The Bible is probably one of the most referenced
pieces of literature ever written. The book of Revelations specifically is
alluded from a lot in pop culture and with different artists, bands, painters
and writers. With one of my favorite writers, Edgar Allen Poe, he uses biblical
allusions all throughout his short story, “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Both
books are filled with dark, gloomy imagery and Poe uses two major allusions
from Revelations to help engage the reader.
At the beginning of the story is the first allusion
from Revelations when the narrator talks about when his vision “fell upon the
seven tall candles upon the table.” At
first the candles “seemed white and slender angels” and then they appeared to
vanish. In the first chapter of
Revelations, verse 12-13 talks about the narrator seeing “seven golden
lampstands;” it says “seven golden candlesticks” in the King James Version. While
in Poe’s story the candles are burning around “black robed judges,” the candles
in Revelations are burning brightly around “one like a son of man, clothed with
a long robe.” The allusion with the judges is because Revelations deals with
the judgement of man.
The second main allusion comes from the end of the
story where Poe writes about “a loud blast of many trumpets” and the use of his
apocalyptic images using “fiery walls” and “a thousand thunders” to describe
his freedom by General Lasalle to allude the Second Coming of Christ. In
Revelation, seven angels were given seven trumpets to blow when the destruction
on Earth was about to begin. In Revelation 8:5 it talks about how there were “voices,
and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.” In the end, the blasts of
the trumpets mean devastation in Revelation, but here in Poe’s writing, the
trumpets represent the narrator’s restoration.
There are plenty of other biblical allusions used in
many of Poe’s writings. I remember the teacher I had when I first read this
story saying that he felt Poe used the allusions to pervert and corrupt the
images he was trying to display. I think the allusions helps support his
imagery and engages the reader better.
Click here to read "The Pit and the Pendulum"
