Pit And The Pendulum Theme

The temporal setting “oppress the character with the shape of a pendulum” (3) He fears its deadly velocity which represents his final hours of life. He feels terror of the doom that will “cut” his time on earth. As everyone knows, this symbolizes that death is inevitable.

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.

I gasped and struggled at each vibration. I shrunk convulsively at its every sweep. My eyes followed its outward or upward whirls with the eagerness of the most unmeaning despair; they closed themselves spasmodically at the descent, although death would have been a relief, oh! how unspeakable!” (Poe 27).

In Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe, uses the horror elements of isolation, madness, and plot twists to add suspense to the story. A man is put into a dungeon by judges and is awaiting death. They rig multiple traps for him that he keeps getting out of. First, Poe uses isolation for this story by keeping the man inside a dungeon all alone with no light. He opened his eyes and was immediately felt crushed. He said, “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me” (Poe 3). He wakes from fainting and realizes he cannot see. He feels like the darkness is enclosing him into a tight space. Another element is madness. The judges hang a pendulum to the ceiling that will slowly descend and eventually kill the man. It takes days

While examining the tight quarters of his cold and damp surroundings, he feels piercing eyes fixed upon him. Horror fills his body as he gazes upon large rats entering and exiting the pit of death. He realizes he is in the same dungeon, but it is much smaller than he had envisioned. As his eyes slowly adjust to the brightness of the lights, he becomes aware of a noise above him. Almost immediately, his eyes catch glimpse of the movement of a pendulum. Entranced and enthralled by its animated rhythm, he watches in both terror and delight as it swings backwards and forwards. This fascination soon turns to fear as the prisoner realizes a scimitar is attached to the bottom of the pendulum. A maniacal terror slowly creeps into his thoughts as he imagines the sounds of the blade first slicing into his robe and then tearing apart his flesh. Time drags by. He and the rats feast on pungently seasoned meat. The scimitar swings closer and closer, his death certain, when an idea occurs to him. With only seconds to spare before the sharp blade devours him, he quickly rubs the meat on the bandages binding his hands and feet. The smell attracts the rats who rush in and chew the bandages lose. He slides off the wood plank only seconds before his skin is perforated. Euphoria fills him at his victory over the pendulum of

describes Farquhar as a “vast pendulum,” spinning out of control when he is plummeting to his

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.

Additionally, “The Pit and the Pendulum” is a nail-biting narration of a prisoner being kept in a dungeon. Unaware of what his fate will be, the narrator assumes he will suffer death by hanging, until he explores his unlit surroundings and finds he is in a dungeon with a deep pit in the floor and a pendulum like scythe swinging from the ceiling above. Left to die, the narrator is saved in his last moments of despair by General Laselle who has taken over the prison as part of his crusade to end the inquisition. Perhaps one of Poe's most aspirant pieces of writing, the narrator in the “The Pit and Pendulum” never relinquishes himself to what the reader may view as an inevitable, certain death.

After drinking the water, he realzied it was drugged. When he woke again, he was tied to a plank with only his left arm and head free. When he looked up in terror, he saw that there was pendulum, swinging above him, destined

The theme in “The Pit and the Pendulum” is death and hope. This is displayed in the poem when the narrator realizes the razor sharp pendulum that has been over him swaying from side to side is not an image, and is getting ready to kill him at any second. In the “Pit and the Pendulum” on page 276 it states, “It was the painted figure of Time as he is commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum, such as we see on antique clocks.” This means the whole time the narrator was in the dungeon he thought the pendulum was nothing but an image of time. When the rats bite through his restraints, he has a feeling of hope that he will escape and not die He feels the same thing

The setting presented in this story has a very dark and gloomy atmosphere which has been used as a technique to help outline the scene. It is set in the one location; a bedroom. Poe describes the room as being “black as pitch with the thick darkness,” which deepens the effect of terror. The night setting gives the text an eerie feel as it focuses on the horrors of night time. This horror creates a noticeable impact which is recognisable when the victim cried out “who’s there?” against the backdrop of frighteningly still silence. Ultimately, the way in which Poe’s story is set builds anxiety and fear in the reader.

In the story Edgar Allan Poe creates a gloaming image of the setting in our minds; this makes us connect with the connection of death in the story. The three symbolism in the story are the pit (Heaven/Hell), the pendulum inside of the scythe (time and death), and the angelic forms of Inquisitorial tribune. Poe uses potency and fearfulness to reveal the struggle of a man afraid of death can make a man suffer; however, he uses the comfort of hope to show how death and hope of the prisoner struggles with hand to hand but he's been sentenced to death.

As you can see, Poe has the narrator terrified of death in the pit. At the same time he has

The pendulum symbolizes time. When the narrator was looking around the cell and saw a painting on the ceiling which was a “...painted figure of Time as he commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe,... pictured image of a huge pendulum, such as we see on antique clocks” (Poe 12). Which this talks about how the pendulum was like a clock, but then, he saw the pendulum in motion. “...that its nether extremity was formed of a crescent of glittering steel,... evidently as keen as that of a razor” (Poe 13).

A simple pendulum consists of a mass that is attached to a string of length ‘L’ that is fixed to a point, in this case, a cork suspended by a clamp stand. This allows the mass to be suspended vertically downwards and allows it to be displayed at an angle that it swings. A period ‘T’ of oscillation is the time required for one complete swing. For this to happen ideally its mass must swing from an angle that is