The Pit and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe Essay -- Pit and the Pendu

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum,† written 1843, and â€Å"using the anguish of imminent death as the means of causing the nerves to quiver† (Edgar Allan Poe, 2015), he takes the reader into the mind of a man who is tortured by various means by some unknown person or persons for reasons that are not given. The themes of death and time are portrayed strongly in this story and produce a sense of anxiety and uncertainty. â€Å"The first- person narration, in which the ‘I’ remains unnamed, causes the reader to identify with the protagonist† (Myers 1922). I feel that the narrator remains unnamed for the reason of not giving information that would further distract the reader from the details and emotions of the pit itself, and not to be biased in any way. Most of the story takes place inside a type of prison cell that the narrator, who is the only prisoner, was placed in after some kind of trial. Because the amou nt of consciousness that the narrator has comes and goes, his seemingly dreamlike state hinders his ability to make accurate judgements, comprehend his situation, and decide how to best get out of his ever-changing torturous environment. Through the narrator’s almost hopeless states of madness and his shimmering rays of hope and decision making, the reader feels compelled to understand how the narrator got into this pit and how he would ever be able to be free given that his tormentors are ever vigilant and always prepared to bring a new device to try to end the narrator’s life. When the â€Å"narrator discusses how the unconscious mind provides a glimpse into the gulf beyond,† this shows how Poe can try to explain how the imagination can work, and how it can interact with rational thought processes of... ... reader much to fill in thus helping to create great suspense and harboring many questions about the Inquisition and the darkness within the minds of man. Works Cited Bloom, Harold, ed. Bloom’s Major Short Story Writers. Broomall , PA : Chealsea House Publishers, 1999. Edgar Allan Poe. Wikipedia Web. 15 May 2015. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Allan_Poe Poe, Edgar Allan, â€Å"The Pit and the Pendulum.† Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York . Random House, Inc. Sep. 1975. 246-57 Hoffman, Daniel. â€Å"Edgar Allan Poe: the artist of the beautiful.† The American Poetry Review v. 24. Nov./Dec. 1995. Web. 15 May 2015. http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/literary-criticism/9511301401/edgar-allan-poe-artist-beautiful Myers, Eunice. The Pit and the Pendulum. Ed. Frank N. Magill . Vol 4. Pasadena , CA : Salem Press, 1986. 6 vols.