Preview

Similarities Between The Pit And The Pendulum

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
305 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Similarities Between The Pit And The Pendulum
The Pit and the Pendulum" was a famous piece of Gothic literature written by Edgar Allen Poe. The most pronounced element of Gothic literature would be the mood and atmosphere, due to Poe going so in depth to set a dark and disturbing environment for the story. One example would be the nightmare like imagery used in the beginning. "..And then my vision fell upon the seven tall candles upon the table...and seemed white slender angels...their flames went out utterly; the blackness of darkness supervened; all sensations appeared swallowed up in a mad rushing descent as of the soul into Hades.." Typically in Gothic literature, there's mystery,the supernatural and dread in the atmosphere. With this quote, it follows this, since the candles are rather

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Both Poe and Hawthorne focused on the use of detailed descriptions of scenery to create a mood for their stories. In fact, in both stories almost half of what is written is a description of the setting. Poe uses the dungeon in “The Pit and the Pendulum” to create a sense of doom and despair that plays a part throughout his story. Near the beginning of the story he writes, “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me.” (2). This sets the mood right away. He also appeals to the reader’s senses and describes the feel and smells of the dungeon with phrases like”…my forehead seemed bathed in a clammy vapour, and the peculiar smell of decayed fungus arose to my nostrils.” (4). Poe further engages the reader’s senses later in the story, “A suffocating odor pervaded the prison!...A richer tint of crimson diffused itself over the pictured horrors of blood.” (9). By appealing to the senses Poe forces the reader to picture themselves in his story.…

    • 859 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Gothic literature is a type of writing that is characterized by the elements of fear, death, and gloom. Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of Gothic Lit because it uses the factors of a spooky home, the weather is bad, and there is a ghost or a monster. “He suffered from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable.(18)” This sentence is tied to gothic literature because he is in a old house and he is going crazy. Therefore…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story, Poe uses the pit to symbolize hell. In the beginning, the soldier describes going into the pit as “a mad rushing descent as of the soul into Hades” (Poe 268). The descent reminds the reader of hell in that it is beneath the surface of the ground. Also, when the soldier describes the mad rushing, it can represent hell because nothing in hell is supposed to be orderly or calm. In the Bible, hell is described as a chaotic and tortuous place. “Hades” is an allusion to Greek mythology and describes the underworld. Through the description of the pit from the soldier, the pit is considered hell because it is a chaotic and underground place. The soldier also says, “faces in coal that glow”, after he is brought down into the pit (Poe 268). This could also allude to hell because fire is an element commonly related to hell. Another element of hell that is used in the pit is the demon drawings on the walls. They are used to scare the prisoners that are being tortured. Demonic figures are a symbol of hell and because they are used in the short story, they add to the pit being a symbol of hell. In the pit, there is a hole near the middle that is a deep abyss. This abyss provides terror when the soldier realizes he has almost fallen into it, just as hell provides lasting terror. This abyss reminds the reader of hell because it seems like hell is a bottomless pit of lasting eternity. Through the elements described in the pit, Poe uses it as a symbol to guide the reader to view the story as a decent into hell.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death, murder, and depression are a few of Edgar Allan Poe’s favorite areas to write about. This is a vital reason his pieces are considered Gothic Literature. Gothic Literature, also referred to as “brooding romantics,” explored the capacity for evil. These writers arranged their works with emphasis on emotion, nature, and the individual. However, they did not center their matters on positivity as the other romantics did. Instead, they often included elements of fantasy and the supernatural. Poe’s short story, Fall of the House of Usher, contains all of the assets essential to a Gothic Literature piece, including grotesque characters, bizarre situations, and violent events.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This period starts in the late 18th century. Gothic literature combines medieval style writing and backgrounds like dungeons and castles with macabre, romance and supernatural occurrences (The Romantic Period wwnorton.com). Some famous authors and poets include Edgar Allan Poe, Horace Walpole, and Bram Stoker. Famous works include Dracula, Frankenstein and The Raven. This period was filled with creepy literature that pulled the strings of romances and weird creatures (Bowen bl.uk). Fear and manipulation was used to drawn in the audience.…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Pit and the Pendulum

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Pit and the Pendulum" Symbolism: Although the events in the story create suspense and interest, its the story's deeper meaning that makes it so good. An analysis of the pit (death or hell), the scythe/pendulum (time and death), and the angelic forms of the Inquisitorial tribune (angels of death) are three of many symbols in the novel.…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sentence that flows: In the "Pit and the Pendulum" Poe demonstrates his skills of creating mood and suspense.…

    • 615 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Both stories have very different settings. Poe’s story The Pit and the Pendulum takes place in a completely pitch black room. From lines 102 - 103 the narrator says, “the blackness of eternal night encompassed me”(pg.252). The narrator wakes up and tries to navigate and almost falls in a pit. He was put in the cell by the Inquisition for a crime. However in Twain’s The Lowest Animal the setting takes place in his thoughts. He describes how he conducted experiments with animals and men. “The fact stood proven that the difference between an earl and an anaconda is that the earl is cruel and the anaconda isn’t” (Twain, pg. 374). Twain believes men are greedy and selfish.…

    • 463 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Authors like Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and William Faulkner have presented gothic literature throughout their writing during the 18th and 19th centuries. Gothic literature is defined as a "distinct modern development in which the characteristic theme is the stranglehold of the past upon the present"(294 Drabble and Stringer).Therefore, to deliver this theme to their readers they used gothic elements to create a "dark" sensation especially in the area of setting. All three authors in their literature portray accursed or decaying settings that are associated to violence, poverty, and human behavior. It appears authors like Poe, Hawthorne, and Faulkner were drawn to this elements of Gothicism for what it revealed about human psychology…

    • 1549 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lastly the most fearing and darkness is the fact that Poe describes how the old man murderer watches the old man for hours in his room at midnight ,the darkest time of the night.This makes the reader feels feared and with a darkness around them that Poe used in the story.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I. Thesis – why and how Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven is a vital literary piece to the start of the era of gothic literature, and how it embodies the traits of basic gothic literature…

    • 1477 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The fire lighting the suite of rooms is another object in the story that represented death. He says, "...There stood, opposite to each window, a heavy tripod, bearing a brazier of fire that projected its rays through the tinted glass... However, in the western or black chamber the effect of the firelight that streamed upon the dark hangings through the blood-tinted panes, was ghastly in the extreme, and produced so wild a look upon the countenances of those who entered..."The fire was meant to produce a shadowy atmosphere in the west and a favorable one in the east. This is symbolic to the sunrise in the east and sunset in the west because light means life and darkness means death. Poe uses…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edgar Allan Poe's Insanity

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Edgar Allan Poe revolves the story around a raving individual and the object in which he obsesses over. This theme of insanity is progressed throughout the entire story by Poe's style of gothic writing. Gothic-style writing is defined by using these elements: abnormal psychological behavior, creating a gloomy or threatening atmosphere, connections between the setting and its characters' thought processes or behavior, and supernatural components. Poe's usage of these gothic elements builds up the central theme in the "The Tell-Tale Heart."…

    • 1348 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Life of Edgar Allan Poe

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Edgar Allan Poe's work is known throughout the world. He was born in 1809 in Boston. When Poe was still an infant his father left him and then his mother died. Poe was adopted by Jon Allan. Then Edgar Allan Poe was Educated in Europe. Poe attendant college for while, but Jon Allan stopped Paying for his college education because Poe had to many gambling depts. Then Poe joined to the army in 1827 he wasn't successful in the army though. Then Poe moved back to the United States and wrote stories in Baltimore. Poe was married to Virginia in 1836. Eleven years later Virginia dies of an Illness, Poe was very disturbed. In 1849 Poe died. Poe was known as the Father of Gothic Horror. Readers of Poe's work especially the short stories will find among many Similarities. When analyzing the short stories, readers will find these Similarities by considering the story elements: charters, setting, plot, mood, Subject of matter, and point of view. The characters in Poe's stories share similarities. Often a character is Driven by their emotions. In the Tell Tale Heart the unidentified narrator Becomes so obsessed with his emotions regarding the old man's eye that he Was driven to murder. In the Cask of Amontillado Montessori is totally Controlled by his overpowering feeling that he and his family name had been Insulted. In the Pit and the Pendulum the unknown narrator is being driven By his emotions to survive and to get out of the pit. It seems Poe's characters Are driven by their emotions. Another similarity a reader will notice is that usually male characters left Unidentified for example in The Pit and the Pendulum the entire story is Narrated by a man who is certainly unnamed, but is also vague regarding his Person. In this story he is basically the only character. In The Fall of the House of Usher the narrator who is the central character among only two Other characters remain nameless and vague as well. The characters in Poe's Stories are enigmatic, mysterious, and often…

    • 764 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Spider webs, candle light, dripping wax, dark cellars and scary morgues are also part of the gothic culture, which you and I have to experience together!” Emily insisted, even after I assured her that our cellar morgue definitely did not entail these gothic features she read about in books or…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays