Men who lived on the American frontier were seen as tough gunslingers – rough skinned and independent. Alcohol and revolvers were their companions. But Stephen Crane’s The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky turns this stereotype on its head by showing the world through the eyes of John Potter and Scratchy Wilson, contrasting these two characters and their motivations and finally using a suspenseful plot that mimics the typical Western tale right until the surprise ending.

Crane’s omniscient narrator allows the reader to get into the heads of both John Potter and Scratchy Wilson, which gives the narrative a different flavor than the typical hero-centered Western story. In stereotypical Westerns, the focus of narration is the same as the focus character, meaning the reader would only see the world through the eyes of the hero – John Potter. In Crane’s story though, the narrator is not limited to Potter’s thoughts. By introducing Scratchy Wilson’s perspective, the narrator adds suspense to the story – while Potter thinks about entering Yellow Sky inconspicuously, Wilson is “comfortably [fusillading] the windows of his most intimate friend,” (Crane 318). On one hand, the reader sees a man who only wants to enjoy his honeymoon, while at the same time discovering a villain who would gladly love to confront his “ancient antagonist” (318). In addition, the narrator takes the reader into the Weary Gentlemen’s saloon, where the men are boarded up in fear of Wilson’s drunken aggression, desperately waiting for their savior, John Potter to arrive. Such different perspectives add suspense to the story – one wonders whether Potter is walking into a trap and if he will make it out alive.

The narrator reveals that John Potter and Scratchy Wilson are different from typical frontier characters. While Potter appears like a weathered frontier man on the outside – his face is “reddened from many days in the wind and sun” (311) – his thoughts illustrate a man fraught with guilt over not telling the citizens of Yellow Sky about his marriage. Potter is a round character with complex thoughts and emotions; he would rather be anonymous, “a man hidden in the dark,” (313) instead of a “prominent person” (313) who would be mobbed by the citizens if they knew about his marriage. Because of his complex persona, Potter earns the reader’s sympathy and respect – he appears human and vulnerable, instead of the typical, flat, western sheriffs who serve as symbols of