Talk:The Pit and the Pendulum/Archive 1

Original research
I've deleted the following as being original research. A section on the themes and symbolism in the story would be a good idea, but it should be sourced and the opinions attributed to notable academics, authors, ect... Serpent-A 08:53, 4 October 2006 (UTC)


 * It is said that the pit represents ignorance, and the fear of the unknown, seeing as the narrator had the option of dying then, or chancing a better or worse fate.
 * Literally speaking, General Lasalle does not rescue the narrator. He dies once in the pit, and General Lasalle represents Jesus or some form of savior.

more critical response
What is the point of including a single review, negative, as if that was the only response? If the story is so classic, somebody must have liked it. 24.30.124.40 04:46, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
 * Very true. I started the section with the first referenced critical response I had on hand. Now that it's been created, it can be expanded. I'm glad to see someone is looking at this page, though. Feel free to help me improve it; I'll be working on it off and on. --Midnightdreary 14:01, 21 July 2007 (UTC)

11/24/06
I think this summary should be cut down to a much briefer version. Any takers? -User:Midnightdreary

I put the long summary in there because someone had deleted the original and put in some weird summary that had absolutely nothing to do with the story. I think someone tried to edit it but left a ton of grammar mistakes. -User:Gunmetal2k4

This part of the plot summary seems strange to me: "The walls of the cell then become hot and slowly move inward, leaving the narrator no choice but to leap into the pit. As he falls forward, toward an entity "too horrible to mention" that he can now see at the bottom, an arm reaches out to save him and the walls fall back. The French Army has taken Toledo and the Inquisition is in the hands of its enemies."

According to the book, the narrator never in fact lept to the pit, but "rushed to its deadly brink". Furthermore, i fail to find the quote "too horrible to mention" from the text. Just as the walls that close on the narrator are forcing him to drop to the pit, he hears human voices and the walls rush back and an arm reaches to grap hold of him as he sways towards the pit. -Jariola 22:20, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
 * Good job noticing that! I think the "leap" was an interpretation of the line where he jumps his glance downward (or something like that). I also can't find any text about any entity at the bottom of the pit, too horrible to mention or not. Would you like to make the update or shall I? -Midnightdreary 01:29, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
 * If you would like to do it, I'm not a native English-speaker, and I see you have something of an expertise on Poe related articles :) Jariola 10:58, 8 June 2007 (UTC)
 * Give it a go! If you mess up, I'll clean it up for you! :) -Midnightdreary 14:44, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

In ray bradbury's story "Usher II" book burners are killed in the same way as some of poe's characters, this includes a man being cut in two by the pendulum.71.61.163.146 01:29, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

Image
That image shows the pendulum as being circular. However, Poe explicitly names it as crescent shapes, which is what foils the idea of waiting for the pendulum to cut the binds. I suggest finding a new images ASAP so as not to confuse readers of the article. The man in the mask (talk) 00:22, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Hopefully readers of this particular article are sufficiently sophisticated not to be confused by the substitution of a crescent for a circle :) 210.246.20.61 (talk) 01:48, 3 June 2008 (UTC)
 * You'll note that this is a very famous illustration by a well-known artist of Poe's works (and, as it happens, it's not copyrighted and therefore usable here). Not every article needs an image, let's not forget, but hopefully readers will understand that Poe himself did not draw this and, therefore, may not be exactly what he had in his head while writing. --Midnightdreary (talk) 12:35, 3 June 2008 (UTC)

Reception
Apart from movies and TV, this story has also influenced other works of art/pop culture. In particular, I'm thinking about a song by the Symphonic Metal group Nightwish called "The Poet and the Pendulum" which features quite a lot of motives from this story. 78.48.138.207 (talk) 06:06, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
 * We keep removing these types of lists because they are WP:TRIVIA and don't add to the reader's understanding of this short story. If it really means a lot to you, add it to Edgar Allan Poe and music. --Midnightdreary (talk) 12:43, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

symbolism
I always took this story to be a metaphor for the the only choices we have with death; you can wait for time to kill you (the pendulum) or you can choose suicide (the pit). Can anyone verify this? Ormewood (talk) 06:36, 23 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Well, considering that Poe despised didacticism, moral tales, and allegory, it's hard to say that. But, you're welcome to read whatever you like out of it (I think Poe would appreciate that); it doesn't sound like an impossible interpretation. As far as scholarly work on it, I don't remember finding any sources that say anything like that. --Midnightdreary (talk) 13:35, 23 December 2007 (UTC)

I would argue that an observation that death is inescapable and unknowable to the living doesn't qualify as didacticism or a moral tale. The story's point is to bring home the horror of this inescapable fact, not to point out its existence. I would further point out that symbolism does not necessarily imply allegory; besides, Poe did use symbolism. I doubt that anyone would, for instance, argue that the raven in "The Raven" is simply a bird and nothing further.Ormewood (talk) 16:39, 23 August 2009 (UTC)


 * Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I wanted to discuss Poe's intent here, but what we should add to the article. We shouldn't argue anything like that on this talk page. Please see WP:OR. --Midnightdreary (talk) 22:48, 23 August 2009 (UTC)

Back to my original question:Can anyone verify this? I am looking for source material, not just my own observations or opinions, and am putting the question out to anyone, not just Midnightdreary. Does anyone know of any published work which interprets the story in this way?Ormewood (talk) 17:19, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Supernatural??
"unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural." Since when does Poe have Supernatural agents in his writing? He has characters that mistakenly HAVE supernatural fears and thoughts, but I'm not aware of any actual ghost or demon that appears...does anyone know of any?
 * I think this is a fair point. When I get a moment, I'll go back and see the history of this line. --Midnightdreary (talk) 20:43, 28 October 2021 (UTC)