The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum was a short story written by Edgar Allen Poe about a man who has been charged as guilty of heresy by the Spanish Inquisition. His sentence is death. The story is bursting at the seams with the characteristics of Dark Romanticism: psychological fears, human nature, and mystery.

The story is extremely rich in psychological fears. In fact, this aspect of Dark Romanticism is where the story draws its climax (Langley). In the rising action, the author develops a fear of the dreaded pit in the main character's cell with his close encounter with it (Poe 267). In the climax of the story, the author forces the main character to confront this fear of the water-filled pit by placing him between a rock and a hard place. The Inquisition, after the main character has escaped his death by the pendulum's blade, proceed to heat the iron walls of his prison and bend them in, forcing him to either be burned by their heat and pressure, or to jump in the pit to escape their heat (Poe 273). The author explores the narrator's fear, especially when he begins to scream, "Death, any death but that of the pit!" (Poe 273). It truly is the build up of all the nervousness and fear the narrator had experienced up until then, and it falls into the falling action and conclusion quite nicely.

Poe also plays with human nature in this short story, another trait of Dark Romanticism (Langley). Specifically, the piece of human nature he examines is the will to survive. For example, when the narrator realizes that he is firmly secured in place below the descending pendulum's blade, instead of simply submitting to his fate, his will to survive causes him to think ingeniously to come up with a solution for escape (Poe 271-272). Survival is one of the most base aspects of human nature, being almost instinct. Since another major aspect of the story was fear, Poe used survival to complement the fear in that the narrator has to overcome his fear in order to fulfill his instinct to survive.

Another aspect of Dark Romanticism that Poe used in The Pit and the Pendulum is the aspect of mystery (Langley). Specifically, in this story, he uses it when the prisoner has been sentenced and placed in his cell (Poe 266). It is pitch black, leaving the mystery of where he is, and if he is even still alive (Poe 266). When the prisoner tries to measure the room, he still cannot judge how big it is, continuing the mystery (Poe 266-267). Another large mystery that Poe leaves is what the prisoner was actually charged with, or what he specifically did wrong that led to his death sentence by the Inquisition. The mystery is the interesting part of the story in that it keeps the reader wondering about the answers long after they have put down the book and allows them to speculate and come to their own conclusions.

In these three ways, The Pit and the Pendulum is a showpiece for Dark Romanticism with its use of many of the style's characteristics. Its dark tale of suspense is timeless and will continue to be read in the years to come due to its eternal connection with the readers' own fears and its thrilling suspensefulness leading up to its conclusion.

Works Cited

Langley, John. "Romanticism." Mr. Langley's Digital Classroom. John Langely, 24 Oct. 2010. Web. 23 Nov. 2010. .

Poe, Edgar A. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Glencoe Literature. Ed. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 263-73. Print.