Pale Horse, Pale Rider

by

Katherine Anne Porter

Miranda is the protagonist and narrator of the story (though the text switches between her first-person point of view and a third-person perspective). She is 24 years old and works as a drama critic at a newspaper in Denver. The job is arduous and she walks about in a perpetual state of exhaustion. Miranda often would like nothing more than to sleep, and “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” delves into the dreams she has. Miranda is an enigmatic character—the reader never learns much of her past, only that her life hasn’t been particularly happy. She is intelligent and sharp-witted, but she is also guarded and tends to overthink things. She is attracted to Adam, a soldier who moves into her building, but hesitates to fall fully in love with him because she is afraid he will be called to combat at any moment and die. Throughout the story, Miranda is plagued by feelings of perpetual alienation. She feels tragically unable to connect with other people—including Adam—and she thinks that communication is inadequate. Miranda’s deepest desire is to know and be known by others completely. Miranda is critical of the war and the forcibly cheery acts of volunteerism she sees throughout Denver. She sees fundraisers, Liberty Bonds, and parades as the insincere and misplaced actions of those who only want to appear patriotic. Throughout the story, Miranda suffers from frequent premonitions that something horrible will happen to her, and these premonitions eventually come true when she falls ill with influenza and is quarantined in the hospital. While sick, she suffers from constant hallucinations in which she dreams of death, oblivion, and utopia—other anxieties that figure largely into Miranda’s psychology. When Miranda recovers from her illness, she is disappointed to be returned to the land of the living. The utopia she saw in her fevered hallucinations makes the world seem dull, grim, and all the more imperfect. Also of note is that Miranda is Porter’s autobiographical double—Porter, too, worked as a drama critic in Denver and nearly died during the influenza pandemic.

Miranda Quotes in Pale Horse, Pale Rider

The Pale Horse, Pale Rider quotes below are all either spoken by Miranda or refer to Miranda. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Performance of Patriotism  Theme Icon
).
Pale Horse, Pale Rider Quotes

The stranger swung into his saddle beside her, leaned far towards her and regarded her without meaning, the blank still stare of mindless malice that makes no threats and can bide its time.

Related Characters: Miranda, Graylie , The Stranger
Related Symbols: Paleness
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:

He might be anything at all, she thought; advance agent for a road show, promoter of a wildcat oil company, a former saloon keeper announcing the opening of a new cabaret, an automobile salesman—any follower of any one of the crafty, haphazard callings. But he was now all Patriot, working for the government.

Related Characters: Miranda, Lusk Committeemen
Related Symbols: Liberty Bonds
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:

Does anybody here believe the things we say to each other?

Related Characters: Miranda, Chuck Rouncivale
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:

“I don’t want to love,” she would think in spite of herself, “not Adam, there is no time and we are not ready for it and yet this is all we have—”

Related Characters: Miranda (speaker), Adam Barclay
Page Number: 292
Explanation and Analysis:

“Adam,” she said, “the worst of war is the fear and suspicion and the awful expression in all the eyes you meet…as if they had pulled down the shutters over their minds and their hearts and were peering out at you, ready to leap if you make one gesture or say one word they do not understand instantly.”

Related Characters: Miranda (speaker), Adam Barclay, Bond Salesman
Related Symbols: Liberty Bonds
Page Number: 294
Explanation and Analysis:

She wanted to say, “Adam, come out of your dream and listen to me. I have pains in my chest and my head and my heart and they’re real. I am in pain all over, and you are in such danger as I can’t bear it think about it, and why can we not save each other?”

Related Characters: Miranda (speaker), Adam Barclay
Page Number: 296
Explanation and Analysis:

Miranda […] noticed a dark young pair sitting at a corner table, […] their heads together, their eyes staring at the same thing, whatever it was, that hovered in the space before them. Her right hand lay on the table, his hand over it, and her face was a blur with weeping. Now and then he raised her hand and kissed it […] They said not a word, and the small pantomime repeated itself, like a melancholy short film running monotonously over and over again. Miranda envied them. […] At least [the girl] can weep if that helps, and he does not even have to ask, What is the matter? Tell me.

Related Characters: Miranda, Adam Barclay
Page Number: 296
Explanation and Analysis:

“Death always leaves one singer to mourn.”

Related Characters: Miranda (speaker), Adam Barclay
Related Symbols: Paleness
Page Number: 304
Explanation and Analysis:

Granite walls, whirlpools, stars are things. None of them is death, nor the image of it. Death is death, said Miranda, and for the dead it has no attributes.

Related Characters: Miranda
Related Symbols: Paleness
Page Number: 310
Explanation and Analysis:

Their faces were transfigured, each in its own beauty, beyond what she remembered of them, their eyes were clear and untroubled as good weather, and they cast no shadows.

Related Characters: Miranda
Page Number: 311
Explanation and Analysis:

There was no light, there must never be light again, compared as it must always be with the light she had seen beside the blue sea that lay so tranquilly along the shore of her paradise.

Related Characters: Miranda
Related Symbols: Paleness, The Color White
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:

No more war, no more plague, only the dazed silence that follows the ceasing of the heavy guns; noiseless houses with the shades drawn, empty streets, the dead cold light of tomorrow. Now there would be time for everything.

Related Characters: Miranda, Adam Barclay
Page Number: 317
Explanation and Analysis:
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Miranda Quotes in Pale Horse, Pale Rider

The Pale Horse, Pale Rider quotes below are all either spoken by Miranda or refer to Miranda. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
The Performance of Patriotism  Theme Icon
).
Pale Horse, Pale Rider Quotes

The stranger swung into his saddle beside her, leaned far towards her and regarded her without meaning, the blank still stare of mindless malice that makes no threats and can bide its time.

Related Characters: Miranda, Graylie , The Stranger
Related Symbols: Paleness
Page Number: 270
Explanation and Analysis:

He might be anything at all, she thought; advance agent for a road show, promoter of a wildcat oil company, a former saloon keeper announcing the opening of a new cabaret, an automobile salesman—any follower of any one of the crafty, haphazard callings. But he was now all Patriot, working for the government.

Related Characters: Miranda, Lusk Committeemen
Related Symbols: Liberty Bonds
Page Number: 272
Explanation and Analysis:

Does anybody here believe the things we say to each other?

Related Characters: Miranda, Chuck Rouncivale
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:

“I don’t want to love,” she would think in spite of herself, “not Adam, there is no time and we are not ready for it and yet this is all we have—”

Related Characters: Miranda (speaker), Adam Barclay
Page Number: 292
Explanation and Analysis:

“Adam,” she said, “the worst of war is the fear and suspicion and the awful expression in all the eyes you meet…as if they had pulled down the shutters over their minds and their hearts and were peering out at you, ready to leap if you make one gesture or say one word they do not understand instantly.”

Related Characters: Miranda (speaker), Adam Barclay, Bond Salesman
Related Symbols: Liberty Bonds
Page Number: 294
Explanation and Analysis:

She wanted to say, “Adam, come out of your dream and listen to me. I have pains in my chest and my head and my heart and they’re real. I am in pain all over, and you are in such danger as I can’t bear it think about it, and why can we not save each other?”

Related Characters: Miranda (speaker), Adam Barclay
Page Number: 296
Explanation and Analysis:

Miranda […] noticed a dark young pair sitting at a corner table, […] their heads together, their eyes staring at the same thing, whatever it was, that hovered in the space before them. Her right hand lay on the table, his hand over it, and her face was a blur with weeping. Now and then he raised her hand and kissed it […] They said not a word, and the small pantomime repeated itself, like a melancholy short film running monotonously over and over again. Miranda envied them. […] At least [the girl] can weep if that helps, and he does not even have to ask, What is the matter? Tell me.

Related Characters: Miranda, Adam Barclay
Page Number: 296
Explanation and Analysis:

“Death always leaves one singer to mourn.”

Related Characters: Miranda (speaker), Adam Barclay
Related Symbols: Paleness
Page Number: 304
Explanation and Analysis:

Granite walls, whirlpools, stars are things. None of them is death, nor the image of it. Death is death, said Miranda, and for the dead it has no attributes.

Related Characters: Miranda
Related Symbols: Paleness
Page Number: 310
Explanation and Analysis:

Their faces were transfigured, each in its own beauty, beyond what she remembered of them, their eyes were clear and untroubled as good weather, and they cast no shadows.

Related Characters: Miranda
Page Number: 311
Explanation and Analysis:

There was no light, there must never be light again, compared as it must always be with the light she had seen beside the blue sea that lay so tranquilly along the shore of her paradise.

Related Characters: Miranda
Related Symbols: Paleness, The Color White
Page Number: 314
Explanation and Analysis:

No more war, no more plague, only the dazed silence that follows the ceasing of the heavy guns; noiseless houses with the shades drawn, empty streets, the dead cold light of tomorrow. Now there would be time for everything.

Related Characters: Miranda, Adam Barclay
Page Number: 317
Explanation and Analysis: