The Pit

Edgar Allan Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum" explores judicial corruption and torture during the Spanish Inquisition, while the updated comic Nevermore resets it in the modern era. How does the Iraq-war era effect the story's plot?
Does your observation of the news and other media sources sway your thinking? If so, how?
Is torture ever justified, or does torture let "all memory of freedom die . . . , smothered under a breathless weight of night"?

Comments

  1. Jenrry MedinillaFebruary 16, 2010 at 11:42 PM

    Torture is never justify. It's a barbarian act. There are other methods to punish the transgressor, like putting the delinquent in jail, making him to face the facts and meditate about what was done. I think that there is no better way to pay for a crime that leaving the criminal alive. No one has the right to deprive a person of his life, neither the criminal or those in charge of distribute justice. Governments should spend more money in education, plans to fight poverty and hunger, discrimination and social disparities, in order to avoid all the problems associated with these killer of a civilized society. Taking away the life of the criminal won't bring back the victims to life. It's a hard topic since I have never suffer the lost in a crime of any of the people I love. I hope I never will have to.

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 24, 2010 at 11:45 AM

    I can relate to this because i believe we are all trapped in our own prison in some way and we have to hold on to hope and go forward no matter what lie's ahead. Poe just puts it into words so that because most of us are affaid to face it.
    Donald Alexius

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