The Pit And The Pendulum

In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum,” a nameless narrator is trapped in a prison awaiting for his fate. He ultimately finds himself being put to death by a swinging pendulum, and narrowly escapes. In Poe’s story, he many gothic elements in this narrative such as, a frantic narrator, visions about a dream-like state, a setting that creates an atmosphere of suspense, and finally the use of time to illustrate the horror of death. Poe employs these elements by the use of his playbook, which created moods and feelings for the reader by making them feel uncomfortable and uneasy. The elements used in this narrative develop the tone of the narrative as dark, philosophical, and serious. Furthermore, it created a mood of suspense, fearful anticipation, and distress for the reader. “The Pit and the Pendulum” effectively created a narrative that was both terrifying spiritually and emotionally for the reader by character and setting development. Poe develops the setting of a prison in the time period of the Spanish Inquisition in “The Pit and the Pendulum” in order to emphasize the bleakness and suspense that comes with the fate of being in prison and ultimately death. This is demonstrated by the darkness prison cell and the blackness of night, “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled for breath. The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me. The
This created a sense of fear, horror, anticipation, and ultimately reflection about the overlying idea of death. It is from this fact, that Poe employs the elements of gothic literature by his use of symbols, character development, setting development, and conflicts in order to make the reader understand and feel the meaning of death in their own