This short story is very interesting. It starts out when an unnamed narrator is swooning in between life and death. He describes his conditions, his visions, and his environment as he feels that he is going to die, but he is not dead yet. At first for me, the story was kind of hard to follow. The dark romanticism characteristics are present from the very beginning of the story all the way to the very end. The horror, the pain, the violence, and the overall tragedy of the story are the main dark romanticism characteristics that I see present in the story.
Upon doing research from blooms literary reference, I did find out a lot of characteristics from the story that I did not really catch on to. Instead of someone who is merely struggling from life and death, I learn he was captured and also being tortured. Knowing those pieces of information gives me a whole new outlook on the short story. I think that the way his perceptions are not all clear and the fact that his thoughts are hazy adds a sense of mystery suspense to the story. Since he is captured by the Spanish inquisition, you start to wonder if he will ever get rescued. One of the most significant or suspenseful quotes in the story "Down -- certainly, relentlessly down! It vibrated within three inches of my bosom! I struggled violently -- furiously -- to free my left arm. This was free only from the elbow to the hand," shows the ultimate struggle. The prisoner is seconds away from a tragic death and the reader is just waiting for his robe to be slashed, when in turn the suspense dies down.
I like this story because it reminds me of a scary story. When I think of dark romanticism, I also think of darker times. I'm just assuming, but I would say the prisoner being captured was one of the darkest times of his life. The story is so powerful and moving because of how the suspense is distributed in the story, The very beginning started out very vague, and the reader kind of has trouble following along. As the story progresses though and the mystery of the story is added, it actually becomes a pretty frightening tale to think about.
The one thing I find interesting about the story and that we have not really discussed with dark romanticism yet is the overall tone of the story. The tone is almost too calm. It is like the prisoner is just trying to display what he is going through. I did not feel an emotional connection really because I did not feel like there was a lot of emotion being portrayed by the character other than being scared, which is understandable given his circumstances. For example, in this quote "I forced myself to ponder upon the sound of the crescent as it should pass across the garment -- upon the peculiar thrilling sensation which the friction of cloth produces on the nerves," the prisoner almost sounds calm. Even though he cannot really save himself from death, he just sits there listening to the pendulum that will ultimately kill him.
Overall though, I think the story is really pretty interesting to read about. The fact that he was captured and is being tortured and survived and in the end got rescued is just a story in itself. Then, by adding the dark romanticism characteristics, there is a pretty good horror story that is made from all the tragic events.
Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. "gothic literature and the literature of empire." Encyclopedia of the Literature of Empire. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= ELOE097&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 23, 2012).
Werlock, Abby H. P. "'The Pit and the Pendulum'." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= CASS676&SingleRecord=True (accessed January 23, 2012).
Poe, Edgar A. "The Pit and the Pendulum." Literature.org - The Online Literature Library. Literature,org. Web. 23 Jan. 2012. <http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/pit-and-pendulum.html>.
No comments:
Post a Comment