Sunday, February 1, 2015

What does the narrator think about death in the second period of "The Pit and the Pendulum"?

In the second period of The Pit and the Pendulum, the narrator reveals that he has a very interesting opinion regarding death: he considers it immortality. At first, he is talking about losing consciousness. He says that even in unconsciousness, people have dreams, so they are not completely gone. But then he moves on to death, claiming the same thing:


"Even in the grave all is not lost. Else there is no immortality for...

In the second period of The Pit and the Pendulum, the narrator reveals that he has a very interesting opinion regarding death: he considers it immortality. At first, he is talking about losing consciousness. He says that even in unconsciousness, people have dreams, so they are not completely gone. But then he moves on to death, claiming the same thing:



"Even in the grave all is not lost. Else there is no immortality for man."



This quote is basically saying that if people really did lose everything when they died, there would be no immortality for them. This is a fascinating concept, as it can be true to some extent. We will use Edgar Allan Poe himself as an example: he has become an important part of literature despite his death, thus gaining immortality through his works. After all, what are we doing now? We are discussing his works, analyzing his methods, trying to understand his point of view; he may have died, but we keep him alive by doing all of these things. This is what the narrator in The Pit and the Pendulum is talking about: a man's body may die, but his deeds, his character, his efforts live on without his physical form. So, in the end, death is not really the end, just the start of another phase of life. 

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