Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
Fachbereich Sprach-und Literaturwissenschaften
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
Zum Hauptseminar “Edgar Allan Poe “

The aim of the torturers, the tomb-like dungeon and
symbols in Edgar Allan Poe′s "The Pit and the Pendulum"

von: Renate Bagossy

Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. The aim of the torturers and how the victim defies them 4

2.1 The three lethal obstacles 5
2.2. Physical torture and death that never came about 8

3. The dungeon as a tomb 10

3.1. The will to live on and never give up 11
3.2. Being a victim of inquisition: dream or reality? 14

4. Symbols 15

5. Conclusion 20

Works cited 21

1. Introduction

Edgar Allan Poe´s “The Pit and the Pendulum” was first published in The Gift: A Christmas and New Year′s Present (1843) and revised for publication in The Broadway Journal of 17 May 1845. Although by this time the Spanish Inquisition was officially over, the American public was still interested in such topics.
During the nineteenth century a fascination with death evolved. People were interested in gothic novels, were fascinated by horror stories, they loved tales that included elements of magic, supernatural and torture. This morbid fascination with death received its most intensive literary treatment at the hands of Edgar Allan Poe. In The Pit and the Pendulum Poe uses all the elements people were fond of: adventure, supernatural, horror, death, being helpless etc. He moves the sensibility of the reader and evokes a certain emotional reaction.
In this term paper I am going to concentrate on how Poe achieved a certain effect with his story. First I will take a closer look at the prisoner´s constant escapes, point out that most of these escapes are unbelievable and try to find out what the aim of his torturers might be. I will speculate on possibilities, what could have happened to the prisoner if he had made other choices during his stay in the dungeon. Then I will illustrate that there are certain parallels between a tomb and the dungeon in which the prisoner has to endure humiliation and agony, so the victim appears to be buried alive. Hope is the most important "property" he has, it seems as if nobody could take it away from him, and with the help of hope he survives his stay in the dungeon. Whether the story is based on a real or on a dream experience is pointed out shortly. Finally I will present and analyze the symbols that can be found in the story. These symbols underlie and develop the aforementioned theories further, it seems as if the prisoner is not only buried alive in a tomb, but he seems to be in hell already.
The individual elements of this short story can not be separated totally from each other, as these said elements often overlap. Sometimes, I feel, it is not possible to discuss something in full detail in one part of this work, as the same elements appear later again in another context, where the discussion can assume new and different aspects.
After the quotations from the short story itself, I will only give the number of the line or lines where it comes from.
Furthermore, besides books about the Spanish Inquisition, American literature and books on Poe´s work, I have also used Wörterbuch der Symbolik and The Eerdmans Bible Dictionary to round off my work. These books are a necessity for my work to explain not only certain words but also their symbolic meaning.

2. The aim of the torturers and how the victim defies

Right at the beginning of the short story, in the second sentence the reader gets to know about "[t]he sentence - the dread sentence of death" (251) which the narrator has to face. This is the last bit of the inquisitorial voices the narrator hears clearly, then they "seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum" (251). Interestingly, "they", (the judges, accusers, torturers, inquisitors) do not simply execute him, as if it would be usual after declaration of the sentence of death. Instead of this they start to torture him. Not physically but mentally.
Usually the Spanish inquisitorial tortured the victims physically to get them to talk and make a confession. In “The Pit and the Pendulum” the reader does not know anything about the past of the narrator, it is not clear whether the victim is guilty or not and whether he has to make a confession of any kind. In the eyes of the torturers the narrator is guilty, he has been sentenced to death but instead of executing him he has to undergo mental torture. The aim of the torturers is the death of the narrator, but they combine his execution with torture. The narrator realizes this shortly after he was put into his cell:
Was I left to perish of starvation in this subterranean world of darkness; or what fate, perhaps even more fearful, awaited me? That the result would be death, and a death of more than customary bitterness, I knew too well the character of my judges to doubt (255).

Keeping in mind that the reader does not know anything about the victim′s past, the reason for what he has to suffer such agonies can only be explained by the sadistic intentions of the torturers. There is no logical reason to maltreat somebody who has been sentenced to death anyway, as sadism. Therefore the intention of the sadistic accusers is to keep the victim on tenterhooks and then kill him. It seems to be some kind of nasty game in the eyes of the torturers. They watch the victim suffering and they observe with much interest, how he tries to escape the dangers of possible death during his stay in the cell: the pit, the pendulum and the red hot iron walls.

2.1 The three lethal obstacles

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