The Pit and the Pendulum could lead to many thoughts. However, I will cover three particular ones that caught my interest. I will elaborate of my thoughts of the main character’s view of the dark, judging characters as well as his descending into the “Hades” like place, the symbolism of the pendulum and the pit, and the character’s final, fatal fall into the pit. In the introduction to the story, the main character describes how he was sick and how he was unbound and then judged by the grim reaper-like characters. He is talking about this capture, during the Spanish Inquisitorial. “They” as he refers his captors to, had finally brought him to a destination and unbound him, which leads us to infer that he was indeed captured. When he speaks of the “dread sentence of death” this is his execution sentence. After this, he says, the voices of the Inquisitors blur into one hum. I take this as the character’s “numb” stage, where the realization that he is going to be killed has not taken his full effect. Next, the black-robed figures. I think that the ...
The Romantic Period in American literature seems to be anything but romantic. That is, unless you love death and the devil. Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Washington Irving wrote short stories about the devil and dying during this time. These writers do write about them in slightly different ways. Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story, "The Pit and the Pendulum," is about a man and "the dread sentence of death." As he is before the judges, the "thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave" comes to his mind. The man passes out and then wakes up in a dungeon. He tries to figure out how large the dungeon is and finally gets brave enough to try to go across the room, but in the middle of the dungeon, he finds a well. At the well,
Wilson’s essay made me think about my personal relationship with “The Serpent.” I have had many encounters with figurative serpents, but have yet to realize the image of a serpent invading my dreams. Even so, I can’t deny any of the important meanings associated with serpents that Wilson mentions. Perhaps it was the power of his subject matter, but I found Wilson’s essay to be thoroughly engaging. This may have been due to disgust and fascination in me, but whatever it was, it worked.
The narrators in both stories were faced with copious challenges. But antithetically, the narrators both meet these challenges in completely different ways. While Brown confronted his challenges with despair and pessimism, the narrator from the Pit and the Pendulum faced his trials with optimism and bravery, which in the end gave him hope. From this one can say that an optimistic outlook and the will to fight are necessities in the great battle of life.
The texts I chose for this essay are Fuentes’ Aura and Thomas Ligotti’s The Last Feast of Harlequin. Both are dark tales that are full of symbolism. Interpreting some of this symbolism may tell us why the main character acts the way he does and what his mental state is throughout the story.
The accused in "The Pit and the Pendulum" is obviously being persecuted. For what religion or practice we do not know. For what crime it is not said. The prisoner does not even question his guilt or innocence. The accused in this story, to whom Poe does not give a name, is subjected to three life threatening situations.
The author’s purpose is to also allow the audience to understand the way the guards and superintendent felt towards the prisoners. We see this when the superintendent is upset because the execution is running late, and says, “For God’s sake hurry up, Francis.” And “The man ought to have been dead by this time.” This allows the reader to see the disrespect the authority has towards the prisoners.
The gigantic clock of ebony is another symbolic object in the story. "Its pendulum swung
...the Fragmentation of the Psyche: ‘The Pit and the Pendulum.’” Neneteenth-Century Literature. 46.1 (1991): 82-95. University of California Press. Web. 28 March 2014.
Have you ever watched a movie and been dissatisfied, because it was not similar to its book? There are multiple movies that seem as if they are their own story, for they don't resemble their book at all. For example, “The Pit and the Pendulum.” by Edgar Allen Poe. He, himself would not approve of the film that follows his story. For one thing, the storyline was no where near to being like his book. Another reasoning is that he wrote based of one man not multiple people. And finally, he wouldn’t of approved of the art on the walls in the room with the pit and pendulum. These are the reasonings of why Poe would not appreciate the film.
Suspense is the feeling of uncertainty or excitement, in waiting for an outcome or decision. Edgar Allan Poe uses suspense in his story “Masque of the Red Death” by using objects and great descriptive detail. Poe’s story is about a prince that tries to escape from the inevitable. He tries to lock himself away from the ‘red death’ and has a masquerade ball that doesn’t end happily. Prince and all of his guests die inside or around the seventh apartment room. The seventh room is preceded by six colored rooms which are meant to symbolize either the stages of life, or the seven sins. Inside the last room there are black velvet tapestries that hang all over the ceiling and down the walls. The window panes are a deep blood red color which gives the room an unwelcoming atmosphere. On the western wall, there is a gigantic clock of a deep black wood. Inside it has a pendulum that swings back and forth with a dull monotonous clang. When the minute hand marks a new hour, there is a clear, loud, deep sound, which can be heard from far away. Although it can give off an eerie feeling, the great eb...
Shrouded in a black cloak and a razor sharp scythe gripped in its callous hands. Feared by the bravest of men. It is the inescapable end met by all. This tends to be the common notion when it comes to death. In Markus Zusak’s extraordinary novel, The Book Thief, death is personified as the narrator. In contrast to the average perception, Death is an intricate and internally conflicted character with a lot to offer. Death’s perspective softens the harshness of the overall subject of the book and contributes a poetic view of the world. Death provides a complex knowledge of the characters and the human psyche, as well as future events and the outside world.
The horses rattling chains are a symbol of the slavery and lack of freedom. This symbol occurs quite often. The mouse in the novella is soft, small, this is a symbol of innocence. This for shadows Lennie he is venerable. Lennie is a symbol himself in his action towards beguiling soft things. Like when he stroked that ladies dress and she cried out rape it was a symbol of the power a white woman had then. Another example of this is when crooks said to Curley’s wife to go or he would call the boss to Curley’s wife but all she did was black mailed him by saying, “Listen, Nigger, you know what I can do if you open your trap, I could get you strung up on a tree so easy it ain’t funny.
...h the “crackling and splintering in my shoulders that my body has not forgotten until hour” (32). He would never remember anything as it was, for it was now a distant and vague memory. But his torture was happening every day and every moment of his life.
Imagine being taken to be hanged, the whirlwind of emotions that one would be feeling. Your entire life flashes before your eyes all while mentally preparing yourself for what is about to happen. You begin to become numb to all your surroundings. In George Orwell’s “A Hanging,” he creates a numbing of emotions through the other characters and the reader, not the person being hung. Orwell creates these emotions through the use of vivid, blunt descriptions. All of the details build up to create the numbing of emotions with the workers unsympathetic front and the speaker’s epiphany. The speaker summons the reader to take a side in this limited case and messes with his emotions as well.
Poe, Edgar Allen. “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Poe, Edgar Allan. The Pit and the Pendulum. Mankato, Minn.: Creative Education, 1980. Print