Hope and patience are two characterizations that are typically taken for granted, especially during critical times. Mainly because it is natural to lean on the pessimistic side when things are going wrong. Edgar Allan Poe creates a twist in his story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by conceiving a character rather disparate from his usual. The passage starts off by the character informing the reader of his current situation and then fainting. He then wakes up to the realization that has indeed only passed out and is yet to receive his death punishment. As the story unfolds, he is put into a set of complications that bring him closer and closer to death. Each time he faces one, his thoughts become more hopeful and he becomes more patient. Edgar uses …show more content…
“The atmosphere was intolerably close. I still lay quietly, and made effort to exercise my reason.”(283) He was undergoing an emotional roller coaster of dangers, yet he was able to reason with himself and contemplate an escape. It was patience that allowed him to ponder up a way to circumvent his troubles. He was cognizant of “the pit” which he could with much ease access to escape it all, but he dared not to. Just like hope, patience appeased him. “And then i fell suddenly calm and lay smiling at the glittering death, as a child at some rare bauble.” (288) In a state of panic, decided to calm down and find a solution instead. He made sure to take his time to think up the veriest, most probable, way out. If he hadn’t possessed such trait, he could have lost his mind and gone mad, or simply eradicated his life. In not doing so, he ends up being rescued by the French General Lasalle while coming close to his final moments. Strenuous situations can be resolved through hope and patience. Sometimes believing that you can accomplish something simply isn’t enough. Though that doesn’t mean that doing so is insignificant. In fact, it is crucial, and Poe made sure to inforce his readers to comprehend that by creating a character who survives by being hopeful and patient. He stayed alive with his helpful traits and ended up being saved in the
This last theory is based on the fact that on November 5, 1848, he tried his hand in committing suicide with an overdose of Laudanum; an opium substitute. Poe is not a stranger to substance abuse and is more often found in gambling debts. He was an introverted character that seemed to have close to a few friends. This explains why only seven people were at his
Overall, dwell on this process of changing throughout the poem, it can be understood that the poet is demonstrating a particular attitude towards life. Everyone declines and dies eventually, but it would be better to embrace an optimistic, opened mind than a pessimistic, giving-up attitude; face the approach of death unflinchingly, calmly.
Poe’s character is clearly unwell from the beginning. The idea of the protagonist conflicting with something as mundane as an “Evil eye” suggest that the narrator may be a bit unstable, however the extent of that instability is not fleshed out until later. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the violence is carried out against the
The Pit and the Pendulum and the Fall of the House of Usher are both dark and both have a gothic writing style to them. Edgar Allen Poe is known for his gothic writing style. In the Fall of the House of Usher he uses dark, gloomy, and suspenseful verbs. In the Pen and the Pendulum he uses suspense and a dark atmosphere.
Edgar Allen Poe, in the short story “The Masque of the Red Death”, shows how people may try to outsmart death and surpass it, but in the end they will die since death is inevitable. He reveals this in the book by showing all the people closed up in the abbey that belongs to Prince Prospero. They are trying to escape the “Red Death” and think that they can escape the death by hiding away in the abbey. They manage to stay safe for six months but in the end they all die after the stroke of midnight during the masquerade ball Prince Prospero puts on from the Red Death itself which appears after midnight and leaves no survivors in the end. Poe develops the theme of how no one can escape death through the use of the point of view, the setting, and symbolism.
Edgar Allan Poe's short stories, "The Telltale Heart" and "The Masque of the Red Death" are two very different stories. One is about a simple man, perhaps a servant, who narrates the tale of how he kills his wealthy benefactor, and the other is about a prince who turns his back on his country while a plague known as The Red Death ravages his lands. Yet, there are some similarities in both. Time, for instance, and the stroke of midnight, seem to always herald the approach of impending death. Both are killers, one by his own hand, the other by neglecting his country. One seeks peace, the other seeks pleasure, but both are motivated by the selfish need to rid themselves of that which haunts them, even at the expense of another's life. However, the point of this critique will show that their meticulous plans to beat that which torments them are undone by a single flaw in their character - overconfidence.
He instilled hope into himself and those around him every chance he had. He understood the challenges he and his fellow prisoners faced, but he would not let it defeat him or anyone else. When his friends begin to give in to the situation, he won’t let them. He exclaims, “To die, it’s easy.
... his work lives on, so does the mystery of his death. The purpose of this paper was to examine the disheartening life of such an amazing poet, critic, editor and author and show how influential his success even after death can inspire us to try our hardest despite the circumstances. Poe's life is one of dismay but also of triumph, and we could all learn a great deal from him.
Yet, this doesn 't mean I agree with what Poe’s choice of plot. Never would I be able to trick someone into a basement where I would then trap them inside a wall, eventually leading to their death. No matter how heated I get, it goes against my beliefs to actually take out my frustration on someone. I don’t believe in harming someone just because they wronged one in some form or another. It appears
“The way [one] expresses both the agony of life and the possibility of conquering it through is the sheer toughness of the spirit. They fall short of
He entered a battle when he had just learned of the uncertain odds, he nearly sacrificed the lives of his family while trying to act the hero in front of them, and he recovered from the death of his wife unnaturally quickly when faced with the prospect of leading a voyage. Though his experiences seem to depict the worst of them, he hints at evidence that he learned from these experiences and emerged a better person because of
Loosing optimism shatters all chance at being happy. Pessimism towards life, is the root of all evil. Once you have reached that point in your life there is no recovering from it. The creature didn’t just lose acceptance and control, he lost hope. Mary Shelley's constant themes of metaphors and allusions are a constant reminder of the affects of loosing
In Poe’s own life no durg could ever fully numb him to the pain of all his loses. His only true solace from his despair was in literature and his writings. Poe believed that visual art allowed the spirit to transcend the plane of reality to which it was stuck. In the Raven the narrator closely resembles Poe in this aspect. The narrator spends many a night reading long forgotten literature in an attempt to forget his own troubles after his loss. This is explained beautifully by Poe with the line “Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had tried to borrow, / From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore.” (Poe 9-10) No matter how hard he tries; however he can shake the crushing despair that has a firm grip on his emotions. One dreary night the narrator gained an unsuspecting visitor. This visitor came in the form of a raven that flew into his window. The raven torments the man reminding him of his insecurities, his flaws, and his loss. The raven accomplishes all these things by rhythmically answering his pleas with but one word, to quote the raven “nevermore.” Just like the narrator will nevermore see the face of his dead love, he too will never be free from his despair. For as long as the man lives much like Poe he
No matter how bad things may seem, there is always hope for things to ameliorate. When people believe that the future will be promising, they can have something to look forward to as opposed to dwelling on the past or the problems of the present. This hope can give a person a positive outlook on life and motivate him or her to look past what is happening in the present. In the poems “Hope is the Thing with Feathers” by Emily Dickinson and “The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy, they both convey similar messages about hope. Both works display the theme of hope being present at all times no matter how bad things may seem and is a consistent option for anyone in need of help.
Poe’s themes in his poems and short stories reveal a Gothic look on the world that includes morbid imagery that some people would not be comfortable with reading. In The Pit and the Pendulum, the narrator has to make a drastic decision that not most would have to make: the choice of how to die. Although, the true horror of The Pit and the Pendulum is not just a matter of the choice of death, I believe it is also in the horror of no matter the result, he will die either way. Death in this situation is unavoidable and creates a strain in the human subconscious because of the natural human instinct to want to live. Burduck in his book Grim Phantasms: Fear in Poe’s Short Fiction writes that “of all the emotions by and affecting the mind, feat most intrigued Poe” (5). Poe’s use of fear is seen throughout many of his works and The Pit and the Pendulum is a prime example of this. The narrator in the story is put into an underground dungeon that he cannot get out of. The darkness encompassing him brings a “fearful idea” to his mind and in the dark waves his arms widely about in all dire...