Pit_and_Pendulum

Ryan Lally Draft The pit and the pendulum is a dark story written by Edgar Allan Poe written in 1842.this story takes place during the Spanish inquisition mostly in a unique cell with only one way out. In this allegory Poe focuses on three of the most powerful aspects of the human condition: fear, inevitable death, and hope all of which He focuses on the fear aspect of the human condition to drive survival almost the entire story. Through out the story you don’t know what to expect. It focuses on the feel of not being in control witch is a very scary thought for many. An example of this is when he talks of “tall figures that lifted and bore me in silence down”. As you can see he had utterly no control over where he was going and what was going to happen to him. After being carried down for a while he lost consciousness and when he awoke he feared to look “[he] grew aghast lest there be nothing to see.” This illustrates this fear of not being in control because in complete darkness you know not what is around you, you have no feel of time and you cannot ever be comfortable because “the Intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle”. Another example of the human condition of fear is the horrible things he witnesses. For example the pit. In the utter darkness the pit almost killed him as he struggled to regain control of his surroundings. The aspect of falling is not only a primitive and natural fear but the pit also represents hell. In addition to this he had heard rumors of the crusades witch no doubt being in the dark inspired his imagination to imaged the worse. All of the things are designed to inspire horror and fear in even the bravest of men. {text:soft-page-break} The prospect of inevitable death is an idea that has been shown throughout history to inspire great conquests and accomplishments. In the pit and the pendulum the fear of inevitable death is constant and is another factor that drives him to survive. The first concrete showing of this fear is when the main character finds himself “securely bound by a long strap resembling a surcingle” to a plank of wood placed under a slowley falling pendulum. When he looks to the origens of the pendulum he notices that there is a “painted fihure of time.” the falling pendulum and the painting of time illistrates the inevitable death that awaits him.