illustration of a blade on the end of a pendulum swinging above a man's head

The Pit and the Pendulum

by Edgar Allan Poe

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Student Question

In "The Pit and the Pendulum", why does the narrator need to know his surroundings and how does he measure its size?

Quick answer:

The narrator needs to understand his surroundings to manage his fear and confirm whether he is buried alive, a common fear during the Spanish Inquisition. He measures his cell by tearing a piece of his robe and placing it on the ground as a marker to check if he is walking in circles. He also counts his steps to estimate the room's size, eventually discovering a pit by tripping. This exploration gives him a sense of control in a terrifying situation.

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Imagine yourself in his position. Just imagine how you feel when you are in the total dark in a strange place.  Don't you just wish that you could turn the lights on just to see where you are and what is around you? At first, he is, just like we would be, scared.  It is pitch black, he doesn't know where he is, and because of the "thousand vague rumors of the horrors of Toledo" that he has heard in the past, he fears coming tortures.  Of those rumors, being buried in a tomb alive terrifies him, and that thought "suddenly drove the blood in torrents upon my heart" and he begins to explore, trying to determine if he is, in fact, in a tomb.   But, he doesn't have the convenience of a light switch to throw on.  So, to gather some information about where he is, he uses what...

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has been provided to him. He "cautiously steps" about, with "arms outstretched" to try to feel his way around and get his bearings.  As he wanders about though, he realizes that he could be walking in circles, and he is not gaining any useful information about the dimensions of his prison.  So, he

"tore a part of the hem from the robe and placed the fragment at full length, and at right angles to the wall"

so that if he feels it again, then he'll know he has come full circle.  As he walks, holding on to the wall, he counts his steps, and is able to estimate that his prison is "fifty yards in circuit" but still has no idea of its shape because there were lots of angles.  He decides to walk across the prison but trips, with the tip of his head landing on the pit; that is how he discovers its presence.  So, through walking, counting, and using his robe, he is able to explore, and at least feel a little bit in control of his circumstances.  To know that little bit, even if not very useful, is very important in such a stressful situation.

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Why must the narrator understand his surroundings in "The Pit and the Pendulum"?

The struggle of the narrator to place himself in his surroundings is mirrored by the struggle of the reader to place this story appropriately in historical context. The narrator conveys early in the story that his torture is part of the Spanish Inquisition, which lasted for around 700 years from the early 1200s to the early 1800s. That's a wide historical time span. We learn toward the end of the story that the French army (Napoleon) has entered Toledo, so this lets us know that the story's setting is near the end of the Inquisition. If that's true, how can we make sense of these very medieval forms of torture? The room with the pendulum doesn't seem a likely setting for the era in which the story is set.

We also don't know why the narrator has been given this sentence or how he has offended those who have condemned him. As his sentence is read, he reflects that "the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum." Does he deserve this punishment which has been handed to him? Should we feel empathy for his situation?

This mental struggle on the reader's part is reflected in the narrator's struggle to place himself in his surroundings. He clings to the walls, investigating every crevice, trying to get a sense of where he is. Reading of his torture provides the same experience for the reader. Poe weaves a tale of historical fact and fantastical imagination to create a plot from which it is difficult to extract the truth—just as the narrator finds it difficult to extract the truth of his own physical surroundings.

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