The Pit and the Pendulum
A Glance into the Mind of a Dark Romantic
The age of Romanticism brought with it some of the greatest authors known to the world. These new age authors no longer made fact or the bible their main focus. Instead the authors turned their focus on to the range of human emotion, both light and dark, and used these new found techniques to create works that will inspire literature for years to come. None achieved this better than the master of horror himself, Edgar Allen Poe. Poe focused mostly on the dark side of the human psyche and what that dark side could drive people to do. The main themes of his writings were doom, despair, death and so on. His short story the "Pit and the Pendulum" is no exception and is in fact one of the main pieces of literature that would make him one of the greatest suspense writers in history.
The "Pit and the Pendulum" was written in a time that was probably one of the darkest times for Poe. His young wife, Virginia Clemm, had been stricken with tuberculosis and was on the brink of death.She died in 1847 after fighting the sickness for a long time (Kovitz). This horrifying trauma that Poe was facing began to reflect in his literature. The already dark and twisted stories became macabre and demented. Death and darkness became the main subject of his works. Both of these elements are not only present in the "Pit and the Pendulum", but are the basis of the work.
In this highly acclaimed cult classic, a man is taken by the Spanish Inquisition and put into a pitch black room with a pit in the middle. The narrator fades in and out of a deep sleep throughout the story. When he finally wakes fully he is stricken by the sight of a blade swinging above his head. The blade slowly lowers each time it makes a pass until it is only inches from his chest. The man makes a narrow escape from his impending doom by smearing food on to the ropes that bind him only to realize that the walls begin to move in on him threatening to crush him. The narrator begins to head for the pit realizing that it may be his only chance to survive. Then just as he was falling in to the abyss that threatened to swallow him whole, a hand takes his own and pulls him to safety. The French army had invaded the chamber and saved his life(Shmoop Editorial Team).
As mentioned previously, much of the story is is based and symbolized on death and darkness. Darkness is found throughout the story both in a literal and symbolic sense. The room in which he is trapped is literally pitch black and there are many descriptors used by the author to make the reader feel the dark presence that lurks within the chamber. The darkness is also argued to have represented the darkness and confusion with in the narrator's own mind. As the darkness in the chamber increases so does the darkness and insanity that resides in his mind(Avon Rosi Pedro). When the darkness is finally lifted, the reader is revealed to the pendulum that is sure to bring about his death. Many argue that the pendulum is meant to represent death as the blade is described to look like a scythe, like those used in depictions of death(Shmoop Editorial Team). Many argue, however, a much less obvious entity is represented by the pendulum. Some argue that the swinging blade is meant to represent father time. The oscillating blade has been compared on numerous occasions to the pendulum that swings from the bottom of a grandfather clock. This is used as representation to the fact that the narrator has a very limited amount of time to try and change his fate or to face death. However, this conclusion is also made a little more obvious by the fact that there is a picture of Time himself painted on ceiling of the prison that held our hero. With the evidence provided, however, many have stated that Death and Father Time are one in the same, as used in The Pit and the Pendulum, and could therefore both be represented by the pendulum and the death that it means to deal out (Shmoop Editorial Team).
These symbols and descriptions dealt out by Poe gave the reader a great deal of insight into what would happen to the character before the character himself even knew. This use of foreshadowing added yet another element to the story, suspense. Since the reader knew, or thought they knew, what was going to happen to the character of the story he/she started to anticipate it and wait for that grand moment to arrive. This anticipation in turn created a feeling of suspense that Poe would eventually turn into an even more suspenseful situation using multiple plot twists and turns throughout his works. The readers were kept engaged and on their toes at all times creating a great deal of suspense through the story.
This symbolism used in combination with Poe's uncanny ability to immerse his audience into the story through the use of intense and emotional literary techniques is what has made him one of the most influential and well known authors to enter the horror and suspense genre.
Poe Today
The Spirit of Poe lives on today. This pop culture icon's ideas can be found just about in every form: T-shirts, coffee mugs, plays, books. One way in particular can be found right here at the Poe Museum. A new addition to our museum features a reenactment of the very work we've been discussing. The show puts viewers into the very setting of "The Pit and the Pendulum" and let's them experience all the horrors and thrills of the piece for themselves("Museum News").
Page Designer: Koty Eggleston