The narrator in "The Pit and the Pendulum" is painfully aware of the connection between rats and death. He knows that they desire to make him their "prey," in other words, to eat him alive. He wonders what food they have been used to eating within the well. Previously, he has guessed that the pit held worse torment than simply plunging to one's death, and here the reader understands what he meant. Worse than dying in the fall would be to have fallen into the pit and remained alive, only to be devoured by the rats. Ironically, the man's plan of escape requires him to submit himself to possible consumption by the rats. After he spreads the meat on his bonds, he must lie "breathlessly" still, as if dead already, to persuade the rats that they can eat him. He is nearly smothered by them as they swarm over him, even over his lips and throat. He is moved to intense disgust, and a "deadly clamminess" grips his heart. Yet everything depends on his convincing the rats he is dead, so he continues to lie perfectly still. Thus, ironically, the agents of death become his deliverers, and he is able to escape the descending pendulum. Had he not been willing and able to face the horrors of being consumed by rats, he would have died under the oncoming blade.

What do the rats symbolize in "The Pit and the Pendulum"?

Typically we see rats as a symbol of disease and death. And that's just how the narrator views them at first; he scares the "ravenous" creatures away.

Yet the rats do not symbolize death here. Instead, Poe flips this symbol completely contrary to the reader's expectations. The rats actually become a symbol of hope and freedom.

As the pendulum swings ever nearer to the narrator, he develops a desperate plan that hinges on the rats. He smears his "bandage" that is wrapped around him and confines him to his position under the pendulum with the meat remnants, which he realizes the rats have been feeding on. He is then forced to lie perfectly still, convincing the rats that he is dead.

As they press in upon him, seeking the last bits of meat, he is "half stifled by their thronging pressure," utterly disgusted by their presence. Yet he relies on the rats to free him. They are his only hope.

His plan works. The rats begin to chew through the bandage, seeking the meat remnants the narrator has used. At the last second, they chew completely through the material, and the narrator finds freedom.

Thus, the rats symbolize hope in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation. The narrator could have overlooked this source of hope because of his bias against the creatures, and the story would have ended with his complete demise. The transformation of the rats into a symbol of hope is an unexpected twist in this short story.