Compare And Contrast The Pit And The Pendulum

In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe, uses the horror elements of Supernatural elements,Fight or flight, and isolation to add suspense to the story. “ Might I have not known that into the pit it was the object of the burning iron to urge me” (Poe 12)? “ Demon eyes, of a wild ghastly vivacity glared upon me in a thousand directions” (Poe 11). It talks about the demons looking at him it represents supernatural elements because the walls moved by themselves and then the eyes appeared (Poe 11). It constructs horror because when he was sleeping the pendulum would stay still and when he was awake the people would control the the pendulum and make it lower and start swinging back and forth (Poe 7). There were supernatural

Edgar Allen Poe is one of the greatest Sci-Fi/Mystery writers of all times. Two of his most popular poems, “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” have elements that relate to each other but at the same time they differ. The use of suspense in his poems is proficient, and it makes the readers want to read on because they are intrigued and they want to know what is going to happen next! Poe gives a good example of what an unreliable narrator is in his poems, he shows that sometimes they can’t be trusted because of their actions and what they say and do. The themes in the two poems are greatly different, but show a clear panorama of what the poems are going to be about. While the theme in Edgar Allen Poe’s “Tell Tale Heart” and “The Pit and the Pendulum” are different, the way he used suspense and unreliable narrator are alike.

Edgar Allen Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum uses horror and suspicion to build up not only the storyline, but the persona of the narrator in which is also the prisoner. The characteristics of the prisoner ties within the story to create trippy feelings of fear and unassertiveness of whether or not he is truly safe. From the trials that the prisoner has faced, his characteristic of resourcefulness, pessimistic, and terror are revealed and play a salient part of his slick escape.

The Spanish Inquisition was a holy and violent endeavor that was meant to convert non-Christians into Christians, but when some kind of rebellion or outburst took place, the rebel was meant with force and punished harshly. “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe is undoubtedly a piece of gothic literature taking place during the Spanish Inquisition following the imprisonment of the narrator. Edgar Allan Poe has written many pieces about death and despair throughout his impressive career. “The Pit and the Pendulum” indeed no exception to this literary trend. This specific story takes place during the spanish inquisition and focuses on the narrator who is imprisoned and tortured in a mysterious room. “The Pit and the Pendulum” has many elements of gothic literature such as the setting and point of view, the aspect of fear within the novel, and the horrid presence of death throughout the story.

The chaotic life of Edgar Allan Poe is reflected in his work. The stories The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Cask of Amontillado, are both written using Edgar Allan Poe’s life as a reference. They show elements of his dark depressing life where his mother died of tuberculosis and his dad died as well before he was three. He was then raised as a foster child by his two brothers, Francis and John. He then became a writer of short stories which everyone told him was a mistake. It is also unknown how Poe died which adds yet more mystery to his life. As can be seen, Poe’s life was very dark and dim. This mood is portrayed in Poe’s stories as well. In Cask of Amontillado, Poe writes about a man seeking revenge on his friend and ends up changing him up in the catacombs and then sealing him down there with a wall that he built. The Pit and the Pendulum also has dark elements to it. This story revolves around a prison who fights the battle between jumping into the unknown or letting himself be tortured. Edgar Allan Poe’s writing style in The Pit and the Pendulum and The Cask of Amontillado express conflicts developed by dark and claustrophobic settings, develops a dark mood and tone similar to his own life's mood through dark diction and an immersive point of view, and finally develops a common theme of danger of the unknown by using a limited point of view including ominous, unexplained elements.

feel isolated and afraid. Moreover, the narrator of “The Pit and the Pendulum” also experiences

Gothic literature has been criticized as being a dreary, dark, and death-involving subset of Romanticism (a literary movement accentuating human individuality, imagination, and subjectivity). In addition, gothic lit incorporates several themes- not all about deathly acts - but includes some emotional and surprising themes such as dreams, nightmares, or hallucinations, and grotesque or bizarre occurrences. Two short stories, both written by Edgar Allan Poe, entitled “The Raven,” and “The Black Cat,” as well as the novel The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern, all encompass these gothic elements, found throughout each story.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Pit and the Pendulum.” poe uses the elements of unknowingness, fear, and fight or flight, descriptive words to add suspense to the story. The man within the story is being sentenced to death because of his faith, he is found guilty and then taken to a duongen and tortured, he is put through 3 different ways of tortures before a french general saves him. First when he is laying on the stone table he decides to do this, ¨At length, with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes, my worst thoughts, then, were confirmed¨ (Poe #3). The previous sentence shows that he was fearful of the situation he is in. Second when he now knows he can't see he does this, ¨Such a supposition, notwithstanding what we

“…All sensations appeared swallowed up in a mad rushing of the soul into Hades. Then silence, and stillness, night were the universe.” This quote from “The Pit and the Pendulum” is an excellent example of how Edgar Allen Poe is a master at using point of view, setting, and conflict to display the thematic message of fear in his short stories. This example uses all three literary strategies. The setting contributes to the theme of fear by stating that the soul was descending to Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, or hell, a place that will almost definitely draw a fear response in the reader. He uses conflict by having the reader infer that the story is about a dying person, and so on. He finds unique ways to do this with all types of literary strategies, but most prominently with point of view, setting and conflict. He especially uses point of view in a unique way, making the narrator either mentally unstable or having some other unusual ailment. Therefore, after thorough analysis of both “The Black Cat” and “The Pit and the Pendulum,” it is clear that Edgar Allen Poe is a master at using setting, conflict, and point of view to help display the unique thematic message of fear throughout almost all of his literary works. Firstly, Poe uses setting to convey the theme of fear in “The Black Cat” and “The Pit and the Pendulum”. In “The Black Cat”, the climax of the story takes place in a cellar. “At length, for the third or fourth time, they descended into the cellar,” The

Imagine a pitch black room set during the Spanish Inquisition. The room is rather small and in the middle lies a pit. A prisoner lays strapped to a table in one part of the room as a large pendulum swings back and forth across the prisoner’s heart. The pendulum slowly moves closer and closer to his chest, slow enough to drive him insane, only he was insane to start. In Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum,” the narrator shows many signs of insanity which enhances the story’s literary effect.

In the pit and the pendulum Poe exposes his readers to the feelings of hopelessness and terror that accompany certain, horrific death in a way a more distant narration could not. This entire story takes place inside a pit or prison cell into which the narrator of the story has been thrown. This story was taken place during the Spanish inquisition during the 16th century. The character finds

In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe, uses the horror elements of suspense, plot twist, and isolation to add suspense to the story. In the beginning of The Pit and The Pendulum he was guilty for some reason that was not mentioned and woke up in a dark room confused and exhausted. First, suspense is used in the story when Poe wakes up in a dark room not knowing where he is, dehydrated and exhausted. Then Poe is trying to find out where he is and starts walking around and discovers a pit in the ground. After that he falls asleep and discovers that he is tied up and there is something swing closer and closer to him until finally he discovers that is is a pendulum.

How would you react to being shown demonic symbols and images (Rhetorical Question)? In “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allen Poe, setting can symbolize either good or bad. Being in a dark room as you wake might not be so good. The reaper is a symbol for death, and as the character sees this, he fears for his life. Not only were there demonic paintings and a reaper, there was also a pit in the middle. Overall this is a bad place to be, and represents a hell-like chamber for torture. The character talks about the pit like he’s heard about it before, and makes it clear that the pit is worse than any other death, “Death”, I said, “Any death but that of the pit!” (Poe 574). The character had also described the confusion of the pendulum at

In The Pit and the Pendulum, by Edgar Allen Poe, constant suspense seemed to occur. Also, a feeling of worry for the prisoner seemed to linger when reading the story. Poe built this suspense by keeping the prisoner in a dimly lit area in which is difficult for the captive to navigate around. The readers get an idea of how dark the captive sees when he describes it as the “blackness of darkness” on page 4 of the story. It is obvious that what the captive means by this is that black is the only color that can be depicted by the person. Later in the story, the walls of the room fill with flame of coal that begin to close in, leaving the captive no choice other but to attempt a jump over the pit behind

Stephen King once said, “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” Bram Stroker, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, and Edgar Allan Poe may have been a few of the greatest authors of horror to ever live. Out of all of these authors, Poe may have written the most freighting tales. All of his stories are considered horror, but some of them have more horrific qualities than others. “The Pit And The Pendulum” is one of Poe’s most famous works. “The Pit And The Pendulum” by Edgar Allen Poe meets three qualifications of a true horror story.