The Romanticism period was born out of a reaction to
the Rationalism period of the eighteenth century. Emotions and individual identity took the
place of logic and central reasoning.
New forms of literature rose to complement these ideas. The Pit
and the Pendulum by Edgar Allan Poe exemplifies the Romanticism period by its
inspiration from legend, theme of individual freedom under pressure of death, and
emphasis on emotion rather than reason.
Poe demonstrates Romanticism by using inspiration
from myth and legend. The context of
this short story was the imprisonment of a heretic by the Spanish Inquisition
and the horrors that he faced. By using
the legends of the Inquisition, Poe set the tone for a murky story that reflects
Romanticism. The context also helps
promote the purpose of the story. “Focusing
on a character under sentence of death and aware of it, it moves the character
into a concrete dilemma that seems to ‘stand for’ a metaphysical situation in
an ambiguous way that suggests its ‘dreamy,’ ‘indeterminate’ nature. In this story we find the most explicit statement in
Poe's fiction of his sense of the blurry line between dream and reality” (May).
Another factor that places The Pit and the Pendulum in the Romanticism period is its theme of
individual freedom under pressure of death.
Even though the prisoner is continually tortured mentally and
physically, he never completely loses hope.
Unlike the rationalism period, Poe uses the character’s emotions and
thoughts to explain his situation and conquer his own self. “I could no longer doubt the doom prepared for
me by my monkish ingenuity in torture.
My cognizance of the pit had become known to the Inquisitorial
agents-the pit whose horrors had been destined for so bold a recusant as myself”
(Poe 269). Even though his captors had
taken away his physical rights, he still had the freedom of his mind, in which
they could not take away without his consent.
Finally, Edgar Allan Poe demonstrates romanticism by
his appeal to emotion rather than reason.
On multiple occasions, it was the prisoner’s emotions that saved him
from the logical decision to kill himself before a more painful way came around
to do it for him. “There rushed to my
mind a half formed thought of joy- of hope.
Yet what business had I with hope?
It was, as I say, a half formed thought- man has many such which are
never completed” (Poe 270). It was the
emotion of hope, rather than the appeal to reason that kept the prisoner sane,
and gave him the drive to not give into death.
The
Pit and the Pendulum demonstrates the Romanticism writing
style by its inspiration from legend and focus on emotions and individual
identity. Through the use of these
techniques, the author appeals to the reader’s feelings, rather than appealing to
their sense of reason. Edgar Allan Poe
personified the dark Romanticism of the nineteenth century with short stories
like this one.
May, Charles E. "Alternate Realms of Reality."
In Edgar Allan Poe: A Study of Short Fiction. Boston: Twayne Publishers,
1991, pp. 96–97. Quoted as "Dreams and Reality in the Story" in
Harold Bloom, ed. Edgar Allan Poe, Bloom's Major Short Story Writers.
Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing, 1998. (Updated 2007.) Bloom's
Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.
http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin=
BMSSEP39&SingleRecord=True (accessed November 4, 2012).
Poe, Edgar A. "The Pit and the Pedullum." Glencoe
Literature. Ed. Jeffery D. Wilhelm. Columbus: McGraw-Hill, 2009. 263-73.
Print.
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