At the beginning of the story Walter Mitty is the dynamic military commander, unwavering in the face of danger. He is snapped from his fantasy by his nagging wife, but lapses back into his world of admiration and approbation to be a renowned surgeon, honourable key witness and then a brave fighter pilot. The story is therefore cyclical as it begins and ends in a dream.
Also, we see that Mitty has little grasp of reality as he moves from reality to fantasy, carrying vestiges of each world into the other, such as the gloves and the ‘pocketa pocketa sound’
Finally, however, the fantasy sequence at the end of the story is the zenith of Mitty's tragedy. The end of the story, with Mitty facing death in front of a firing squad, is deeply tragic as it shows Mitty preferring to visualise his own heroic death rather than contemplate the reality of his pitiful life. If death is the best and most exciting escape the man can have, how desperate his real life must be.
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