Thursday, April 10, 2008
Imagery and Sensation in "The Pit and the Pendulum"
I found it a bit troubling that the narrator in "The Pit and the Pendulum" was constantly in and out of consciousness yet he was able to perceive images and feelings that were concrete and solid in form. It is not even until page 493 that the narrator even opens his eyes. I don't think it is the fact that the narrator has the ability to sense things while he is in and out of consciousness, it is the idea that he is the only person that the reader can rely on for deatail in the tale. Can we trust his descriptions? He obviously makes mistakes when trying to feel out the measurement of the room he is confined to. When I read this story the first time, I found all the sensational writing appealing because I omitted where it was coming from. This time I had to stop myself and say, "wait all of these descriptions and images are the perception of a delusional person." Are they all that great anymore? I still think Poe shows his ability to describe an image with the utmost of talents to capture the reader, however is this tale to be considered another one of Poe unreliable sensationalist stories? Every time you turn around it is like Poe is asking you to trust a mad-man or a delusional drugged out narrator! That little trickster.
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4 comments:
with this story, i don't know if it's relevant that we believe or don't believe the narrator. and i think the steady pace of the storytelling overwhelms any issues of reliability.
this tale, like 'fall of the house of usher,' allows poe to go to town on the western man's brain. darkness, demons, a swinging pendulum counting down to death (similarly in 'masque of the red death?'). all of these things the subconscious fears of the west. just like roderick usher's mad grin when phillip places his hand upon his shoulder, these are fears ingrown yet not uttered in your average person. (for me, i remember fearing roderick's very grin before actually reading it for the first time.)
the pit and the pendulum is no different; in many ways, it is poe creating an environment we've all thought of deep down, and feared as if a fear of heights. yet we cannot not face it, or read it.
I like what you are saying about this. It is kind of like watching horror movies. We know most of them are just made up series of event created to scar the living day lights out of us, and then would have never been made if they were not already thoughts that people were scared of. So you are saying Poe is appealing to the nature of humans to be scared or wonderous about something and face it through reading about it and feel like they have overcome the deamon? Are you claiming this tale is purely for entertainment and to suffice the western fear? Nice twist!
I like where Tyler is going with this, I think that the fears we imagine are far more terrifying and cause sensations that could be real to be even worse. Does that sentence even make sense? What I'm trying to convey is that our minds can make reality far more terrifying simply b/c of what we dream up and imagine to be fear. That being said, I think perhaps Poe is playing on that by relying on sensations and images through the perception of his character--I think adding the delusions and having the character slip in and out of conciousness allows the tale to be that more scary simply because of the fear of the unknown and the inability to perceive something clearly.
I agree with what all 3 of you have said. Especially the last thing about it being more scary with the character slipping in and out of consciousness. This makes us wonder (and the main character) what is happening when he isn't awake, and worse, before he goes out, what possibilities could happen.
I also completely agree with Corinne's initial post about reliability. Can we trust him? Should we trust him? And if we had to list out everything that we are unsure of where do you draw the line between truth and the imagination?
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