was the short story just a metaphore of what's going to happen to him in court? So it was just told in a more terrifying perspective than the usual courtroom scene?
shareThe short story is very simple, a man being held by the inquisition is imprisoned in a cell with a pit and is subjugated to various torments until he is rescued. Sort of a highbrow version of the "Saw" movies.
shareObviously, there was a court scene in the beginning....so I still didn't get my answer.
shareWell, my take is that, yes, it may be a total metaphor for the inhuman treatment of other humans, unfair trials, torture, etc. (we must remember that such things happen today, too, all over the world), but here is what I think Poe was going for:
After studying Poe's essays on prose/poetry, I am now convinced his whole purpose was to place a human being in a hopeless situation, draw the reader into a sympathetic mindset, and then have the individual in the story escape several times, confronted again by despair, and how the human soul reacts in that situation...now: if you look carefully at the ending of the written story, you will see it is almost impossible for this guy to have been saved...! I mean, he is tottering at a pit, surrounded by red-hot walls, and *suddenly* a saviour-general grabs his hand...?? No way; BUT....he needed to have the guy survive (how else could he 'tell' his story...see?), so the ending is a bit 'tacked on'.
I believe it may also be a metaphor for life, we are 'condemned' to suffer, etc....
I would say no because at the end of the story, the narrator is rescued by General Lasalle.
share