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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The Pit and the Pendulum Questions on Escape from Pendulum

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The Pit and the Pendulum

In Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum," the narrator is imprisoned by the Spanish Inquisition, though his specific crime remains unknown. Initially, he is in a semi-conscious, delirious...

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The Pit and the Pendulum

The narrator escapes the pendulum by using rats to gnaw through his restraints after smearing them with his bloody hands. The final torture involves the room's walls heating and closing in, forcing...

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The Pit and the Pendulum

In "The Pit and the Pendulum," the protagonist's escape and salvation occur when he is rescued by General Lasalle and the French army just as he is about to fall into the pit. This intervention...

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