The French Army has captured the city of Toledo and the Inquisition has fallen into its enemies' hands. As he loses his last foothold and begins to topple in, he hears a roar of voices and trumpets, the walls retract, and an arm pulls him to safety. The pendulum is withdrawn into the ceiling, and the walls become red-hot and start to move inwards, forcing him slowly toward the center of the room and into the pit. The rats chew through the straps, and he slips free just before the pendulum can begin to slice into his chest. However, he is able to attract rats to him by smearing his bonds with the meat left for him to eat.
The pendulum is swinging back and forth and slowly descending, designed to kill the narrator eventually. Above him is a picture of Father Time, holding a pendulum measuring "one foot from horn to horn". He realizes that had he not tripped, he would have fallen into this pit.Īfter losing consciousness again, the narrator discovers that the prison is slightly illuminated and that he is strapped to a wooden frame on his back, facing the ceiling. While crossing the room, he trips on the hem of his robe and falls, his chin landing at the edge of a deep pit. He tries to measure the cell again, and finds that the perimeter measures one hundred steps. When he reawakens, he discovers food and water nearby. He decides to explore the cell by placing a scrap of his robe against the wall so that he can count the paces around the room, but he faints before he can measure the whole perimeter. At first the prisoner thinks that he is locked in a tomb, but then he discovers that he is in a cell. He is condemned to death, whereupon he faints and later awakens to find himself in a totally dark room. As seven tall white candles on a table slowly burn down, the narrator feels his hopes of survival diminishing as well. The unnamed narrator is brought to trial before sinister judges of the Spanish Inquisition, charged with offenses that are never stated. The tale has been adapted to film several times. The traditional elements established in popular horror tales at the time are followed, but critical reception has been mixed.
The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. " The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843 For other uses, see The Pit and the Pendulum (disambiguation).
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