Poe Philoshophy of Composition. The Pit and the Pendulum, and A Predicament - Essay Example

identification (all above optional – if you need them) English Literature ic and Modern) Topic The Tactics of Edgar Allen Poe and their Effect Title Tactics Used for Effect in “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “A Predicament” by E.A. Poe. The Essay It is clear that Edgar Allen Poe intends that his short stories, “The Pit and the Pendulum” and “A Predicament” affect his reader directly and powerfully. The responses he wants from the reader, however, differ significantly and therefore the stories are expected to be differently structured, and to use very different tactics to manipulate the readers’ responses. This is not the case. Some differences in the structures and tactics can be seen but in the techniques Poe uses to create very real physical sensations in the reader through description, the stories employ very much the same tactics. “The Pit and the Pendulum” describes in detail the experiences of the main character imprisoned during the Inquisition, and tortured in creative and ruthless ways. The effect on the reader of the descriptions of the cell, first in complete darkness, then through the pendulum torture, including rats, and the eventual narrowing of the heated walls to force the main character into the pit, is physically terrifying. The reader is taken through feelings of claustrophobia; fear of the unknown; terror of falling into darkness; fear of physical pain – being sliced by a sharp blade and burning – and of the vermin rats. Similar fears in the reader are brought forward in “A Predicament”. In this story, climbing narrow staircases; darkness; again rats; and having your head chopped off – including eyes popping out! – are some of the physical sensations the reader will identify with. Yet, in the first story, the reader feels terror and horror at what this character is going through; in the second, the sense is that the absurdity of the situation is funny. In both stories Poe’s tactics are to appeal first to the visual senses of the reader. Right from the writer’s first quote, opening “The Pit and the Pendulum” the reader is introduced to “an unquenchable thirst for blood … savage death …” (p. 10). Then tension is steadily built up from the point of him being sentenced to death. The visual images of the trial and the sentencing are used to detail the fear experienced from what the character sees – like the lips of the judges, and the candles turning into flaming-headed “specters” (p.10). Visually, in “A Predicament” the main character is invited by the “ominous archway” (p.21) into the cathedral, so that tension is also built in the mind of the reader, but then Poe gives a light addition to the story when the “graceful flounces of the orange-colored auricular” on her dress are not damaged by the entry. So, visually, the reader is taken to a point of tension, but then this is changed by a reminder of this woman’s concern with irrelevant things. The next physical sensations the reader is led to identify with in “The Pit and the Pendulum” is the main character’s sense of physical disorientation when his movement “down – down – still down …” into the pit causes a “hideous dizziness” and the “heart’s unnatural stillness” (p. 11) when the downward motion stops. This is followed by “intensity of the darkness” that “seemed to oppress and stifle” (p. 12) the character. Both these descriptions must create a sense of fear in readers who can easily identify with these sensations. Arriving at a destination is described very differently in “A Predicament”: the main character’s pet “smells a rat” (p. 21) and her companion falls up the final stairs into the belfry of the steeple, onto her breast! She pulls his hair out in response. This sequence of physical actions is humorous, not scary, yet they also reflect disorientation and even physical pain, similar to those in “The Pit and the Pendulum” descriptions. The searches in both stories – to find a sense of orientation and to find a viewing point of the city – also give the reader the physical sensation of familiar movement. Looking for something is easy to identify with. Yet, in “The Pit and the Pendulum” the process is one filled with terror because of the darkness and uncertainty, and the claustrophobia of the situation. In “A Predicament” the situation suggests that something bad might happen, like the character falling off the shoulders of Pompey, but the possibilities are really just amusing, not scary. The positioning of the characters – Pompey under her lady, and the dog in the corner – seem ridiculous in the reader’s imagination. Perhaps the descriptions in both stories of sharp, metal objects, moving slowly closer to the lead characters are the most similar tactics used by Poe. The pendulum swinging closer and closer the chest of the character in “The Pit and the Pendulum” threatening to slowly slice him to death is a continuous and extremely effective buildup of tension in the mind of the reader. The “razorlike crescent” (p. 16) swings closer and closer, for what seems to be an incredibly long period of time. The man anticipating its first slice goes through a spectrum of emotions, described in detail, and the reader feels his terror and near-madness thanks to Poe’s descriptions. Throughout this, the will to live is emphasized, and the physical reactions of the character described in detail. When this part of the story reaches its climax, and another horror – the rats crawling all over him “their cold lips sought my own” (p17) – is described, the reader is brought to the extremes of terror. Even though the character’s life is being saved, the disgust he must feel because of the rats cannot be ignored by the reader. Of course, the tension is yet again built up by Poe, after the escape, when the cell starts contracting. This contraction, after the event with the rats, and the impending doom of the blade, is similar to the events in “A Predicament”. As the “Scythe of Time” (p.23) moves unstoppably toward the Signora Psyche Zenobia’s neck, a similar tension is built up to the one created in the other story. The physical horrors which result when she is caught and her neck slowly cut by the clock’s hand, though, the descriptions are graphically violent but absurdly very funny. Her eyes pop out, her head eventually falls to the road below, and her escape is as a spirit watching these events. The rats are mirrored from “The Pit and the Pendulum” by the fact that her little dog seems to have been eaten by a rat! She also struggles to understand why her appearance frightens her companion, Pompey, so. This series of events, while well described so that the reader can actually feel the pressure of the clock’s hand, and of the eyes popping out, do not evoke horror. What the character is thinking while all this is happening makes for humor, nor horror: “… threw the box (snuff-box) at once down to my head. It took a pinch … smiled me an acknowledgement …” (p. 24-25). In these two Edgar Allen Poe stories, the tactic of describing in detail physical sensations with which the reader can identify is used most effectively. But in the respective stories this tactic is used to wither create extremely powerful terror in the mind of the reader, or a sense of absurdity and humor. References (NOTE: The page references in the essay are according a copy of the texts – hand numbered from pages 1 to 25) Poe, E.A., Philosophy of Composition; The Raven; The Pit and the Pendulum (1843); A Predicament (1838) Read More