Pit and Pendulum reflection

"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a very dark piece of the Romanticism writing written by Edgar Allan Poe that explores the psychology destruction of a person. The man in the story is sentenced to death and is trapped in a dungeon during the time of the Spanish Inquisition. The man has been put into a torture chamber area where they are torturing him and he recounts his mental state and what the torture did to him. This is an element that is deeply explored in the Dark Romanticism era not only the imagery and the paranormal, mystery, but the destruction of the human mind and spirit in such tragedies.

" I dreaded the first glance at objects around me. It was not that I feared to look upon things horrible, but that I grew aghast lest there should be nothing to see. At length, with a wild desperation at heart, I quickly unclosed my eyes. My worst thoughts then, were confirmed. The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled for breath." (Poe 445)

The man is stuck down what he believes is a tomb but at first he believes he has been buried alive. This causes him to think of things that are crazy. The man is afraid to open his eyes and in his mind he is thinking of the worst things that could be happening to him, which eventually he is tortured pretty badly. " The hot iron walls of his dungeon begin to close in, forcing him ever closer to the frightening pit. It is here that the carefully crafted, frightening and suspenseful tales falls flat." (Hammond) The psychology torture that this guy endures he closely related to what some prisoner's of war had to deal with before their were rule to how a country to treat prisoner's of war. The lucky thing for this man is that he is saved at the very end. While reading the reader could relate this treatment in a more kid really way with the Disney Classic The Hunchback of Notre Dame because the Justice of the Peace guy that rules the city has a scary torture chamber that is kind of similar to the torture dungeon that this guy is put in. " I thrust my arms wildly above and around me in all directions. I felt nothing; yet dreaded to move a step, lest I should be impeded by the walls of a tomb." (Poe 445). The darkness that surrounds him is just like a dungeon that the guy has in The Hunchback of Notre Dame. It the same thing here only since this is a Dark Romanticism piece it is a bit more graphic compared to the rated g movie approved for all ages.

"The sweep of the pendulum had increased in extent by nearly a yard. As a natural consequence, its velocity was also much greater. But what mainly disturbed me was the idea that had perceptibly descended." (Poe 449)

That is extreme psychology torture and it is messed up to torture someone like that and this shows that the people who have this guy are just as crazy as what happens to the people who are tortured. The sick idea of the man who is creating these devices and torture things need a psych evaluation. The destruction of their victim is not only psychological but also physical.

Hammond, J. R. An Edgar Allan Poe Companion. Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble, 1981.

Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Pit and the Pendulum." In The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York: Barnes & Noble, 2006.