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Pit And The Pendulum Irony

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“Now that our homeland is safe, now that the tomb is broken, life and health appear where once was dread death,“ (Poe 249). An explanation for this quote would be now that we our safe death has been replaced for health/ well being. In “The Pit and The Pendulum” the main character was sentenced to death, due to him being against the Catholic Church. After being sentenced he was challenged mentally and physically due to the fact he didn’t know when or how his life would come to an end. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” the main character, Mr.Hooper a parson presented himself to a funeral with a black veil which caused commotion in his small town. This began some rumors, but at the end he was buried with his crape. Demonstrating the depiction of death and mystery through the description of the character feelings and experiences. …show more content…

The narrator is afraid of this because he is uncertain as to when it will happen and how his death will come upon him. The text says, “I was sick-sick unto death with that long agony.” This shows fear by the narrator experiencing immense emotional and mental pain. Furthermore, the text states, “The sentence- the dread sentence of death-was the last distinct accentuation which reached my ears.” This proves that the narrator is mortified by the word “death” that “reached his ears.” Edgar A. Poe successfully conveys the theme of the fear of the unknown by depicting his narrator's thoughts on fear and what’s to

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“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but triumph over it. The brave man is not he who feels afraid, but who conquers that fear.” (Nelson Mandela) What was trying to be said is that only those who conquer fear are truly more courageous than the ones who live worrying about fear. In both gothic literature texts, Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe share the literary element of mood and foreshadowing to create suspense and tension throughout their stories.

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Death does not scare them and they do not connect with the reality of matter. During the time this was sung and later written down, the Plague was everywhere. Similarly to “Twa Corbies,” death is just an action to which people are used to it. The Black Plague changed the lives of so many people not through just physical ailments, but also through mental ailments.

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Poe’s use of foreshadowing, characterization, and symbolism develops the theme of inevitability of death to illustrate that regardless of

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Death is also represented by a key prop, the clock that rings every hour. Death is related to Poe’s life because his mother died when he was young. Also, his wife died of Tuberculosis leaving him scarred. In the

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In the story, The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe, Poe describes the main character’s anxiety and fear to create suspense. For instance, the reader can feel the suspense when the author says, “I foamed - I raved - I swore. I swung the chair upon which I had been sitting, and grated it upon the boards” (Poe 94). Therefor, the reader can sense the character’s anxiety and and anger. Similarly, Poe expands the reader’s feeling of suspense when he writes, “And now a new anxiety seized me - the sound would be heard by neighbor” (Poe 92).

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What is fear ? Is it being locked in a cell so scary and dark a person can’t see what’s in front of them ? “The Pit and the Pendulum,” by Edgar Allan Poe focuses on the main character who undergoes a series of tough punishment for his opposing belief, against Catholicism, which leads him to being sentenced to death. In this darkness, the narrator finds himself being drugged to fall asleep, through food to wake up and repeat again. One of literature's exceptional standards is allowing the reader’s mind to discover subliminal points to undertake and to form their own ideas.

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Everyone must know that fear has its negative effects, but it also has its positive effects on humans. Fear can help you to be more aware and prevents harm to you and others around you since you are more cautious. However, on the other side of the spectrum, fear can bring obsession such as losing control of yourself to focus on certain people or objects, and can bring poignancy to your life. Both aspects of fear are shown in Edgar Allan Poe’s renown stories, ¨The Tell-Tale Heart,¨ ¨The Pit and the Pendulum,¨ and ¨The Masque of Red Death,¨ where all the main characters are introduced to fear, but all approach it differently.

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Poe uses psychology within his stories to evoke all emotions, but he is particularly good at causing fear. There are many examples of him doing this and I am going to share a few of them with you. I have chosen three stories to point out how he uses our most common fears to make us tick. These are, The Tell Tale Heart, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Masque of Red Death.

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Poe creates fear and dread through characters, suspense, and violence. Poe creates fear and dread in the story through the characters. For one, he shows fear through the narrator. First the narrator is insane and unreliable. The narrator is constantly saying he isn’t insane his actions say

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The theme of the premature burial is very prevalent in many of Poe’s stories. It is seen time and time again throughout his works because at the time he was writing them, the theme of premature burial or fear of being buried alive was extremely commonplace and it got people talking about his writings. It is clear to see that the theme of burial while alive is so developed and widespread in Poe’s works. This is because it is what the general public were interested in at the time and he was using this to his own benefit to gain more popularity. Poe was completely obsessed with the whole idea of being buried whilst still alive.

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Edgar Allan Poe Living with fear in every corner, waiting for death in every hall, Poe experiences all of it and only had one way to express himself; and that was through his writing. Fear, something that can be helpful to stop the human mind from making a life changing decision. Fear is helpful because it helps restraint us from the bad. Fear is harmful as well because it can cause the body to be so scared it can cause the person to be paranoid.¨The Tell-Tale Heart,¨ and ¨The Masque of Red Death¨ are stories of Poe´s, all show fear with symbols, irony and figurative language.

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Throughout his work, Poe argues the irrationality of fearing death through his exploitation of human fear, his dissection of the powers of the human mind, and the irrationality of irrationality itself. Poe utilizes fear to diminish even the most powerful of

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Death can never be escaped no matter what. In “The Masque of the Red Death” Edgar Allan Poe shows the theme of death, a suspenseful mood, and an ominous tone. Through Poe’s use of literary devices, the reader can discover tone, theme, and mood. Throughout Poe’s life he experienced death with two of his mother’s and his young wife. Death is shown how inevitable it is with Poe’s writing and experiences combined together.

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In this novel, Death is the one who tells the story and is also a character in the story, which begins by Death presenting himself to the reader. This technique creates a really strong bond between the book and the reader, since the narrator addresses directly to the reader. It is also a way of captivating the reader, who, by being directly addressed to, feels like he has his own place in the story and gets

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