Assignment #2

There comes a point roughly halfway through the novel, just after Huntly has awoken in the cave, where the concealed landscape exists only through the terror it inspires in Edgar. The sparse description that is given by Brown serves only to increase this sense of terror and dread, as Edgar (and by extension, the reader) has little idea of the landscape that surrounds him as well as the dangers that lurk within it.

Immediately after he wakes, Edgar begins searching for a way out, but finds that following the walls only leads him back to the start. 

"I continued to explore this clue, till the suspicion occurred that I was merely going round the walls of a vast and irregular apartment" (154)

The concealed landscape in this case instills terror into Edgar. All that is revealed to him is that the wall is made of stone. Beyond that, he has no idea of its location, dimensions, or where it truly leads, which causes him to be overpowered by fear. He begins to imagine that he has been imprisoned in a dungeon by some tyrant, or perhaps buried alive.  

Once he has overcome these irrational fears, he uses the echo of his voice and the feel of the walls (which Brown only describes as rugged) to come to the conclusion that he is indeed in the cave which he had previously explored. But this is still of little consolation to him. Beyond that, he still knows nothing. He is still shrouded in darkness and has little hope of finding food. 

It is this latter point that causes him the greatest fear. Edgar deems the walls of the pit inaccessible - a very brief description of their state, but that one word is enough. If the walls are inaccessible, he will not be able to escape and find food.

"Here I should continue till wasted by famine. In this grave, should I linger out a few days, in unspeakable agonies, and then perish forever." (156)

Here, the concealed landscape exists only in Edgar's feeling of hunger. It does not matter what his prison looks like, or what natural features surround it. All that is important is the fact that there is no hope of escape and as a result, no hope of finding sustenance.

Despite the apparent hopelessness of his situation, Edgar does indeed manage to pull himself out of the pit, though it is only so he can immediately face another danger.

"The darkness was no less intense than the pit below, and yet two objects were distinctly seen...These were the eyes of a panther." (158-59)

In the exchange that follows, in which Edgar kills the panther, the landscape is not described at all. There is no mention of where the panther is in relation to Edgar, if there is a height discrepancy between the two, or what - if any - obstacles stand between them. The landscape in this case exists only as a place for the panther to lurk, as a place for the hidden dangers to wait for Edgar.

Had a different author written this novel with an increased focus on description of the landscape and surrounding visuals, I feel some of the terror would have been lost. If Edgar (and again, by extension the reader) had had a better view of what existed around him, the situation would have felt a lot less hostile and desperate. Descriptions of the pit would have given hints as to an avenue of escape, descriptions of the cave and knowing if water or plant life existed would have taken away from Edgar's desperate sense of hunger, and knowing the exact location and distance of the panther and how long it would have taken to reach Edgar would have dissolved much of the tension.