Edger Allen Poe 2 page lit response

Edger Allen Poe has written many stories in his lifetime. The stories that he has written has made the reader dig deep to find a more profound meaning. The story “The Pit and the Pendulum” came off a bit disturbing to say the least. The apocalyptic view of this story arose many people to voice there opinions on precisely what the pendulum was meant to signify. When first looking at this, I couldn’t help but to find it challenging and difficult to understand. However, by having other people’s views on this, I was able to understand more thoroughly the argument being discussed in the apocalyptic view. Reading all of the peoples inputs on this, I would have to say that Marie Bonaparte was the one I would have to agree with. .

What Marie Bonaparte was arguing, is that the pendulum was signifying the birth procedure. In the fetus, it is a critical phase for the baby. In this stage the baby’s lungs are not fully mature. This relates to the story because the person in the story was in the dungeon and continued to open his/her eyes, however the character was unable to recall what was going on due to the fact he was loosing consciousness. In the wound the baby doesn’t know where he/she is really symbolizes the person in the story who did not know where he was when he woke up. Moving on in the birth process and symbolization, you can see that when Marie Bonaparte mentions in the end of “The Pit and the Pendulum” how the walls unexpectedly begin to close on the person and how it was something that was inevitable. This, you can conclude, symbolizes the actual birth of the baby. The negative aspect of this examination (of the text), is that this analysis did not discuss the other possible symbols in the story. There were things talked about that could be meant to be represented in a totally different way. The seven candles is an allusion that at the beginning of the story the character seems to be seeing. Also, only the walls are being enclosed on the character, and the unawareness of where exactly the character is, is the only symbolization that was brought from the text to the story. The pendulum does not fit into the implication.

When looking at the literary work, you can see that one of the views tells about the fall of mankind. With this, you can see how people feel about the story. Biblical stories are something that most people have heard of in one way or another. With that said, you can tell that the reader feels like it is basically a “different version” of a biblical story. When linking Marie Bonaparte’s views along with the notion of religion, they find some portion missing if you will. One of the most apparent reasons for this is that the religious story that they are trying to relate is an allegory. Therefore, the viewpoint may not be as clear. This makes to many flaws in the viewpoint which apparently needs to be corrected in order to be more believable and precise.

Through all of this, they bring out how part of life is essentially awful anguish which is something everyone can relate too in one way or another. To show this a little bit further, you can notice that there is a nameless character in this story. Not only does it show suffering, but it shows death as we know it; unable to know how or when it is coming. This taps into the psychological mind set of humans, because one thing that fears most humans is the fear of the unknown. Because this story of Poe’s is story bound, it loses its significance of being as symbolic as it probably could have been had it been factual.

When looking at the scenario that Edgar Allen Poe took the readers in, it was well established in visual imagery. It had a roller coaster ride in the mental aspect of things. Although this story did have a great connection to the audience with a mental state of mind, I would have put something to show a physical complexity as well. This would have made a more definite and mind boggling connection with the audience as well. It also may have created more opportunities for symbolization.