Edgar Allen Poe was best known to his own generation as an editor and critic; his poems and short stories dominated only a small audience. But to some degree in his poems, and to an impressive point in his tales, he lead the way in opening up areas of human experience for artistic treatment at which his contemporaries only veiled. His vision emphasizes that reality for the human being is essentially profound, ambiguous to surface reality, and extremely absurd in character. Two generations later he was hailed by the symbolist movement as the prophet of the modern sensibility. .
One of Poe's most radiant works of gloomy and dreary life is the Pit and the Pendulum. In this story we have the character being in prison and have found himself in a room with a pit in the center. Living through the pit he makes it to the pendulum, where this giant blade is oscillating its way down upon the prisoners chest. Miraculously the prisoner in the story escapes, but in reality would he be able to slip away?.
To first answer this question, we graphed the chart of time the pendulum took if it was 5 inches long and had a weight compared to the 10 inch string and a weight. And again with the same distances and more weight only to find that the graphs only varied with length and not weight. These were only a few of the factors present, another factor would be the angle at which the pendulum swung. We found the equation to see how large the angle could have been then taking a Dr. Pepper bottle and string to see this relationship in larger scale. A trip to the football stadium gave us the chance to have a twenty foot pendulum. Most groups had different measurements but our time was relevantly the same.
Most groups found there times to be in the low fifties meaning once the pendulum was only a few inches from his chest he would have a mere 50 seconds to escape form the trap. The answer is not a definite answer but rather a question that may be different than that of the person solving the problem.
Poe opens this twisted story with psychoanalytic criticism posing the question, "but why will you say that I am mad? ... " (Poe 74). ... Yes, it was this" (Poe 74). ... For his gold I had no desire" (Poe 74). ... The mad man feels some peace after he takes care of his problem with the eye, murdering the old man and then dismembering his body and disposing of it. ...
The Fall of The House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe inspires the latter. ... Poe produces this effect primarily through his use of the first-person narrator. ... This poses a problem, however, as he finds himself in a highly supernatural setting. ... Poe gives the narrator a very simple and transparent thought process, and we are able to feel every moment vividly through him. ... Poe gives us just enough information to come to our own conclusions about all of the odd occurrences throughout. ...
In one of Poe's poems he wrote by this very idea. ... This is a very good example that Poe was not at all afraid of death. ... Even today, when some one has a mental problem that is not understood, we are quick to say that he is crazy. ... On the other hand, Poe also was very intrigued with that idea of actually killing. ... He knew how to capture the reader's attention, and drive them nuts with certain ideas that he posed. ...
This is evident in the first scene when Blanche says, "Only Poe! ... Edgar Allen Poe - Could do it justice!" ... Blanche DuBois has a problem accepting the realities posed by those she lives and interacts with in her new home. ... A major part of Blanche's problems result from her failure to deal with fantasies clashing with reality because she fears losing her mental and social security. ...
