A Report on The Book The Pit and The Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is a short story about terror written by the famous American writer Edgar Allan Poe. Poe was born on January 19 of 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. When he was a child his parents died, and Poe was taken into the custody of John Allan. After a couple years Poe decided to attend to the University of Virginia where he later dropped out due to financial issues and went back home to find out that his love named Sara was engaged to someone else. Poe has suffered so many issues emotionally and physically which people believe that his stories and poems were inspired by those situations. The Pit and The Pendulum story set occurs around the time of the Spanish inquisition (1487), when Spain was fighting amongst themselves because half of the population was Christian and the other half were Jews, which ignited what would become the Spanish Inquisition. At the time, the church had a powerful hold on society and this era bore one of the most brutal punishments in history to those who were opposed to the church. The Spanish inquisition presented many painful instruments of punishment that happen to anyone is they did not follow the law or did traditional things. Even the innocent were punished. The monks were the ones who were punishing the people in the name of God and they even were the ones who were executing people, an idea that would be heavily frowned upon in today’s society. The era of the Spanish inquisition plays an essential key in The Pit and the Pendulum which makes the story a lot more horrific. 

The Pit and the Pendulum is a first-person story of an unknown narrator who is feeling sick with agony, who was being drugged losing his sense throughout the trial where he was being judge by several judges with their faces covered. He mentions that these people are inquisitors, which gives us a clue that this is the Spanish inquisition known for their painful punishment. The unnamed narrator was starting to lose his vision and found himself in a cell where it is extremely dark, believing he is buried alive in a tomb. He starts walking around the cell unable to see but at the same time he is counting his steps to see how big the cell is. After several steps he always falls towards a pit and goes back to his cell to sleep and wakes up to see his room illuminated, he notices that he has been tied down and only can use his left hand. After a couple minutes, he notices that on the ceiling there is a picture of the father of time and a pendulum slowly going towards him. The unnamed narrator manages to escape then suddenly the walls are pushing the protagonist into the pit, but suddenly gets rescue by the general of the French army. The pit and the pendulum is a story which is first person that provides us extreme details within the story such as several aspects of symbolism during the story, and themes. 

The first-person narrative gives the reader a special point of view of the story by describing every single detail throughout the story, and makes the audience feel as though they are in the story feeling the horror for themselves. The story of the Pit and the Pendulum is offering the reader the experience of reading a story where the narrator of the story is himself the protagonist. Throughout the story, the narrator has been extremely specific and descriptive by telling the reader his frightening experience, which gets the attention of the audience by making them curious as they read deeper. The story is first person and also shows the emotions of the unnamed narrator of the situations that he experienced for example; “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled for breath. The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me. The atmosphere was intolerably close”. The narrator is being descriptive about his cell, how dark it is, and how does he feel being in there. Poe manages to do an excellent work with this piece of literature by making feel the reader like if they’d spectating the protagonist. 

There are numerous symbolisms inside the story, which have meaning the cell which has several meanings as the story continues, the pit resembles the struggle and suffering of the narrator by calling it hell, and finally the pendulum which resembles time. In the story of the Pit and the Pendulum there are several symbolisms within the story. For example, the cell being a reflection of humankind placed into world full of inescapable threats. In the story the protagonist does not have any information about his whereabouts, or the dangers of his surroundings walking around an unknown area and counting each step until he almost falls into a pit. The pit symbolizes hell “Not only because it threatens destruction, but also because it’s true nature and what might happen once one falls into it is unknowable”. Another representation of the pit is if the narrator was to fall into the deeply pit that would mean that he was sinning until he would reach hell, and that implies that the inquisitors tried to create their own version of hell. Poe used some biblical imageries throughout the story. Towards the end of the story, the final piece of symbolism is found. The pendulum which resembles time, during the story the narrator wakes up held by a wood board and long strap wrapped around his body. He looks up to the ceiling to see an image of the father of time that was recently painted, and a pendulum that is razor sharp constructed to kill the narrator. “In this context Father Time brings to mind his ghoulish doppelgänger, the Grim Reaper, who wields his scythe to harvest human life”. Poe manages to create another way of torture by letting to know the victim that his time is running out, and he will be soon be dead also making him go crazy. 

There are several themes that are found in the Pit and the Pendulum,” but there’s a one that played a bigger role in the story the fear of death. Poe is considered a master of terror by bring horror and suspense in his pieces of work for example the Pit and the Pendulum. During the story, the audience can tell the main theme of the story which the fear of death of the protagonist and captures the attention of the audience. Throughout the story, the unnamed narrator has experienced the fear of losing his life during his punishment by the inquisitors. For example; “Down – steadily down it crept. I took a frenzied pleasure in contrasting its downward with its lateral velocity. To the right – to the left – far and wide – with the shriek of a damned spirit; to my heart with the stealthy pace of the tiger! I alternately laughed and howled as the one or the other idea grew predominant”. At the end of the story, the narrator almost lost his life to the pendulum slowly going down, panicked and losing himself into madness. 

In the story of the pit and the pendulum, the reader has encounter the protagonist of the story as the narrator who is extremely descriptive throughout the story, during the story there are several symbolism that are related to the church and themes related to the fear of the death of the protagonist.