There is a firm dividing line at the point where Farquhar’s perceptions no longer match the reality surrounding him. Though his experience is eventually shown to be an illusion, there’s a subtle implication that such an illusion still holds value and the potential for insight. Yet despite the fact that he doesn’t actually experience any of his “escape,” this illusion still fills the totality of his experience in the moment before his own death. Reality differs from Farquhar’s perceptions, and the reader ultimately can’t rely on what Farquhar sees to reflect the truth. This seems to suggest that humanity’s experience of reality is a construct of the mind, and that people can’t always trust what they see regardless of how real it feels. The last half of the story is an illusion, which eventually gives way to the ironic twist that Farquhar has, in fact, been hanged after all. Of course, that perception proves to be solely within the protagonist’s mind. But his journey is strange and surreal, reflecting both a series of hyper-intense observations about the world around him and details which suggest he might not even be on Earth anymore, but rather in some strange alternate dimension. In the moments before his death, Farquhar believes he is escaping from his Union captors-that the rope intended to hang him breaks-and that he takes a long and desperate journey home.
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