Literary Analysis Of The Pit And The Pendulum

“The Pit and the Pendulum,” the story of life and death. The narrator is sentenced to death during the inquisition, waiting for his execution, he is trapped in a dark dungeon. The narrator believes he is going to die in this dungeon which is unusual because executions are usually public. In this dungeon is a small pit in the center and a pendulum swinging from the ceiling slowly descending to kill the narrator. The pendulum retracted into the ceiling and the narrator thought he was going to live, but the walls of the dungeon started to heat up and close in on the narrator pushing him into the pit. In “The Pit and the Pendulum,” Edgar Allan Poe develops the theme of the passage of time and the uncertainty of life and death through symbolism and suspense. This story is one big symbol of

“Shaking in every limb, I groped my way back to the wall; resolving there to perish rather than risk the terrors of the wells of which my imagination now pictured many in various positions about the dungeon.” The narrator is scared of what may be in the dungeon, since he cannot see anything. He does not know what is in this dungeon, so all he can do is imagine what is in here and how he is going to be executed. This relates back to my theme of the uncertainty of life and death, because the narrator does not know how he is going to die, but the narrator is doing whatever he can to avoid it. “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 if a damned spirit; to my heart with the stealthy pace of the tiger!” By using description the author creates suspense of the narrator’s death. This keeps you wondering when the narrator is going to die, or even if he is going to die. The narrator does not even know when he is going to die. The suspense of the story shows the uncertainty of death throughout