reduce
it to narrative.
Speaker: I seem once to have lived
near a great city, a prosperous
planter,
Speaker: married to a woman who I
loved and distrusted.
Speaker: We had it sometimes seems.
Speaker: One child, a youth of
brilliant parts and promise.
Speaker: He is at all times a vague
figure, never clearly drawn,
frequently
Speaker: altogether out of the
picture.
Speaker: One luckless evening it
occurred to me to test my wife's
fidelity
Speaker: in a vulgar, commonplace
way, familiar to everyone who has
acquaintance
Speaker: with the literature of fact
and fiction.
Speaker: I went to the city, telling
my wife that I should be absent
until
Speaker: the following afternoon,
but I returned before daybreak and
went
Speaker: to the rear of the house,
purposing to enter by a door with
which
Speaker: I had secretly so tampered
that it would seem to lock, yet not
Speaker: actually fasten.
Speaker: As I approached it, I heard
it gently open and close and saw a
Speaker: man steal away into the
darkness.
Speaker: With murder in my heart, I
sprang after him, but he had
vanished
Speaker: without even the bad look
of identification.
Speaker: Sometimes now I cannot even
persuade myself that it was a human
Speaker: being.
Speaker: Crazed with jealousy and
rage, blind and bestial with all the
Speaker: element passions of insult
and manhood, I entered the house and
Speaker: sprang up the stairs to the
door of my wife's chamber.
Speaker: It was closed.
Speaker: But, having tampered with
its lock also, I easily entered and
Speaker: despite the black darkness,
soon stood by the side of her bed.
Speaker: My groping hands told me
that although disarranged, it was
unoccupied.
Speaker: She is below, I thought,
and terrified by my entrance, has
evaded
Speaker: me in the darkness of the
hall.
Speaker: With the purpose of seeking
her, I turned to leave the room but
Speaker: took a wrong direction.
Speaker: The right one.
Speaker: My foot struck her,
cowering a corner of the room.
Speaker: Instantly my hands were at
her throat, stifling a shriek, my
knees
Speaker: were upon her struggling
body, and there in the darkness,
without
Speaker: a word of accusation or
reproach, I stringed her till she
died.
Speaker: There ends the dream.
Speaker: I have related it in the
past tense, but the present would be
Speaker: the fitter form, for again
and again the somber tragedy
reenacts
Speaker: itself in my consciousness
over and over.
Speaker: I lay the plan.
Speaker: I suffer the confirmation,
I redress the wrong.
Speaker: Then all is blank, and
afterward the rains beat against the
grimy
Speaker: window panes, or the snows
fall upon my scant attire.
Speaker: The wheels rattle in the
squalid streets where my life lies
in
Speaker: poverty and mean
employment.
Speaker: If there is ever sunshine,
I do not recall it.
Speaker: If there are birds, they do
not sing.
Speaker: There is another dream,
another vision of the night.
Speaker: I stand among the shadows
in the moonlit road.
Speaker: I am aware of another
presence, but whose I cannot rightly
determine.
Speaker: In the shadow of a great
dwelling I catch the gleam of white
garments.
Speaker: Then the figure of a woman
confronts me in the road.
Speaker: My murdered wife.
Speaker: There is death in the face,
there are marks upon the throat, the
Speaker: eyes are fixed on mine with
an infinite gravity which is not
reproach,
Speaker: nor hate, nor menace, nor
anything less terrible than
recognition.
Speaker: Before this awful
apparition I retreat in terror, a
terror that
Speaker: is upon me as I write.
Speaker: I can no longer rightly
shape the words.
Speaker: See they now I am calm, but
truly there's no more to tell.
Speaker: The incident ends where it
began in darkness and in doubt.
Speaker: Yes, I am again in control
of myself The captain of my soul.
Speaker: But that is not response,
it is another stage and phase of
expiation.
Speaker: My penance, constant in
degree, is mutable and calm.
Speaker: One of its variants is
tranquility.
Speaker: After all, it is only a
life sentence To hell for life.
Speaker: That is a foolish penalty.
Speaker: The culprit chooses the
duration of his punishment.
Speaker: Today my time expires to
each and all the peace that was not
mine.
Speaker: Chapter three Statement of
the Late Julia Hetman through the
Medium
Speaker: Bay Rolls I had retired
early and fallen almost immediately
into
Speaker: a peaceful sleep, from
which I awoke with that indefinable
sense
Speaker: of peril which is, I think,
a common experience than that other
Speaker: earlier life.
Speaker: Of its unmeaning character
too, I was entirely persuaded.
Speaker: Yet that did not banish it.
Speaker: My husband, Joel Hetman,
was away from home.
Speaker: The servant slept in
another part of the house.
Speaker: But these were familiar
conditions.
Speaker: They had never before
distressed me.
Speaker: Nevertheless, the strange
terror grew so insupportable that
conquering
Speaker: my reluctance to move, I
sat up and lit the lamp at my
bedside.
Speaker: Contrary to my expectation,
this gave me no relief.
Speaker: The light seemed rather an
added danger, for I reflected that
Speaker: it would shine out under
the door, disclosing my presence to
whatever
Speaker: evil thing might lurk
outside.
Speaker: You that are still in the
flesh, subject to horrors of the
imagination.
Speaker: What a monstrous fear that
must be witnessing in darkness and
Speaker: security from malevolent
existences of the night.
Speaker: That must bring to close
quarters with an unseen enemy, the
strategy
Speaker: of despair.
Speaker: Extinguishing the wind, I
pulled the bed closing about my head
Speaker: and lay trembling and
silent, unable to shriek, forgetful
to pray
Speaker: in this pitable state.
Speaker: I must have learned for
what you call hours.
Speaker: With us, there are no
hours.
Speaker: At last it came.
Speaker: Hesitant, uncertain, as of
something that did not see its way.
Speaker: To my disordered reason,
all the more terrifying for that as
the
Speaker: approach of some blind and
mindless malevolence to which is no
Speaker: appeal.
Speaker: I even thought that I must
have left the whole limp button, and
Speaker: the groping of this
creature proved it a monster of the
night.
Speaker: This was foolish and
inconsistent with my previous dread
of the
Speaker: light.
Speaker: But what would you have?
Speaker: It has no brains, it is an
idiot.
Speaker: The dismal witness that
bears and the cowardly counsel that
it
Speaker: whispers are unrelated.
Speaker: We know this well.
Speaker: We who have passed into the
realm of terror, who skulk in
eternal
Speaker: dust among the scenes of
our former lives, invisible even to
ourselves
Speaker: and one another, yet hiding
forlorn in lonely places, yearning
Speaker: for speech with our loved
ones, yet dumb and as fearful of
them
Speaker: as they of us.
Speaker: Sometimes the disability is
removed, the law suspended.
Speaker: By the deathless power of
love or hate we break the spell.
Speaker: We are seen by those whom
we would warn, console, or punish.
Speaker: What form we seem to them
to bear we know not.
Speaker: We know only that we
terrify even those whom we most wish
to comfort
Speaker: and from whom we most crave
tenderness and sympathy.
Speaker: Forgive.
Speaker: I pray you this
inconsequent digression by what was
once a woman.
Speaker: You who consult us in this
imperfect way you do not understand.
Speaker: You ask foolish questions
about things unknown and things
forbidden.
Speaker: That we know and could
impart in our speech is meaningless
in
Speaker:yours.
Speaker: We must communicate with
you through a stammering
intelligence
Speaker: and that small fraction of
our language that you yourselves can
Speaker: speak.
Speaker: You think that we are of
another world?
Speaker: No.
Speaker: We have no knowledge of no
world but yours.
Speaker: Though for us, it holds no
sunlight, no warmth, no music, no
laughter,
Speaker: song of birds, nor any
companionship.
Speaker: Oh God, what a thing it is
to be a ghost, cowering and
shivering
Speaker: in an altered world a prey
to apprehension and despair.
Speaker: No, I did not die of
fright.
Speaker: The thing turned and went
away.
Speaker: I heard it go down the
stairs.
Speaker: Hurriedly, I thought, as if
itself in sudden fear.
Speaker: Then I rose to call for
help.
Speaker: Hardly had my shaking had
found the doorknob when merciful
heaven
Speaker: I heard it returning.
Speaker: Its footfalls as it
remounted the stairs were rapid,
heavy and
Speaker: loud.
Speaker: They shook the house.
Speaker: I fled to an angle of the
wall and crouched upon the floor.
Speaker: I tried to pray.
Speaker: I tried to call the name of
my dear husband.
Speaker: Then I heard the door
thrown open.
Speaker: There was an interval of
unconsciousness, and when I revived,
Speaker: I felt a strangling clutch
upon my throat.
Speaker: Felt my arms feebly beating
against something that bore me
backward.
Speaker: Felt my tongue thrusting
itself between my teeth, and then I
passed
Speaker: into this life.
Speaker: No, I have no knowledge of
what it was.
Speaker: The sum of what we knew at
death is the measure of what we know
Speaker: afterward of all that went
before.
Speaker: We know many things, but no
new light falls upon any page of
that.
Speaker: In memory is written all of
it that we can read.
Speaker: Here are no heights of
truth overlooking the confused
landscape
Speaker: of that dubitable domain.
Speaker: We still dwell in the
valley of the shadow, lurk in its
desolate
Speaker: places, peering from
brambles and thickets at its mad,
maligned
Speaker: inhabitants.
Speaker: How should we have new
knowledge of that fading past?
Speaker: What I am about to relate
happened on a night.
Speaker: We know when it is not.
Speaker: For then you retire to your
houses and we can venture from our
Speaker: places of concealment to
move unafraid about our old homes,
to
Speaker: look in at the windows,
even to enter and gaze upon your
faces
Speaker: as you sleep.
Speaker: I had lingered long near
the dwelling where I have been so
cruelly
Speaker: changed to what I am, as we
do while any that we love or hate
Speaker:remain.
Speaker: Vainly, I had sought some
method of manifestation, some way to
Speaker: make my continued existence
and my great love and poignant pity
Speaker: understood by my husband
and son.
Speaker: Always, if they slept, they
would wake, or if in my desperation
Speaker: I dared approach them when
they were awake, would turn toward
Speaker: me the terrible eyes of the
living, frightening me by the
glances
Speaker: that I sought from the
purpose that I held.
Speaker: On this night, I had
searched for them without success,
fearing
Speaker: to find them.
Speaker: They were nowhere in the
house, nor about the moonlit long,
for
Speaker: although the sun is lost to
us forever, the moon, full orbit or
Speaker: slender, remains to us.
Speaker: Sometimes it shines by
night, sometimes by day, but always
it
Speaker: arises and sets, as in that
other life.
Speaker: I left the lawn and moved
in the white light and silence along
Speaker: the road, aimless and
sorrowing.
Speaker: Suddenly I heard the voice
of my poor husband in exclamations
Speaker: of astonishment, with that
of my son in reassurance and
dissuasion,
Speaker: and there, by the shadow of
a group of the trees they stood
near,
Speaker: so near their faces were
toward me, the eyes of the elder man
Speaker: fixed upon mine.
Speaker: He saw me at last, at last
he saw me.
Speaker: In the consciousness of
that, my terror fled as a cruel
dream.
Speaker: The death spell was broken.
Speaker: Love had conquered law.
Speaker: Mad with exhalation, I
shouted, I must have shouted.
Speaker: He ceases, he ceased, he
will understand.
Speaker: Then, controlling myself, I
moved forward, smiling and
consciously
Speaker: beautiful to offer him
myself to his arms to comfort him
with
Speaker: endearments and with my
son's hand in mine to speak words
that
Speaker: should restore the broken
bonds between the living and the
dead.
Speaker: Alas, alas, his face went
white with fear, his eyes were as
those
Speaker: of a haunted animal.
Speaker: He backed away from me as I
advanced and at last turned and fled
Speaker: into the woods, whither it
is not given to me to know, to my
poor
Speaker: boy, left doubly desolate.
Speaker: I have never been able to
impart a sense of my presence.
Speaker: Soon he too must pass to
this life invisible and be lost to
me
Speaker: forever.
Speaker: That was The Moonlit Road
by Ambrose Bierce, and this is not
the
Speaker: first time we've read a
piece by Ambrose Bierce.
Speaker: We've previously read in
this podcast The Boarded Window, as
well
Speaker: as A Vine on a House.
Speaker: If you have not had an
opportunity to listen to those
tales, I
Speaker: do recommend going back and
taking a listen.
Speaker: Okay, so let's get into it,
my friends.
Speaker: What is it to say about the
Moonlit Road?
Speaker: Well, after having read a
few Ambrose Spears pieces now, I
have
Speaker: to say this is by far my
favorite.
Speaker: Um A Vine on a House was a
bit comical.
Speaker: Um you can hear my my
giggles and comments and reflection
upon
Speaker: that piece when you listen
to that episode.
Speaker: And a boarded window, it's
fine.
Speaker: For me, that one was a bit
predictable and not the most
memorable.
Speaker: Um you know what's going to
happen.
Speaker: At least I felt I knew what
was going to happen.
Speaker: It's still a decent ride.
Speaker: But I don't feel that it
had a whole lot to say.
Speaker: It was a very simple story.
Speaker: Now, with all of that being
said, Window was written some almost
Speaker: a decade before our current
piece, The Moonlit Road.
Speaker: So I realize I'm making
these comparisons early on, but I do
want
Speaker: to just throw those out
there because if you haven't
listened
Speaker: to the other pieces, I
think it's worth taking a listen,
and then
Speaker: you can come back and fully
understand all the things that I
have
Speaker: to say about this piece.
Speaker: So wow, The Moonlit Road.
Speaker: I find it to be a beautiful
yet tragic love story and almost
Shakespearean,
Speaker: if you will.
Speaker: There were a lot of fun
phrases, in my opinion.
Speaker: And I was very eager to
find out what was going to happen
next.
Speaker: Oftentimes, when I am
recording these stories, it is what
us actors
Speaker: call a code read.
Speaker: So I have not had an
opportunity to read the story prior
to preparing
Speaker: for our lovely recording.
Speaker: Hopefully, I'm getting
better at this and maintaining some
consistency
Speaker: with the voices, but I feel
I held strong with this one.
Speaker: So, what do we learn?
Speaker: What do we learn from
Beerce's beautiful love story?
Speaker: Well, we do learn that
there are two sides to every story,
and
Speaker: in this case, three sides
to a single story, right?
Speaker: Everyone has their own view
of what happened.
Speaker: Um and often in the kind of
true crime thriller world, we like
Speaker: to romanticize that the
deceased will somehow be able to
tell
Speaker: us what happened to them.
Speaker: And I like that this
character just says outright, I
don't know.
Speaker: I don't know what happened
to me.
Speaker: I know as much as I knew
when I was alive.
Speaker: Anything after that point,
I can't tell you, can't help ya.
Speaker: Um, as someone who does
listen to a lot of dateline as I am
doing
Speaker: long drives across the
country, there's always this idea
of, well,
Speaker: the victim themselves had
DNA under their fingernails, and so
Speaker: they were able to point us
to their killer.
Speaker: Now, mind you, this story
was done before the times of DNA
testing,
Speaker: but it really I really just
appreciate the fact that Bears
wrote,
Speaker: hey, I don't expect for the
deceased to have all the answers.
Speaker: And it just kind of makes
us uh well make makes me realize how
Speaker: much um uh pressure uh how
much we put upon those that have
passed.
Speaker: Surely they must have taken
some secrets with them to the grave,
Speaker: right?
Speaker: Um surely if they were
here, they could help us solve their
murder.
Speaker: Surely if they were here,
they could uh ease the pain that we
Speaker: feel that they are no
longer here and comfort us um and
explain
Speaker: it to us.
Speaker: And just uh it really is
kind of crazy, at least in Western
society,
Speaker: this idea of intense
mourning for those who have passed.
Speaker: Now, in this case, we have
uh an intense longing by the lady,
Speaker: um longing to comfort and
reconnect with her loved ones.
Speaker: She doesn't want to be away
from them, she wants to uh uh make
Speaker: sure that they're okay and
that they aren't missing her too
much,
Speaker: but but that's just not an
option.
Speaker: I also appreciate the
description of the afterlife.
Speaker: She's like, look, there's
no other world.
Speaker: I'm here, it's the same
world I've always been a part of.
Speaker: I just can't do I can't
speak the same language as you.
Speaker: I'm not seen as the living,
but I'm still here, I'm always here.
Speaker: And very poetic in the
sense that our memories of someone
are
Speaker: always ever present.
Speaker: As long as you keep
thinking of someone, that memory
exists.
Speaker: And so in in that aspect, I
feel like ghosts as as Bears lays
Speaker: it out for us, um, are like
memories.
Speaker: We can be comforted by our
memories, we can be tortured by our
Speaker: memories, we can be
frightened by our memories.
Speaker: And I think that is what
we're being told here.
Speaker: Now, when we looked at the
captain, I I I really liked that
because
Speaker: this guy's like, hey, I
don't really remember much up until
I
Speaker: was wandering through the
woods, and then someone asked my
name,
Speaker: and I was like, oh, don't
know, can't tell.
Speaker: So we have a bit of like
amnesia, right?
Speaker: Um, shock and denial
happening for this man.
Speaker: And uh he goes off, lives a
new life, and he has this dream.
Speaker: He never tries to find out
who he is, you know, or what his
life
Speaker: was like before he realized
he was wandering in these woods.
Speaker: He never takes that step.
Speaker: But he does have a
recurring dream where he remembers
seeing someone
Speaker: in the woods, at least he
thought he saw someone, and going
into
Speaker: the home and strangling his
wife.
Speaker: Oh, his poor wife, who was
cowering in a corner because she
heard
Speaker: someone in the house, and
lo and behold, um the person who
should
Speaker: be there to protect her,
love her, uh, runs to the house and
attacks
Speaker: her.
Speaker: One thing Birsch doesn't
give us is whether there truly was
someone
Speaker: in the woods and uh who
that person was, what were they
doing?
Speaker: What were they doing there,
right?
Speaker: It could have definitely
been someone who wanted to have a
little
Speaker: alliance with one of the
maids.
Speaker: That is absolutely a
possibility.
Speaker: And so they snuck in, snuck
out, and they were gone, because
that's
Speaker: what people do when they're
having little late-night romps with
Speaker: maids.
Speaker: Um and uh the husband in
this story, Mr.
Speaker: Hurt Hetman, he knows this
could be someone connected to one of
Speaker: the servants, but there's a
part of them who also says, This
must
Speaker: be my wife's lover.
Speaker: My unfaithful wife, my
beautiful wife must be unfaithful.
Speaker: And isn't that interesting?
Speaker: It puts a lot of pressure
on those that are considered
beautiful,
Speaker: right?
Speaker: Even those we consider to
be faithful to us.
Speaker: My wife is beautiful, she
must be unfaithful.
Speaker: My son is loyal, he must
drop his studies and come home,
right?
Speaker: Um, and not that uh the
pressure all came from Mr.
Speaker: Hetman.
Speaker: Um Mrs.
Speaker: Hetman also assigns some
pressure uh to others, right?
Speaker: Um my family loves me, my
son loves me, my husband loves me.
Speaker: They must want to see me,
they must be able to see me the way
Speaker: I want to be seen.
Speaker: I want to be seen as
someone who is here to comfort, as
someone
Speaker: who is loving, as someone
who is able to speak and uh be
heard.
Speaker: But lo and behold, um, as
much as we all may want to be seen
the
Speaker: way we want to be seen,
people are gonna see us how they see
us.
Speaker: And in her case,
unfortunately, her husband saw her
as a threat
Speaker: and ran away.
Speaker: Now, he saw her as a
threat.
Speaker: Did he see her as a threat
just because she was deceased and he
Speaker: was seeing a ghost and he
was scared of that?
Speaker: Did he see her as a threat
because of his guilty conscience,
knowing
Speaker: that he's the one who ended
her life?
Speaker: Or did he see her very
existence as a threat?
Speaker: Because you have to
remember he was threatened torture
by the
Speaker: idea that she might be
betraying him when he had gone out
of town.
Speaker: Apparently, he took
frequent trips out of town and he
was always
Speaker: worried, always worried.
Speaker: Something else was going
on.
Speaker: So maybe just having her as
his wife was threatening to him.
Speaker: Um, maybe that threat
existed prior before they're getting
married.
Speaker: And I don't really get a
feeling that she gave him any reason
Speaker: to be suspicious.
Speaker: Some people are just like
that.
Speaker: Some people just are
insecure in a sense that they are
just constantly
Speaker: concerned they're going to
lose what they have, whether that is
Speaker: a loved one, whether that
is love, whether that is money,
their
Speaker: home, uh, worldly
possessions.
Speaker: Some people just always
live in fear.
Speaker: And uh, in a way, I think
that was Mr.
Speaker: Hetman.
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: Other things to have
learned.
Speaker: So we didn't know that
there's more than one side to every
story.
Speaker: Um, something that I also
found very, very beautiful was the
idea
Speaker: that you can love something
or someone so much that you
literally
Speaker: suffocated.
Speaker: Um, and that for me is
very, very powerful.
Speaker: In this case, Mr.
Speaker: Hetman loved his wife so
much that it it strangled her.
Speaker: Uh he strangled her.
Speaker: Um and she loved her
husband so much that it frightened
him, right?
Speaker: He was frightened by her
love returning to him and he ran
away.
Speaker: Um, we could say that the
son loved his father so much that he
Speaker: was blinded by this love.
Speaker: He didn't see right away
that there is something wrong with
the
Speaker: way his father was behaving
and the fact that no one can ever
Speaker: figure out what happened
that night.
Speaker: You know, he's young,
19-year-old.
Speaker: So he's like, uh, this is
all weird, but let me just I don't
know
Speaker: how I'm supposed to act.
Speaker: I don't know how my
father's supposed to act.
Speaker: I'm just gonna, you know,
keep things going here.
Speaker: Make sure bills get paid,
dad still eats, those kinds of
things.
Speaker: So we can love something or
someone so much we literally
suffocate
Speaker: it.
Speaker: That one just really,
really stands out to me.
Speaker: Um, and you can create your
own hell.
Speaker: So from the captain story,
we definitely learn that by choice
Speaker: he chose not to find out
his true identity or name.
Speaker: He had these dreams, he
could have tried to find out more
about
Speaker: these dreams, but you know,
um, he would not have had Facebook
Speaker: or Google back in the days.
Speaker: Um, but he he could have
acted, he chose not to.
Speaker: That's fine.
Speaker: He decided to get a basic
job and uh, you know, live a basic
life.
Speaker: He never tried to find love
again or anything like that.
Speaker: Uh, he allowed himself to
be repeatedly tortured, and he was
okay
Speaker: with that.
Speaker: That's what he chose.
Speaker: He never wanted the dreams
to stop.
Speaker: Um, so torture.
Speaker: He was tortured by what he
did not know.
Speaker: Is my wife cheating?
Speaker: And he was tortured by what
he knew.
Speaker: Um, still having these
dreams.
Speaker: I killed my wife.
Speaker: Those were things that
haunted him till his dying day.
Speaker: Do we really know anyone?
Speaker: That's another strong
question that Bears raises with this
story.
Speaker: Do we really know our loved
ones?
Speaker: So we have right off the
bat the son who um thought he knew
his
Speaker: parents, but didn't really
understand just how intense his
father's
Speaker: love was for his mother.
Speaker: Um we have the fact that
the mother has no inkling that her
husband
Speaker: was the one who um ended
her life.
Speaker: Um and of course, we have
Mr.
Speaker: Hetman, who's so convinced
that his wife is doing wrong and
doesn't
Speaker: realize that she was
faithful to the end.
Speaker: She wasn't doing anything
wrong.
Speaker: Um, and you you know, just
going back to that creating your own
Speaker: torture, she created her
own hell by being terribly afraid
that
Speaker: night.
Speaker: And instead of, you know,
summoning one of the servants, um,
maybe,
Speaker: you know, you're gonna have
lady servants, um having one of them
Speaker: sleep in your room or
something, or just check around the
room
Speaker: or what have you.
Speaker: Uh, please read to me.
Speaker: I'm tired, uh, I'm having
trouble sleeping.
Speaker: Please read to me.
Speaker: Be here, be here.
Speaker: Um, she didn't, she didn't
want to be alone, she didn't want to
Speaker: be in the dark, but she
was.
Speaker: And she cowered in her
room, and she was tortured all night
long
Speaker: until she no longer existed
in her state of living.
Speaker: And then, of course, in her
afterlife, in her new state, she was
Speaker: a bit tortured again
because she really wanted to be with
her
Speaker: family, and she kept trying
to go see them, and ultimately she
Speaker: loses her husband again
when he runs away from her.
Speaker: So that's in the whole new
torture.
Speaker: She can't go after him, she
can't find him, and all she can do
Speaker: is just be around her son,
knowing that one day he is going to
Speaker: pass on, and then she won't
have him anymore.
Speaker: So that's a whole other
kind of torture.
Speaker: Okay, so there you have
those, the tortures.
Speaker: But do we really know
anyone?
Speaker: The son didn't really know
the father, the father didn't really
Speaker: know his wife, and the wife
didn't really know her husband.
Speaker: No one really knew anybody.
Speaker: And that, these themes,
they all exist today.
Speaker: Um, so many times we think
we know someone, and after spending
Speaker: more time with them, we go,
oh my gosh, who is this person?
Speaker: Were they always like this?
Speaker: Um, is this new?
Speaker: Have I always felt this
way?
Speaker: Um, have they always looked
at me this way?
Speaker: I really, really love how
Beerce points out the idea of being
Speaker: able to come back to
comfort the ones you love or punish
the ones
Speaker: that cause you pain.
Speaker: And you really left on edge
wondering like, does she know?
Speaker: Does she know?
Speaker: Does she know, right?
Speaker: Is she coming back because
she loves her husband?
Speaker: Or is she coming back?
Speaker: We are seen, quote, we are
seen by those whom we would warn,
console,
Speaker: or punish.
Speaker: What form we seem to them
to bear, we know not.
Speaker: We know only that we
terrify even those whom we wish to
comfort
Speaker: and from whom we most crave
tenderness and sympathy.
Speaker: So it's like, oh my gosh,
you know.
Speaker: Um, doesn't she coming back
because she wants to punish her
husband?
Speaker: But no, that's not at all.
Speaker: She's coming back because
she loves him, she loves him, she
loves
Speaker: her family, but she can't
control how he sees her.
Speaker: She has no control over
what he sees.
Speaker: We know only that we
terrify even those whom we most wish
to comfort.
Speaker: This reminds me of mother
and child, right?
Speaker: Or parents and children.
Speaker: How parents often say they
only want to do what's right for
their
Speaker: child.
Speaker: And children are often
saying, My parents don't understand
me,
Speaker: they're so mean, they are
ruining my life, right?
Speaker: That's a teenager.
Speaker: You're torturing me, you're
ruined my life.
Speaker: Even um, you know, the
preteen nowadays, they don't get
that video
Speaker: game, they're upset.
Speaker: The the uh toddler that
wants the candy and is told they
can't
Speaker: have it, or the toy, you're
a meanie, you're a bully, you're the
Speaker: worst.
Speaker: Um and this goes on, at
least for women um for their entire
lives,
Speaker: really, right?
Speaker: I say at least for women
because we have this with the female
Speaker: character here who brings
up this idea of wanting to comfort
and
Speaker: yet even though you you're
you want to do right, you're just
you're
Speaker: you're just terrifying
people, you're just seen as a
monster.
Speaker: Um golly gosh, I can't say
that Casper Groton um has that same
Speaker: sentiment in his tidbits.
Speaker: And with the son, I feel
for that guy.
Speaker: I'm assuming it is the son
who later hires a um medium in order
Speaker: to find out what happened
with my mom.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: Statement of the late Julia
Hetman through the medium bails.
Speaker: Sharing on her behalf.
Speaker: And yet, you know, it's the
medium becomes a fourth player in
Speaker:this.
Speaker: So maybe the medium wasn't
really just saying verbatim.
Speaker: Maybe she really did cheat.
Speaker: Ha ha ha ha.
Speaker: And the medium was just
trying to comfort this guy to get
more
Speaker: money.
Speaker: That could be a
possibility.
Speaker: Um, or maybe the son didn't
pay the medium, maybe somebody else
Speaker: did.
Speaker: But I'm gonna say actually
the son probably paid the medium
because
Speaker: uh the son does say the one
was a well-to-do country gentleman,
Speaker: the other a beautiful and
accomplished woman to whom he was
passionately
Speaker: attached with what I know
now.
Speaker: I know now to have been a
jealous and exacting devotion.
Speaker: So he didn't realize it
when he was 19, but he knows now, as
an
Speaker: older man who's probably
not gonna be around for much longer,
Speaker: you know, he is older.
Speaker: One thing that's
interesting is Joel Hetman Jr.
Speaker: starts out with um, you
know, I've got education and money,
and
Speaker: I'm respected and I've got
good health.
Speaker: So I've got a great life,
but it's really stressful um knowing
Speaker: this this family secret.
Speaker: Um and it makes me unhappy.
Speaker: And I get that, I get that.
Speaker: When there's something
that's in your family's past, maybe
it's
Speaker: not something you did, but
it's just a stain on your life.
Speaker: That can be a lot to bear.
Speaker: Um I don't know that Joel
Hetman Jr.
Speaker: ever married and had kids.
Speaker: But having lost both
parents and strange circumstances
really
Speaker: weighed on him and he was
unhappy.
Speaker: So I'm guessing maybe he
did not uh become a family man um in
Speaker: his own right.
Speaker: And with his wealth, you
know, they say money uh money leads
to
Speaker: happiness.
Speaker: He's saying, hey, I wasn't
happy.
Speaker: Uh but he was able to then
hire that medium to find out what
happened.
Speaker: And of course, knowing the
secret also contributes to further
Speaker:unhappiness.
Speaker: Maybe he would have rather
not have known.
Speaker: Now, in terms of finding
out what happened to his father,
really
Speaker: the only way he finds that
out is when his father passes.
Speaker: The letter that his father
wrote is published in the papers,
and
Speaker: the connection is made that
this is the man who disappeared oh
Speaker: so many years ago.
Speaker: That's the best we can get
there in terms of him learning what
Speaker: happened to his dad.
Speaker: But all in all, I found
this to be an excellent work of
fiction.
Speaker: I thought the writing was
very good, and I did see um notes
online
Speaker: when I was looking for a
copy of this story that a lot of
scholars
Speaker: think this is one of
Bierce's best works.
Speaker: Um, if not just a literary
work that is not talked about
enough.
Speaker: Um, yeah, vocabulary-wise,
on point.
Speaker: And unlike The Boarded
Window, I don't find this one
forgettable.
Speaker: I like it so much, I feel
like I need to send this one to a
few
Speaker: people, um, but I'm sending
it to you first.
Speaker: So I hope you like it too.
Speaker: I hope you enjoyed this
story and do come back for another
Dr.
Speaker: Tale.