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 Sentence of Death

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The Pit and the Pendulum

The narrator in "The Pit and the Pendulum" is sentenced to death, initially reacting with dread and fear. Upon awakening in darkness, he fears being entombed, which causes him to faint. He later...

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The Pit and the Pendulum

The prisoner's hope of escape is shattered when, after narrowly avoiding death by the descending pendulum, he finds himself facing a new terror. The walls of his cell begin to close in, pushing him...

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