Comparing The Pit And The Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe

It is significant to note how certain words like “melancholy,” “dreary,” “oppressively,” and “dull, dark, and soundless” abet the fortification of this tenebrous environment that evokes such terror within the narrator. Likewise, the imagery present in the narrator’s description of “the atmosphere which had no affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the decayed trees, and the gray wall, and the silent tarn, a pestilent and mystic vapor, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaded-hued,” contributes to the ominous mood generated by these systematically chosen words (92). This mood remains throughout the story and offers a throbbing sense of anticipation and lingering fear. Another example of how Poe’s imagery achieves this effect occurs when the narrator briefly spies Madeline in the beginning of the story: “The lady Madeline passed slowly through the remote portion of the apartment and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. A sensation of stupor oppressed me, and my eyes followed her retreating steps” (96). Images like these contribute to the perception

The unit question asks whether or not the hero of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” would realistically be able to escape the descending blade swinging on a pendulum. The question is a matter of time, is it feasible for the protagonist to escape the pendulum with the allotted amount of time. Based on standard deviation and testing a pendulum of the same scale as the one mentioned in the story, the answer is no. The protagonist mentions that he believed 10-12 periods of the pendulum would result in the blade coming in contact with his torso. Using the formula developed in class for the period of a pendulum, it would take the 30 foot pendulum described in the story about 72 seconds to complete 12 periods. Testing the actual 30 foot yielded similar results within 1-2 seconds of 72 seconds. Therefore, it is fair to say that the hero is working with 72 seconds to free himself. This does not seem like enough time to develop an escape strategy, act on the strategy, and leave without getting hit bit the pendulum. The method the hero describes involves thinking about the situation and then employing the help of nearby rats. He also mentions, “Yet one minute, and I felt that the struggle would be over,” as if to imply he had 1 minute to spare. Since he was reflecting and then enticing the rats to gnaw through the rope it is not likely that it took only 12 seconds to escape. 72 seconds does not seem like enough time for the hero to complete his escape. However, the thickness of the rope and speed of the rats are factors that could affect the outcome.

The movie "The pit and the Pendulum" was nothing at all like the book. The

Taking into account the previous descriptions and the definitions of horror and terror we will try to identify which of these stories presents horror and which one may be said to go deeper by portraying terror. The Pit and the pendulum is characterized by having a narrator who seems in absolute use of his mental faculties. As it is mentioned above, this character is aware of what is happening around him and by having a peak of his logical thoughts and feelings the reader experiences the struggle of the narrator to stay alive in a much more personal way. The fact that this character is sane, integrated and coherent in his thinking is one of the reasons why the reader may sense the terror of the story on a whole other level.

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.

about conveying these feelings to his readers and why it is so effective. Poe uses an

In this story, Edgar Allan Poe (such as in many of his works) uses the setting to create a dark image inside our minds. He makes this specially through darkness, therefore the character makes a connection with death. “The physical setting oppresses him in the visions of his graveyard” (1).

The Pit and the Pendulum is a 1961 horror film directed by Roger Corman , starring

“…but why will you say that I am mad? The disease had sharpened my senses-not destroyed them-not dulled them” (Poe 303). This shows how he is so erratic that the so-called disease is making him act the way he is. He is blaming it on the disease and trying to convince the readers that he is actually not berserk. Another way the narrator creates fear is how much time he put in every night to stalk the old man. This is shown when Poe writes, “For a whole hour I did not move a muscle, and in the meantime I did not hear him lie down” (Poe 304). This shows that he would stand there in the darkness for hour’s just listening to the sounds of the old man. Third, the narrator takes so much pride in how clean he did it all. “I then replaces the boards so cleverly, so cunningly, that no human eye-not even his-could have detected any thing wrong” (Poe 305). One can interpret from this that the narrator was proud of his work and how stealthy he did the deed. Overall Poe uses the setting and the narrator throughout, making the story seem full of fear and dread. It’s shown from the thick darkness and safety of a home to the narrator taking his time stalking the old man and cleaning up the body in a cunning

“…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

They appeared to me white-whiter than the sheet upon which I trace these words-and thin even to grotesqueness;" (161 Poe). The suspense was so good even when they fed the prisoner food because he did not know the apparent reason they did this, was it because it was going to be his last meal soon or was it they were going to feed him to the rats after he was executed. Soon after the captors took away his food and the suspense started to increase when they released the pendulum and the "sweep of it had increased in extent by nearly a yard. As a natural consequence, its velocity was also much greater. But what mainly disturbed me, was the idea that it had perceptibly descended" (170 Poe). The rats also were a major part in the scaring the prisoner and the reader because they are known to be filthy and vile scavengers who will eat anything to appeal their hunger. "While I gazed, they came up in troops, hurriedly with ravenous eyes, allured by the scent of the meat" (170 Poe). The downward swing motion of the pendulum really left the reader in suspense while leaving the prisoner mad because he was feeling the dread of death lingering and "grew frantically mad, and struggled to force myself upward against the sweep of the fearful scimitar" (171 Poe). In the end when the prisoner was about to die and all of a sudden a hand came out of now where and grabbed him. "The French army had

When he first sees this, he is confused and angry, as he thought the inside of the cave was the only way to live. He then goes back into the cave to tell the other prisoners, but since they have had that illusion for so long

During the narrator’s conviction, he is nauseated so his vision becomes blurry; however, he continues to look around the conviction room he is in. While his eyes investigate his surroundings, he then notices candles upon a table and he believes that his savior is on the way. He states, “And then my vision fell upon the seven tall candles upon the table. At first they wore the aspect of charity, and seemed white and slender angels who would save me” ( Poe. Web).

The speaker recounts their surroundings being tomb like, encompassing them in blackness and vacancy. The walls were smooth, slimy, and cold. This setting creates a feeling of dismay and uncertainty. The narrator says “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me.” This means that the tomb is dark as midnight and solitary. Feeling blind and alone in unknown surroundings is scary. If the description of the tomb was similar to that of a jail cell, it would not create the same sense of terror for the reader. At least in a jail cell, there are small amounts of light. Adding instruments of torture and a large pit into the setting also create a feeling of unease. Poe creates the mood of terror through the description of the setting.

To begin with, the narrator tells the reader that he has felt a fear he never knew was possible. In the exposition of the story he states, “ .. filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before” (Poe S3). This citation explains how something created this terror inside of the narrator that we will soon meet. I can infer that he was in a defenceless position, due to the fact that the narrator is filled with fear. When someone is defenceless it’s normally because they fear the thing before them. This also brings me to a tremendous point, is the story a figment of our narrator’s imagination or is it reality? In the exposition of the story the narrator