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

The title "The Pit and the Pendulum" signifies the story's central elements of terror and torture. The pit represents the unknown and potential death, while the pendulum symbolizes the inevitable...

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The Pit and the Pendulum

In "The Pit and the Pendulum," total darkness symbolizes the narrator's profound fear, utilized by the inquisitors as a form of psychological torture. This fear encompasses the unknown, the future,...

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The Pit and the Pendulum

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...

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The Pit and the Pendulum

In "The Lake," the speaker experiences a complex and contradictory reaction to the lake, feeling both loneliness and a "lovely" isolation. Nighttime brings terror, yet it is an exhilarating rather...

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The Pit and the Pendulum

The unspecified crime of the narrator creates fear and suspense by engaging the reader's imagination, allowing them to speculate on the severity of the crime and empathize with the narrator's...

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