Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, MA. He died on October 7, 1849 and his cat was found dead shortly after he died. Some of Poe’s famous works are: The Raven, The Black Cat, The Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher, and Annabel Lee (Carlson) In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe uses theme, setting, tone, and symbolism to expose the inhumanities of persecution. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Pit and the Pendulum,” persecution is a main theme (Hamilton) In the story, the narrator does not reveal who the persecutors are. The narrator is also tortured by his anonymous persecutors. Another main theme in “The Pit and the Pendulum” is Terror. Since this is a gothic horror story, terror is going to be present. Poe provides some truly gory and terror inducing details to make his point. At the beginning of the story, the prisoner is in a state of delusion. This makes the narrator seem like he may be mentally ill. The narrator even says that he thinks he will die because he knows who his persecutors are and what type of people they are. The story is set in a prison during the Inquisition. The prisoner thinks that he will definitely die and he fears being physically dead but still mentally aware. (Poe’s 6) The narrator never reveals the crime he has been convicted of, but is being held by his persecutors. At first, the prisoner is in a cell with no light and does not know where he is. He soon discovers that there is a gaping hole in the middle of his cell. Eventually, he will wake up to find a swinging pendulum with a scathe on the end of it. He also finds himself strapped to a board with rats around him and a little bit of raw meat that the rats seem interested in. The pendulum is getting closer and closer with every swing. The prisoner will either be killed by the scathe on the end of the pendulum or the fall into the deep pit below. The details in the setting give way to why the short story is titled “The Pit and the
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In this story, the pit likely means hell. When Catholics sin, they “fall.” So, the pit very well could mean the act of sinning and falling into hell. For a very long time, the pendulum has been seen as a symbol of time, as it very well is here. It symbolizes time running out, like the last grain of sand in the hourglass. The pendulum also has a scythe on the end of it, which symbolizes that when time runs out, you die. The father is said to have power over life and death, and is the beginning and the end, alfa and the omega. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe uses theme, setting, tone, and symbolism to expose the inhumanities of persecution. Poe created a story that is thrilling and dark, but yet makes a point. To end, here is a quote from Edgar Allan Poe: “What we call ‘death’ is but the painful metamorphosis. Our present incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is perfected, ultimate, immortal. The ultimate life is the full design.”
In this story, the pit likely means hell. When Catholics sin, they “fall.” So, the pit very well could mean the act of sinning and falling into hell. For a very long time, the pendulum has been seen as a symbol of time, as it very well is here. It symbolizes time running out, like the last grain of sand in the hourglass. The pendulum also has a scythe on the end of it, which symbolizes that when time runs out, you die. The father is said to have power over life and death, and is the beginning and the end, alfa and the omega. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Poe uses theme, setting, tone, and symbolism to expose the inhumanities of persecution. Poe created a story that is thrilling and dark, but yet makes a point. To end, here is a quote from Edgar Allan Poe: “What we call ‘death’ is but the painful metamorphosis. Our present incarnation is progressive, preparatory, temporary. Our future is perfected, ultimate, immortal. The ultimate life is the full design.”