The short story "The Pit and the Pendulum" is very different from many of Edgar Allan Poe's other works of writing. I rather like this story because it does not end in someone's death or someone grieving over the loss of a loved one."The Pit and the Pendulum" actually has a rather happy ending. I like this short story because in the end the narrator does not die and we do not learn of any of his loved ones dying. Although there is a rather upsetting part of this story. The narrator is being held captive and has been punished to auto-da-fé, or “act of faith”—an execution normally taking the form of a hanging. This makes the reader both mad and upset for the narrator because we do not know for sure that this man has done anything wrong but during the Spanish Inquisition a person could be blamed for anything and punished to death. The strangeness that the narrator feels is also interesting to me. I do not know if the water or bread that he is given to eat has been drugged or if he is claustrophobic, but I think it odd how often the narrator just blacks out or falls asleep. The narrator in this story was also very clever though. He is able to determine that the pit in the middle of the room was very deep by throwing a rock down in and noting that time that the rock took to hit the bottom so he knew that it was not a way out. The narrator is also clever in the way of when he was strapped to the wooden board, with the pendulum scythe object swinging towards his heart, to think of taking the meat and use it to lure the rats to chew through the straps holding him to certain death. On the last "test" there is not really anything that he could do and he really just got lucky that the French had been able to end the Inquisition at the time that they did. "The story, however, holds out hope by demonstrating that true resolve when what someone chooses to do seems most impossible. When threatened by the pendulum, the narrator does not succumb to the swooning of his senses. He recruits his rational capacities and uses the hungry rats for his own benefit"("SparkNotes: Poe’s Shor..").
"At first the ravenous animals were startled and terrified at the change -- at the cessation of movement . They shrank alarmedly back; many sought the well. But this was only for a moment. I had not counted in vain upon their voracity"(Literature.org - The Online Literature Library). This quote from Poe's short story shows characteristics of Romanticism writings to me. "Nature was not only appreciated for its physical beauty by the Romantics, but also for its ability to help the urban man find his true identity"(Kartha, "Romanticism: Characteristics of Romanticism."). I think that nature is very important in this story because the savageness of wild rats saved the narrators life. The narrator does not appreciate the presence of his only companions in the dungeon but comes to realize what they are worth and how valuable the rats are.
Dark Romanticism was harder for me to identify in this short story."They believe that human beings were equally capable of evil and good"(Nair, "Dark Romanticism"). This is the only characteristic of Dark Romanticism that I was able to interpret from the short story. This man had been convicted of a petty crime or maybe he did something gruesome such as murdering someone. This is part of the equally good and evil. We do not really know if this man is good or bad but as a reader, we want to believe that the narrator is the good guy.
Nair, Tulika. "Dark Romanticism." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.
Kartha, Deepa. "Romanticism: Characteristics of Romanticism." Buzzle Web Portal: Intelligent Life on the Web. 26 Sept. 2011. Web. 17 Jan. 2012.
"SparkNotes: Poe’s Short Stories: “The Pit and the Pendulum†(1843)." SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.
Literature.org - The Online Literature Library. Web. 20 Jan. 2012.
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