Poe was controversial in his day. During his lifetime he was more popular as a literary critic than as a fiction writer and poet. Yet even in the 1840s his stories were published and talked about. He was credited with popularizing the short story as a literary format, and his invention of detective fiction won…
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The Pit and the Pendulum – Setting – Historical Context
The Spanish Inquisition By the time Poe wrote ‘‘The Pit and the Pendulum,’’ the Spanish Inquisition was over. The Inquisition began in 1478 as a way to punish Jews and Muslims who had converted to Roman Catholicism rather than having been born into it. Thousands of people were put on trial, pronounced guilty, and sentenced…
The Pit and the Pendulum – Literary Devices – Gothic Elements – Point of View
Gothic Fiction Gothic fiction is characterized by a preoccupation with death, mystery, decay, madness, and terror. Gothic writers strive to stir the reader’s emotions, be it a feeling of the sublime or horror. The gothic tradition began in England around 1764, when Horace Walpole published his novel The Castle of Otranto, which concerns a doomed…
The Pit and the Pendulum – Themes – Sensory Details – Judges
Sensory Perception Poe’s goal in ‘‘The Pit and the Pendulum’’ is to create a mood of terror and despair through language. The narrator is condemned to death, and the entire story (save for the last paragraph) focuses on his reaction to this death sentence as it is slowly carried out. The mood is achieved in…
The Pit and the Pendulum – Characters
Inquisitors The Inquisitors only appear as black-robed, whitelipped judges in the story’s first scene, yet they play an important role as the narrator’s nemeses. They represent pure evil, although historically the tribunals of the Inquisition believed they were on God’s side. They represent an omniscient force in the story, watching the narrator’s every move and…
The Pit and the Pendulum – Summary
‘‘The Pit and the Pendulum’’ begins with the narrator sentenced to death by a panel of judges from the Spanish Inquisition. The unnamed narrator is consumed by his fragile mental condition and dreamlike state of consciousness. He does not mention his crime or whether he is really guilty. He does not hear the judges’ words,…
Ha’penny – Short Story – Analysis
In Paton’s short story ‘‘Ha’penny,’’ the author creates a narrator who shares many of his inner thoughts with the reader. In the beginning, the narrator sounds very confident, especially in his relationships with the young boys in his care at the reformatory. Through his comments about how he performs his role as an authority figure,…
Ha’penny – Short Story – Setting
Apartheid Apartheid officially began in South Africa in 1948, when the National Party gained office in an election that gave the right to vote only to white people. With the passing of the apartheid laws in the same year, racial segregation and discrimination became part of the institution of government. It was through these laws…
Ha’penny – Short Story – Literary Devices
Epiphany In a piece of fiction, an epiphany is the realization that occurs at the moment that the main character discovers an important insight about himself or herself, about another character, or about a relationship. This realization might be of almost any type, such as religious, psychological, or political. Epiphanies in fiction are also often…
Ha’penny – Short Story – Themes
Loneliness The theme of loneliness is a prominent one for the focus character in Paton’s short story ‘‘Ha’penny.’’ The twelve-year-old boy has apparently lived by himself on the streets throughout most of his youth. Though he is being housed with a group of youths in the reformatory, he feels separated from them because he has…