The Pit and the Pendulum - Poe

[Kristel]

Read 2012, This work is set in Toledo at the time of the inquisition. The narrator has been found guilty and is going to be tortured. He wakes in a dark place. He avoids falling in the pit and then finds himself tied up with a pendulum dropping down to slowing cut him assunder. This is a look at the reality of torture on the psyche.

[Celia]

Read 2021. A book of torture during the Inquisition. Short but felt a high sense of awareness throughout.

[Pip]

This is really a short story but with enough terrifying images to fill a volume! Set in Toledo at the time of the inquisition, the narrator is describing his reaction to a guilty verdict and his subsequent imprisonment and torture, so the reader knows that the victim must survive. Nevertheless the description of his becoming aware of his surroundings and exploring his cell, regaining consciousness to discover he is bound on a trestle, and bread and water mysteriously appearing at his side, leads the reader to realise that he is being watched and his increasing horror as the threats materialise are compounded by the thought that someone else is enjoying his predicament. True horror! The pendulum with its menacing blade slowly descending symbolises time and the thought that it is a blessing for most of us that the time and place of our death remains unknown until it arrives. The pit in the middle of his cell, the descending bade and the red hot walls moving in to crush him are all vividly imagined, but the image of true horror for me was the rats swarming all over him, despite they being one of the factors in his survival. I can see why this story is still popular - its images are indelible.

[Gail]

Our Main Character has been sentenced to death by the Inquisition and wakes in a very dark and confined space to a realization that death would have been sweeter than what he is about to experience on his way there. What makes this short story so memorable is how Poe makes us actual see and feel the terror that our character is experiencing. Poe couples our own knowledge about how time is always running out, with a series of horrors that he draws superbly. The rats do not just swarm him; "They writhed upon my throat; their cold lips sought my own..." One can feel the rush of air as the pendulum swings by. This is a great introduction to the horror genre.

[Celia]

Gail wrote: "Our Main Character has been sentenced to death by the Inquisition and wakes in a very dark and confined space to a realization that death would have been sweeter than what he is about to experience..."

Your insights are always so wonderful, Gail. TY for sharing.

[Pamela]

Short story in which the narrator is condemned by the Inquisition and imprisoned in a small cell. Here he is subjected to the psychological torture of being trapped in a situation where death comes gradually closer - and the pit and the pendulum are the means of inspiring this horror in the victim.

Poe is really the master at these Gothic horror stories and builds up the suspense while encouraging the reader to imagine themselves in the scenes that he so vividly describes. These scenes involve all the senses - the cold slimy walls and floor of the dungeon, the sight of the razor sharp pendulum descending towards the narrator, the noise of the rats in the corners - with an additional intangible sense of hidden evil.

Some of the menace is lost by the fact that we know from the start the narrator must have lived to tell his tale, but as an examination of the horrors of psychological torment, this is excellent, and the brilliant images Poe creates are standards of the horror genre to this day.