The Pit and the Pendulum Summary
Edgar Allan Poe’s Short Story about Psychological Torture
May 15, 2008
The unnamed narrator opens Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Pit and the Pendulum, by saying “I was sick, sick unto death...The sentence the dread sentence of death, was the last distinct accentuation which reached my ears.” Soon after he hears his sentence, the narrator passes out. We soon realize that we are hearing a first-hand account of a victim of the Spanish Inquisition.
Impressions of Fainting
The first sense to leave the narrator was his ability to hear. Yet before he passes out completely, he is still able to register visual impressions such as the thin white lips of the judges who have declared him guilty of some unknown crime. His focus shifts to the seven candles on the table before him before he passes out completely.
The narrator goes on to share with the reader some of the various impressions and moods left upon him by his time of unconsciousness and then shares the horror of returning to consciousness and of remembering his situation.
The Pit
At first, the narrator keeps his eyes closed out of fear of being able to see nothing once he opened his eyes. When he does open his eyes, he discovers that he is in complete darkness, which seemed to confirm his worst fears. However, he finally breaks out of his fear of entombment, stands up, and begins to move around. Once he realizes he is not in a tomb, he begins a methodical exploration of his cell. After some exploration, he falls into a nervous sleep, when he awakes, he finds food and drink has been place near him. After refreshing himself, he resumes his exploration. During which he narrowly escapes falling into a pit in the darkness.
Two Types of Torture
After avoiding the pit, the narrator reflects on what he knows of the Inquisition’s methods of torturing those they destroy. He divides their techniques into two categories “death with its direst physical agonies, or death with its most hideous moral horrors.” He concluded that a death of moral torture was the death for which he is destined. The narrator is distressed and notes that for the torturers “The sudden extinction of life formed no part of their most horrible plan.”
Finally, the prisoner sleeps and once again he wakes to find food and water by his side. He drinks and enters into a drug-induced slumber. When he wakes, his cell now has light and he discovers that his impressions of it were incorrect. He makes a detailed list of its attributes with great difficulty because he is no longer at liberty. He has been strapped to a low frame. He is given spicy food but no water to drink.
The Pendulum
The prisoner then discovers that painted on the ceiling of the cell is the figure of Time holding a pendulum. However, the narrator soon realizes that the pendulum is actually a scythe that is swinging above him. After watching its slow movement, he looks around his cell again and notices huge rats emerging from the pit to explore his cell. When his gaze returns to the pendulum, he realizes to his horror that not only does it swing back and forth but it also descends. His terror eventually causes him to pass out.
When the narrator wakes, he realizes that the rats have consumed nearly all of his food. He also discovers that the pendulum has ceased movement. At first, he felt hopeful and then discerned that since it was obvious his captors watched his every move they had suspended the pendulum’s descent for their own amusement. He states that long-suffering had ‘nearly annihilated the ordinary powers of my mind. I was an imbecile – an idiot.”
As the pendulum began to descend, the prisoner realizes that the only place the straps do not cover his body is where the pendulum will begin its dreadful descent into his body. He then has another plan of escape. He smears his remaining food on the straps and lays still while the rats swarm over his body and chew through the straps.
Freedom and Rescue
At first, he is elated by his freedom but suddenly he realizes that his freedom is false. The room is now being heated the narrator decides to cast himself into the coolness of the well when he realizes that the room is changing shape from a square to a diamond. He despairs when he realizes the well is where his captors want him to go.
The walls draw nearer and the prisoner is forced nearer to the well. Just as he is about to be pushed into the pit, he hears trumpets, and human voices. The walls withdraw and he is caught just as he is about to totter into the pit. His savior is the French general LaSalle. The narrator realizes that the French have liberated Toledo from the Inquisition and that his captors are now themselves prisoners.
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