Edgar Allan Poe was a famous poet and short story teller in his time period. Poe's stories and poems are still being read today. They have made an impact on people's lives many years from when he was actually alive. A lot of his writings are creative with a dark twist, which is why he fits in to the dark romanticism time period.
In his short story The Pit and the Pendulum, Edgar Allan Poe uses many characteristics of dark romanticism. The story itself is about a soldier who is punished with a death sentence. This obviously is going to start the flow of a dark romanticism story. Romanticism involves a lot of detail, which Poe definitely uses in this short story. He does not fall short of adding the dark part, either. He exceeds in using a dark and dreary setting.
Even in the first paragraph, Poe seems to start with a dreary scene.
Poe wrote, "I was sick, sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me" (Poe 263). This was in the very first paragraph. This description of a painful and dreadful scene definitely makes the reader interested in what doom the narrator is going through.
The next couple of paragraphs remind me of a scene from Harry Potter. Poe writes about "black robed judges" (Poe 263). He talks about how they are frightening him and he does not know what to do. He writes, "They appeared to me white-whiter than the sheet upon which I trace these words- and then even to grotesqueness; thin with the intensity of their expression of firmness- of immovable resolution- of stern contempt of human torture" (Poe 263). This description that Poe gave seems very real, especially the last line. You can feel the pain and fright that the narrator feels just from this short passage. You could tell, even without Poe saying it, that these figures were enemies of Poe and that they were going to hurt him. Just by his description you can see how Poe feels about these figures.
Another depressing passage that really stuck out to me was when Poe wrote "I proceeded for many paces, but still all was blackness and vacancy. I breathed more freely. It seemed evident that mine was not, at least, the most hideous of fates" (Poe 266). In this passage, Poe was talking about how he was trying to escape the rushing feelings that he previously had when he was in pain and just step forward. He could barely bring himself to perform this small action. That passage adds a lot of suspense to the story. Poe's short story is already full of suspense due to passages like that. It is part of what makes Poe so famous- his ability to add suspense.
After a lot of suffering, the narrator says "By long suffering my nerves had been unstrung, until I trembled at the sound of my own voice, and had become in every respect a fitting subject for the species of torture which awaited me" (Poe 267). In this passage, the soldier has already been suffering. He has nothing pleasant to look forward too and the torture is just getting worse. At this point is seems impossible for the French Army to get to him in time.
Finally, after much more suffering, he is falling into the abyss when the general grabs his arm (Poe 273). I was actually surprised that he did not die. I assumed that he would die because of death being a common theme in Edgar Allan Poe's other work.
This short story was very good and I enjoyed reading it.
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