Pit And The Pendulum Theme

Edgar Allan Poe is an illustrious writer from the 19th century, notorious for his ominous, melancholic, and lugubrious writing style. The characters and situation in Poe’s story often depicted figures and events from his own life. In “The Pit and the Pendulum” the narrator has been captured by the Spanish Inquisition and sentenced to death. After numerous methods of torture and various obstacles, the narrator is rescued by General LaSalle of the French army. This reflects on the periods of depression Poe has gone through and how they have been alleviated by his romantic relationships. A common theme Poe wrote about was the doom of man. Poe’s ideology foreshadows certain acts performed in wars during the twentieth century.
The story, “The Pit

He initially is placed in cell with nothing but darkness. This was torture in and of itself because it made him unaware of what kind of trap or quagmire awaiting for him to take one wrong step. The narrator is also deceived into eating salty meat so he would drink the poisoned water that was provided alongside it. After awakening from being poisoned, he finds himself strapped down to a table with a razor-sharp pendulum swinging back and forth, slowly approaching his body. The final conflict the narrator undergoes is nearly being forced into the pit by the heated walls closing in on him. The struggles the narrator experiences were all attempts of putting the narrator the misery and eventually executing him. This theme is seen commonly in twentieth century wars such as World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War. It was common for an army to capture, torture and kill soldiers from the opposing army. Occasionally, they would do this to gain knowledge of their enemies and other times they would do this as punishment for crimes like in “The Pit and the Pendulum”. The story the portrays the theme of the doom of man through the torture and torment of the narrator which foreshadows the popular act performed during wars in the twentieth