Editing A Descent into the Maelström (section)

==Analysis==
The story's opening bears a similarity to [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'' (1798): in both, an excited old man tells his story of shipwreck and survival.<ref>{{harvnb|Sova|2001|p=66}}</ref> The tale is one of sensation, emphasizing the narrator's thoughts and feelings, especially his terror of being killed in the whirlpool.<ref>{{harvnb|Silverman|1991|p=169}}</ref> The narrator uses his reasoning skills to survive and the story is considered one of Poe's early examples of [[science fiction]].<ref>{{harvnb|Tresh|2002|pp=116–117}}</ref>

===Major themes===
* [[Ratiocination]] (see also "[[The Mystery of Marie Rogêt]]", "[[The Purloined Letter]]", [[C. Auguste Dupin]])
* Sea tale (see also ''[[The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket]]'', "[[MS. Found in a Bottle]]", "[[The Oblong Box (short story)|The Oblong Box]]")
* [[Story within a story]] (see also "[[The Oval Portrait]]")

===Allusions===
The story mentions [[Jonas Danilssønn Ramus]], a man from Norway who wrote about a famous maelström at [[Saltstraumen]]. The opening epigraph is quoted from an essay by [[Joseph Glanvill]] called "Against Confidence in Philosophy and Matters of Speculation" (1676), though Poe altered the wording significantly.<ref>{{harvnb|Sova|2001|pp=65–66}}</ref>