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"The next evening, at about the same hour... and again the mysterious phenomenon occurred..."
Society has so many unspoken rules, but should all the rules be followed? And if so, then at what cost? In this short story by Ambrose Bierce, readers are invited to reflect on their own community's unspoken rules. Rae Wilson shares her observations on Bierce's words and invites you to question your own neighborly behavior.
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Monster Heat - by David Fesliyan
★ 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 tradition of storytelling.
Speaker: If you're looking to enjoy
more classic literature, struggle to
find the time to read, hate
Speaker: reading, or just love
listening to stories, then this
podcast is for you.
Speaker: At the end of each story,
I'll share my analysis on the
story's deeper meanings.
Speaker: A Vine on a House by
Ambrose Bierce is a short story that
was originally published
Speaker: in 1905 in Cosmopolitan
magazine and later republished in
1913 as a part of a collection
Speaker: of short stories by Bierce.
Speaker: The entire story is told in
third-person objective, which means
as we're reading through, we're
Speaker: kind of like a fly on a
wall, observing everything that is
happening.
Speaker: If you want to follow
along, you can get a copy on my
website BetterEssayWriting.com.
Speaker: A Vine on a House by
Ambrose Bierce.
Speaker: About three miles from the
little town of Norton in Missouri,
on the road leading to
Speaker: Maysville, stands an old
house that was last occupied by a
family named Harding.
Speaker: Since 1886, no one has
lived in it, nor is anyone likely to
live in it
Speaker: again.
Speaker: Time and the disfavor of
persons dwelling thereabout are
converting it into a rather
picturesque ruin.
Speaker: An observer unacquainted
with its history would hardly put it
in the category of haunted houses.
Speaker: Yet in all the region
around, such is its evil reputation.
Speaker: Its windows are without
glass, its doorways without doors.
Speaker: There are wide breaches in
the shingle roof, and for lack of
paint, the weatherboarding is
Speaker: a done gray.
Speaker: But these unfailing signs
of the supernatural are partly
concealed and greatly softened by
the abundant
Speaker: foliage of a large vine
overrunning the entire structure.
Speaker: This vine, of a species no
botanist has ever been able to name,
has an important
Speaker: part in the story of the
house.
Speaker: The Harding family
consisted of Robert Harding, his
wife Matilda, Miss Julia Wentz, and
she was
Speaker: her sister, and two young
children.
Speaker: Robert Harding was a
silent, cold-mannered man who made
no friends in the neighborhood, and
Speaker: apparently cared to make
none.
Speaker: He was about 40 years old,
frugal and industrious, and made a
living from the little
Speaker: farm which is now overgrown
with brush and brambles.
Speaker: He and his sister-in-law
were rather tabooed by their
neighbors, who seemed to think
Speaker: they were seen too
frequently.
Speaker: Not entirely their fault,
for at these times they evidently
did not challenge observation.
Speaker: The Moricodes of rural
Missouri is stern and exacting.
Speaker: Mrs. Harding was a gentle,
sad-eyed woman, lacking a left foot.
Speaker: At some time in 1884, it
became known that she had gone to
visit her mother
Speaker: in Iowa.
Speaker: That was what her husband
said in reply to inquiries, and his
manner of saying it
Speaker: did not encourage further
questioning.
Speaker: She never came back, and
two years later, without selling his
farm or anything that was
Speaker: his, or appointing an agent
to look after his interests, or
moving his household goods, Harding,
Speaker: with the rest of the
family, left the country.
Speaker: Nobody knew where he went.
Speaker: Nobody at the time cared.
Speaker: Naturally, whatever was
movable about the place soon
disappeared, and the deserted house
became haunted in
Speaker: the manner of its kind.
Speaker: One summer evening, four or
five years later, the Reverend J.
Speaker: Gruber of Norton and a
Maysville attorney named Hyatt met
on horseback in front of the
Speaker: Harding place.
Speaker: Having business matters to
discuss, they hitched their animals
and went to the house, sat on
Speaker: the porch to talk.
Speaker: Some humorous reference to
the somber reputation of the place
was made and forgotten as soon
Speaker: as it was uttered, and they
talked of their business affairs
until it grew almost dark.
Speaker: The evening was
oppressively warm.
Speaker: The air stagnant.
Speaker: Presently, both men started
from their seats in surprise.
Speaker: A long vine that covered
half the front of the house and
dangled its branches from
Speaker: the edge of the porch above
them was visibly and audibly
agitated, shaking violently and ever
Speaker: -stammingly.
Speaker: We shall have a storm,
Hyatt explained.
Speaker: Gruber said nothing, but
silently directed the other's
attention to the foliage of adjacent
trees, which
Speaker: showed no movement.
Speaker: Even the delicate tips of
the boughs silhouetted against the
clear sky were motionless.
Speaker: They hastily passed down
the steps to what had been a lawn
and looked upward at
Speaker: the vine, whose entire
length was now visible.
Speaker: It continued in violent
agitation, yet they could not
discern no disturbing cause.
Speaker: Let us leave, said the
minister.
Speaker: And leave they did.
Speaker: Forgetting that they had
been traveling in opposite
directions, they rode away together.
Speaker: They went to Norton, where
they related their strange
experience to several discreet
friends.
Speaker: The next evening, at about
the same hour accompanied by two
others whose names are not
Speaker: recalled, they were again
on the porch of the Hardin house,
and again the mysterious phenomenon
Speaker: occurred.
Speaker: The vine was violently
agitated while under the closest
scrutiny from root to tip, nor did
Speaker: their combined strength
applied to the trunk serve to still
it.
Speaker: After an hour's
observation, they retreated no less
wise, it is thought, than when they
had
Speaker: come.
Speaker: No great time was required
for these singular facts to rouse
the curiosity of the entire
Speaker: neighborhood.
Speaker: By day and by night, crowds
of persons assembled at the Hardin
house, seeking a sign.
Speaker: It does not appear that any
found it, yet so credible were the
witnesses mentioned that
Speaker: none doubted the reality of
the manifestations to which they
testified.
Speaker: By either a happy
inspiration or some destructive
design, it was one day proposed.
Speaker: Nobody appeared to know
from whom the suggestion came.
Speaker: To dig up the sign, and
after a good deal of debate, this
was done.
Speaker: Nothing was found but the
root, yet nothing could have been
more strange.
Speaker: For five or six feet from
the trunk, which had at the surface
of the ground
Speaker: a diameter of several
inches, it ran downward, single and
straight, to a loose, friable earth.
Speaker: Then it divided, and some
divided, into rootlets, fibers, and
filaments, most curiously
interwoven.
Speaker: When carefully freed from
soil, it showed a singular
formation.
Speaker: In their ramifications and
doublings back upon themselves, they
made a compact network, having in
size
Speaker: and shape of an amazing
resemblance to the human figure.
Speaker: Head, trunk, and limbs were
there.
Speaker: Even the fingers and toes
were distinctly defined, and many
professed to see in the distribution
Speaker: and arrangement of the
fibers in the global mass
representing the head, a grotesque
suggestion of
Speaker: a face.
Speaker: The figure was horizontal.
Speaker: The smaller roots had begun
to unite at the wrists.
Speaker: In point of resemblance to
the human form, this image was
imperfect.
Speaker: At about ten inches from
one of the knees, the cilia forming
that leg had abruptly
Speaker: doubled backward and inward
upon their coarse growth.
Speaker: That figure lacked the left
foot.
Speaker: There was but one
inference, the obvious one, but
ensuing excitement as many courses
of action
Speaker: were proposed, as there
were incapable counselors.
Speaker: The matter was settled by
the sheriff of the county, who, as
the law focus study
Speaker: of the abandoned estate,
ordered the root replaced and the
excavation filled with the earth
that
Speaker: had been removed.
Speaker: Later inquiry brought out
only one fact of relevancy and
significance.
Speaker: Mrs. Hardin had never
visited her relatives in Iowa, nor
did they know that she was
Speaker: supposed to have done so.
Speaker: Of Robert Hardin and the
rest of his family, nothing is
known.
Speaker: The house retains its evil
reputation, but the replanted vine
is as orderly and well-behaved
Speaker: a vegetable as a nervous
person could wish to sit under of a
pleasant night when
Speaker: the care did great out
there.
Speaker: Immemorial revelation in
the distant whippoorpool signifies
its
Speaker: notion of what ought to be
done about it.
Speaker: So that was A Vine on a
House by Ambrose Bierce, and when I
sat down
Speaker: to actually analyze this
story, I found that I had way more
questions than I normally
Speaker: would after reading and
analyzing a story.
Speaker: So one thing that comes to
my mind is the fact that it was
published in
Speaker: Cosmopolitan magazine.
Speaker: As soon as I saw that, I
said, oh my goodness, is that the
same Cosmopolitan
Speaker: magazine that is around
today?
Speaker: And actually, yes and no.
Speaker: So Cosmopolitan magazine
was first published in 18, I think
it was 1884, and then it
Speaker: didn't become a women's
magazine until much later.
Speaker: So I want to say 1967.
Speaker: So I thought that was kind
of interesting because apparently
Cosmopolitan magazine used to be a
Speaker: magazine for all genders,
all people, and the same way Playboy
originally started out as being
Speaker: something where you would
be able to read like really
in-depth, interesting, amazing
articles, and
Speaker: then you'd see some
pictures of pretty ladies, over time
that production changed, right?
Speaker: So we can say the same for
Cosmopolitan magazine, even though
Cosmopolitan magazine was ultimately
purchased
Speaker: by a different publisher.
Speaker: So I just found that
interesting, like are they trying to
tell women that you got
Speaker: to be careful because your
husband might just have an affair
with your sister and murder
Speaker: you and bury you in the
ground?
Speaker: But since Cosmo wasn't
purely directed at women back there,
I'm gonna assume that that was
Speaker: not the author's intent.
Speaker: Full disclosure, the accent
I put on earlier was not
specifically a Missouri accent.
Speaker: I've only been to Missouri
like twice in my life, and as with
any state or
Speaker: country, people speak
differently in all different parts
of that state or country.
Speaker: So the way one person
speaks in, say, St. Louis might be
completely different than the
Speaker: way someone speaks in a
more rural part of Missouri.
Speaker: So if you're like, hey that
accent, it didn't sound authentic to
me, it was just
Speaker: a generic kind of Southern
twang, so don't come at me.
Speaker: All right, now let's get
back to the questions that I had.
Speaker: Like, why did the husband
move?
Speaker: So he lived in that house
for two years after he murdered his
wife.
Speaker: I'm assuming he murdered
his wife.
Speaker: Did the sister also have
something to do with the wife's
murder?
Speaker: Did they do it together?
Speaker: Is she a victim of
circumstance?
Speaker: And she kind of later finds
out that he's murdered, technically,
her sister.
Speaker: But then the fact that the
sister didn't exactly try to hide
her relationship from the
Speaker: neighbors, could that be
because she was a meanie and she was
in cahoots with the
Speaker: husband?
Speaker: Or was she, like I said, a
victim of circumstance?
Speaker: And maybe she didn't have a
choice as to whether or not she was
being seen
Speaker: with him because he was a
mean guy and maybe he was
threatening her in the
Speaker: same way he threatened his
wife.
Speaker: Okay, so why did he move?
Speaker: You lived there for two
years, you can't tell me that for
two years you didn't
Speaker: smell the body.
Speaker: Did he move because his
dead wife was like shaking vines at
the place?
Speaker: Was she, I mean the whole
vine would not have covered the
house while he was
Speaker: still living there.
Speaker: So was there any kind of
fine?
Speaker: Did he move out of guilt?
Speaker: Did he move because he felt
that he might get caught someday?
Speaker: Or was he just like, yeah,
you know what, I don't want to live
here anymore,
Speaker: let's bounce.
Speaker: So he moves, have no clue
why, the author chooses not to get
into this and
Speaker: that's fair.
Speaker: The same way that the
author chooses not to give us any
real detail as to
Speaker: whether or not the sister
wanted to be involved with the
husband.
Speaker: So maybe this information
is given to us because for the
author this stuff is not
Speaker: important.
Speaker: I'm definitely interested,
like what happened to this woman's
foot?
Speaker: She's got no left foot.
Speaker: Did the husband have
something to do with that missing
foot?
Speaker: Was he an abusive man?
Speaker: I mean the fact that she
winds up dead after he, well he, she
winds up
Speaker: dead.
Speaker: He tells people she's going
to go visit her family and then he
mysteriously disappears as
Speaker: well.
Speaker: That kind of makes me think
that this woman had been in an
abusive relationship.
Speaker: But the author does not
explain why the left foot is missing
and whether or not
Speaker: he is at fault for that.
Speaker: Don't worry, there may be a
reason why the author chose not to
mention that as
Speaker: well.
Speaker: I'm gonna get there.
Speaker: Another thing that I was
thinking about before I explain my
theory as to why that
Speaker: author chose to leave out
certain things is what's up with
this woman, this spirit shaking
Speaker: the vine?
Speaker: Like these people are on
the porch for a while, they're
talking, they make some comment
Speaker: about the house.
Speaker: She doesn't shake the vine
when they make the comment.
Speaker: She waits until a little
later to shake the vine.
Speaker: So did it take all of her
like spectral energy in order to
shake that vine
Speaker: and they just happen to be
at the right place at the right
time?
Speaker: She's been able to shake
that vine around the same time on
other days so you
Speaker: can't tell me it's taken
like five or six years for her to
get up the
Speaker: energy to figure out how to
shake a vine.
Speaker: I don't know.
Speaker: Why shake the vine
violently?
Speaker: Does she want people to
know that she's there?
Speaker: Don't ignore me.
Speaker: I mean it's not like she's
taking that vine and then smashing
it into the house.
Speaker: She's not forcing the vine
to grow more.
Speaker: I felt like the vine would
trap them in the house but no she
just shakes
Speaker: it violently and maybe
she's shaking it violently because
this is her way of saying pay
Speaker: attention to me.
Speaker: Pay attention to me.
Speaker: And so what's the author
trying to tell us?
Speaker: Well maybe the author is
trying to tell us that we need to
take care of
Speaker: our neighbors, right?
Speaker: We need to pay attention.
Speaker: People in the community
pretty much ignored her and her
family because they thought the guy
Speaker: was mean and they're just
like whatever he's a jerk we don't
want to talk to
Speaker: him that he's not really
gonna talk to us and so we know that
she's not
Speaker: around.
Speaker: Somebody will ask like oh
haven't seen her around maybe she
used to go do the
Speaker: shopping or something like
that.
Speaker: Keep in mind that they're
pretty isolated.
Speaker: He's got the farm that
pretty much provides them with
everything they need but you've got
Speaker: to expect in 1905 there
must have been a few things that
they needed from the
Speaker: store.
Speaker: So we're assuming oh no the
story takes place in 1886.
Speaker: Okay so there's gotta be a
few things that they don't have on
the farm that
Speaker: she's gonna have to go out
and get.
Speaker: Now we could say that maybe
because of her missing foot and
because he's mean maybe
Speaker: she didn't go out very
often and so the sister-in-law is
the one who
Speaker: goes out and gets things.
Speaker: Though the fact that people
have asked him where's your wife and
he responds with she's
Speaker: at her parents and responds
in a manner where people feel they
cannot ask more or
Speaker: should not ask more.
Speaker: That tells me that people
knew of her existence and she had
some goings out within
Speaker: the community.
Speaker: So though people know about
her, though people know he's mean,
she's gone for two years
Speaker: before he leaves.
Speaker: So that means for two years
nobody in this community pressed the
issue of where's your
Speaker: wife.
Speaker: No one in this community
thought no maybe we should reach out
to her family in
Speaker: Iowa.
Speaker: No one in this community
did they not bother to ask about the
kids.
Speaker: Speaking of the kids, how
old were these kids?
Speaker: Because if they were really
young then I could see them not
being able to mention
Speaker: to anybody mom is missing.
Speaker: However they if they are
really young then they would be
crying and asking about mom.
Speaker: That would just be a given.
Speaker: Yes you've got the aunt
there to help sue them but at some
point you would
Speaker: think somebody would notice
a crying kid even though it's a
rural community.
Speaker: Keep in mind we've got two
years in which this woman no one's
making any advances
Speaker: on figuring out hey where
where is she?
Speaker: No one thinks this is very
strange they just kind of whatever
we're just going to
Speaker: ignore people turn a blind
eye.
Speaker: With the children so this
story comes out in 1905 right and in
1905 the state
Speaker: of Missouri adopts into law
that children have to either receive
education in a school or
Speaker: they must they they have
the right to receive an education
right so if the child
Speaker: is working on the farm then
the family has to prove that the
child is working
Speaker: on the farm.
Speaker: Okay so even though the
story takes place in 1886 I do find
it an interesting
Speaker: coincidence that the story
about a woman who has gone missing
because her community decided to
Speaker: turn a blind eye turn a
blind eye turn the other cheek turn
the other cheek
Speaker: and just not pay attention
not dig any further happens to be
the same year that
Speaker: kids have to receive some
sort of education and be accounted
for.
Speaker: Why is this significant?
Speaker: Well if the kids are of
school age which I'm assuming they
are not absolute babies
Speaker: because otherwise those
babies would definitely be causing a
fuss for their mama and we might
Speaker: see some reports of the
sister-in-law walking around one of
the kids but all
Speaker: we have a report of is her
with the man okay so with that being
said
Speaker: the kids if the kids were
of school age and had been in school
then they
Speaker: would have mentioned at
school at some point I miss mama or
mama's asleep I want
Speaker: my mama something would
have been said because that's what
kids do even if they felt
Speaker: that you know dad might hit
them or beat them or something with
children it's very
Speaker: hard for them to keep a
secret of that nature for so long
for two years
Speaker: so if they had been in
school then this woman's
disappearance probably would have
been investigated
Speaker: a lot sooner okay so that
is my theory as to why the author
chose not
Speaker: to go into what happened to
her foot is the sister a willing
participant in this
Speaker: extramarital affair and why
he up and moved all of a sudden my
theory is that
Speaker: the author doesn't really
want us to pay attention to that
stuff the author really only
Speaker: wants us to focus on the
fact that the town ignored this
woman and she disappeared
Speaker: okay so that's my theory
anyway I would also add that I think
it's kind of
Speaker: funny that the author
mentions the little knots of wood
turning the roots kind of turning
Speaker: in on itself and then
forming at the breast and I'm like
she has boobies this
Speaker: this dead this root this
root of the tree trunk this has
boobies I think that's
Speaker: really funny that the
author put that but it's written by
a guy so there you
Speaker: go maybe he thought it was
funny too all right so what else can
we say
Speaker: about this story yes we
definitely have I certainly have a
lot of questions but in
Speaker: terms of achieving its goal
which is to have us think about our
own relationships within
Speaker: our communities and how we
interact in our communities I think
it does a really good
Speaker: job and it's interesting
because the writer says and I quote
the moral code of rural
Speaker: Missouri is stern and
exacting so I feel like this is the
writer's way of saying
Speaker: hey moral code of Missouri
you may have thought it was polite
not to get involved
Speaker: in your neighbors affairs
but as a result of your not getting
involved a woman wind
Speaker: up dead and buried I mean
this town no town wants to have a
home in
Speaker: the community that is
abandoned and has an evil reputation
and is just a negative site
Speaker: this kind of brings down
the whole community brings down the
whole town so it's not
Speaker: like these people were
asking for it so in a way we can say
the author
Speaker: is letting us know that
when you turn a blind eye when you
turn the other
Speaker: cheek when you ignore a
problem in your community it will
dig deep it will fester
Speaker: it will grow and it will
take hold like a root it will not go
away
Speaker: and you will always be
reminded of that thing that you
could have done something about
Speaker: or should have done
something about I think it's kind of
funny that it ends with
Speaker: and that vine is just as
polite and nice so basically this
woman it gets to
Speaker: keep her home she gets to
stay right there and she was
probably very kind and
Speaker: polite and nice towards
others in and of itself now one
thing I had to look
Speaker: up was whippoorwill because
I was like what on earth is that and
it's a little
Speaker: bird so there you have it
if you were like what did you say at
the
Speaker: end whippoorwill is a
little bird so you can hear the kids
like crickets and then
Speaker: these little birds in
southern Missouri I hope you enjoyed
this story and do come back