Blob

David Vargas
Period 6
3-15-12
Edgar Allan Poe Project Part 1: The Pit and the Pendulum
a. The story begins with the narrator being sentenced to death and will be killed very painfully to make him suffer. He is in a Spanish Inquisition and will be punished by a pit. The narrator is wise enough to know that he must figure out a way to get out. The narrator begins measuring the size of the area he is in by first, walking around counting his footsteps until he reaches his destination, which was the cloth stuck to the wall that he used as a starting point, of the dungeon and then by measuring the diameter and figures out that there is a pit. He falls asleep and wakes up strapped to something and a pendulum that was holding a razor sharp blade that is slowly descending and descending toward him. He quickly and barely escapes by rubbing his bonds to a spicy food to make the rats eat the bonds off. The walls begin closing in on him forcing him to have no choice but to fall to his death into the pit. But before he can make his decision, a French Army attacks the place and he is saved in time.
b. The story takes place in a Spanish Inquisition prison where the narrator will be put to death. It takes place in the 1800’s. The word inquisitors hints that the place the narrator is being held is a Spanish Inquisition. The narrator says, “my dungeon” and “light was not altogether excluded” which meant that he was probably surrounded in darkness and put in a deep room. Another phrase that helped paint the picture was “The atmosphere was intolerably close” which means that the place he was in was probably unbearable.
c. The judges seem to be frightening to the narrator. “I saw the lips of the black-robed judges” seem to help picture them of how they look. They also are said to be very white written as “They appeared to me white -- whiter than the sheet upon which I trace these words”. The narrator seems smart and wise to me in a couple ways. For example, when he is put in the dungeon, he stays relaxed and measures the dungeon by area and the diameter counting every step he takes as it is said “Upon recovering, I at once started to my feet”. It also says that he rubs his bonds on spicy meat, when the pendulum holding a sharp blade, to make the rats eat them off helping him escape his death by the pendulum.
d. The narrator has an unknown name and is a man who is being put to death. The narrator’s feelings is he is extremely scared and terror because he knows that he will be the next victim of this place. The piece is written in first person, this affects the piece because it makes it feel more suspenseful in that it feels like the story is being told to you because he is saying I and me, which seems like he is telling it face to face to someone and to the reader. Since the story is being told in first person, it makes it easier to see his thoughts and feelings which creates a picture in your mind and makes it almost seem like your in the story.

e. The judges are symbolisms that represent darkness and evil because they wear black and plan to make the narrator suffer painfully; this works Poe’s style because he usually likes to write scary and suspenseful stories including sad stories. An irony Poe uses is the fact that the narrator is saved. This is irony because as readers, we wouldn’t expect for a French Army to suddenly come at the exact time to save the narrator, we would think that the narrator is going to die, especially since Poe writes sad stories, but it happens the other way around. This works in Poe’s style because he sometimes likes to write a story that would make the reader surprised which would bring our attention to the story. A metaphor Poe uses is “whiter than the sheet upon which I trace these words”. Poe uses this to create a more exciting story and to bring the reader’s attention to the story. This works to define Poe’s style because he usually has metaphors to build up the story’s mood and to make it much more interesting.
f. Some human emotions revealed in the story are fear, loneliness, helplessness, and regret. I think Poe’s attitude about these emotions is that he uses them because he probably has felt them during his lifetime. For example, I know that he has lost his beloved before which might have caused him to write helpless, sad, fearful, lonely, and regretful stories. An event from my own experience that have conjured up the same emotions described in the Pit and the Pendulum is the feeling of regret when I decided to slack off on a project and had to stay up until two O’clock in the morning just to finish it. Also, I had felt helplessness when I accidentally locked my self out of my house and yelled for help by no one came for at least an hour. Another time I felt helplessness is when I became lost in Great America and looked everywhere for my parents but unfortunately could not find them until an Police Officer came and helped me find them.