The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum: A Gothic Analysis Gothic literature obviously must get its name from somewhere, and in most cases, the creepy, eerie elements of the story are what make Gothic stories, Gothic. Many stories include these vital Gothic elements, especially “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe. This story is about a man, the unnamed narrator, being trapped in a prison and sentenced to death by the Spanish Inquisition. Eventually, he is able to escape a swinging pendulum with an…

and act as links to reality. Many people can easily lose their sense of time and reality like in the Pit and the Pendulum. Some people believe, because for most of the story the narrator’s unaware of reality, the narrator doesn’t actually experience any of the tortures that he describes; however, Poe displays these anchors to reality during the torture. Thus the narrator of the Pit and the Pendulum does experience the tortures he described because they were his only links to reality and sense of…

The film adaptation of The Pit and The Pendulum, and the story itself are similar although they have different storylines. Roger Corman portrayed similar content in his film as Edgar Allen Poe did in his story. The mood, characterization, and tone was what made the two alike. The Roger Corman film adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s Story, “The Pit and the Pendulum” is artistically valid even though the film’s story line bares little resemblance to the original work. The mood in Poe’s story was…

now Joseph." She replied shaking her head. I decided just to let her hide until she got bored and came home. I grabbed my book and laid down on my bed. I was reading "The Best of Edgar Allen Poe" by Edward Blake. I was currently reading "The Pit and the Pendulum. I reread it multiple times. Trying to understand it was giving me a headache so I put the book down. I instinctively reached for my phone on my bedside table before I remembered that Sarah took it. "Wait a minute, how long has she been…

Essay: The Pit and The Pendulum Darkness blocks our view of light, which blocks our knowledge of what is in the light. The darkness is a source of fear and a major element of horror, which is also a main thing in a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. "The Pit and The Pendulum" by Poe is a horror story because the story has a dark setting, the suspense rises very quickly, and the plot is more important than the prisoner. The setting of the short story “The Pit and The Pendulum” by Edgar…

been prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I had escaped. Another step before my fall, and the world had seem me no more” (The Pit and Pendulum Pg. 3) Continuing, the character beings to explore his cell which seems to be quite large for a prisoner and at one point he almost falls into a rather large pit almost dying in that moment. This story continues the strategy of being dark and cruel of unknown devious captors, often times staying on point in that way.…

up and sees that the figure of Time has been painted on the ceiling. Time has been made into a pendulum, which is swinging back and forth, back and forth, getting closer and closer to his heart. As we read this short story we are intriguingly faced with the effects of unrelieved torture and suspense, yet also experiencing hope, which wins out in the end, because he is set free. “The Pit and the Pendulum is a traditional Poe story that breaks from Poe’s conventions: violent yet ultimately…

cut first and honest people are screwed first.”-Chanakya In the “The Pit and the Pendulum” the dungeon was very depressing. It is known that most likely if a person knows they will die they will go crazy. The dungeon was messed up, because it was a small dark room and had rats roaming around in it. You will be psychological damage if you know you are trapped in a small pitch black room and you will be suffocated. The pit represents hell or death, because it is a frightening and…

nature. I also found that simple writings of normal life, and love, were popular during the romantic period. Hawthorne and Poe explored life, death, and human nature in their works. They both had similar stories of human curiosity. With “The Pit and the Pendulum” Poe showed how a man’s curiosity can find the dark part of life, and how close death was to him. His curiosity opened his eyes to the multiple ways of death around him. Hawthorne uses the curiosity to show how man can make mistakes…

still used in today’s stories. It creates suspense through cliff-hangers, and foreshadowing events of the story. Macabre is used for the allegorical representation of the ever-present and universal power of death. The Devil and Tom Walker, The Pit and the Pendulum, and the Minister’s Black Veil contain examples of Macabre events that add suspense to the short stories, Washington Irving uses the Macabre event of the trees to add suspense to The Devil and Tom Walker. The trees symbolize many…