The pit and the pendulum

Analysis and breakdown

 Impia tortorum longos hic turba furores
Sanguinis innocui, non satiata, aluit.
Sospite nunc patria, fracto nunc funeris antro,
Mors ubi dira fuit vita salusque patent.

The Latin epigraph which opens Poe’s short story translates as:

Here the wicked mob, unappeased, long cherished a hatred of innocent blood. Now that the
fatherland is saved, and the cave of death demolished, where grim death has been, life and
health appear.

This Latin epigraph—a quoted introduction for pieces of literature—refers to members of the
French Jacobin Club who led the “Reign of Terror” during the French Revolution. One of the
most recognizable groups during the Revolution, the Jacobins came to power in the 1790s and
led the “Reign of Terror” by sending their enemies to the guillotine. Following their defeat in
1794, their old meeting house became the Saint-Honoré market. Although Poe’s story
concerns itself with the torture inflicted by judges of the Spanish Inquisition, the epigraph sets
the mood for a story replete with danger and torture.
This sets the tone of the story. Sick
can mean many things. Poe's choice
of words show that he means
sickness due to sadness.
“The Pit and the Pendulum” is told from a first-person point of view.
In effect, the reader experiences the horror the protagonist endures
from a firsthand perspective, allowing the reader to witness the torture
on a much more intimate level. This opening line also sheds light on
the narrator’s mental and physical state. Throughout the story, neither
the narrator nor the reader ever find out what crime he committed, or
if he is even aware of what crime he is being punished for. Poe creates
a narrator who is teetering on the brink of insanity. As the story opens,
we encounter a narrator who is sick “unto death,” meaning that he is
both physically and mentally enfeebled. His mental and physical
precariousness causes the reader to consider his reliability.
The word “accentuation” describes an emphasized sound. As the
narrator loses most of his senses—his ability to see, smell, taste, or
touch—he retains his capability to hear. The first imagery readers
encounter is the auditory imagery of the inquisitorial notice, which the
narrator describes as the “dread sentence of death.” The sounds meld
together throughout the following lines as the narrator moves in and
out of consciousness and the sounds coalesce into “one dreamy
indeterminate hum.”
The subject feels moments of horror and fear flow from the lips of the
judges, who are covered in black robes, contrasting to the color of their
white lips. This evokes a sense of fear within the reader as well,
allowing them to relate to the subject who is actually hearing the
sounds succeeded. These examples of repetition and symbolism - of
the contradicting personalities of the judges - are significant in
allowing the reader to feel just how the subject of the selection feels.
The author's use of imagery provides
stark contrast between the "whiter than
the sheet" inquisitors and his pitch black
prison cell. The "grotesque" figures make
for an intense introduction, setting a
surreal, deeply perturbed tone for the
passage as a whole.
The second image readers encounter is
that of the “black-robed judges” whose
lips are lifelessly, ghoulishly white. The
narrator compares the judges’ lips to the
whiteness of the pages on which he now
writes this story, in turn foreshadowing
the outcome: he will survive the torture.
In this selection, Edgar Allan Poe so distinctly uses
repetition of the phrase "I saw" at the beginning of
this quatrain of sentences to illuminate the fact that
the subject of the short story feels a sense of malice
and darkness creep up on him through the use of
the black-robed judges.
The verb “to writhe” refers to the action of twisting
and distorting oneself out of pain. As the judges
mandate the narrator’s torture, he notices that their
grotesque lips “writhe with a deadly locution.” The
verb conjures an image of convolution and twisting.
As they utter his name, the lips twist and furl into
terrifying contortions, intimating the punishments
their words foretell.
The adjective “sable” may refer to two
definitions: the color black or the black clothes
worn during the mourning process. These
definitions conjure images of death and
mourning. Here, the narrator momentarily
glimpses his surroundings and notices the
draperies around him, which are as dark as
funerary clothing.
Contrasted against the darkness that pervades much
of the imagery in this first paragraph, the seven
candles—a number which signifies completeness in
literary and biblical texts—stand out starkly. The
white candles which Poe metaphorically likens to
“slender angels,” provide the narrator and reader
with a sense of hope and wholeness in spite of the
chaos surrounding him.
A “galvanic battery” is a device consisting of
several cells that produces electricity. The
narrator undergoes a sudden change—he jolts
awake—which he likens to feeling like he
touched the raw end of a battery. This simile
conjures a sensation of electricity running
through and shocking the body.
The word “spectre” describes a disembodied
spirit or ghost. Here, the candles, once
emblems of hope, now transform into
“meaningless spectres.” The sudden change in
appearance of the candles from angels to
phantoms foreshadows the narrator’s
vanishing sense of hope.
In this selection, Edgar Allan Poe creates a
tonal shift, going from utter despair and horror
to a sense of peace, restoration, and salvation.
There is also, however, a great deal of irony in
the statement considering the fact that the only
place he believes he will find sweet rest is in
death, possibly foreshadowing suicide.
The narrator, so petrified of the situation he
finds himself in, wishes desperately for death.
Using simile, the narrator claims that the
prospect of “sweet rest” appeals to him as a
“rich musical note.” He wishes for death,
because to him, it is sweeter, gentler, and more
welcoming than of the torture he imagines he
will face.
Figurative language in the form of a
simile - "descent as of the soul into
Hades"- best portrays the narrator's
feelings of helplessness and
confusion at this point in the story.
Here, the narrator notes how the candles vanish and
how the “blackness of darkness supervened.” To
highlight the utter darkness of the scene, the narrator
redundantly pairs the words blackness and darkness
together. Both words suggest complete and pervasive
nothingness, and when combined compound this overall
sense. The word “supervened” means to result as an
additional development, suggesting that as the candles
extinguish, the blackness enters and envelops the scene.
In Greek mythology, "Hades" was both
the name of the god of the underworld
and hell, the final resting place for evil
souls. As darkness overcomes the
narrator, all of his senses vanish, a
sensation which he likens to how souls
descend and become engulfed into the
underworld.
Throughout these lines, Poe employs alliteration
and consonance of the s sound in words like
“sank,” “supervened, “sensations,” swallowed,”
“rushing descent,” “soul,” “silence,” and
“stillness.” This continuous barrage of s sounds
suggests the rapidity of darkness as it descends and
engulfs and swarms the narrator’s surroundings.
Epistrophe makes the narrator's passionate
voice all the more poignant with the repetition
of "no!" In his revelings, the narrator also
relays a metaphor in which dreams are
"gossamer webs"; both are delicate, intricate,
and beautiful in the way that intricate things
are.
With erratic punctuation in the form of exclamation
points and dashes, the narrator breaks the narrative
flow. As the narrator describes how he wades in and
out of sleep, he is suddenly jolted awake with this
exclamation. The contradictory language,
highlighted with the repetition of “no!”, suggests
that the narrator cannot maintain a steady stream of
consciousness and is on the brink of insanity.
The word “gossamer” refers to a delicate film of
cobwebs that float in the air. Here, the narrator
describes the process of awakening as breaking “the
gossamer web of some dream.” This image suggests
that he enjoys slumber because his dreams are
lighthearted and delicate. However, this sense of reverie
dissipates as soon as the harshness of reality sets in.
Once the narrator awakes, he must face reality, or the
“gulf,” as he later describes in the passage.
The narrator constantly uses repetitive language to highlight his
diminishing grip on reality. For example, in the first paragraph, the
narrator phrases the opening line as “I was sick—sick” and explains
that the lips of the black-robed judges are “white—whiter than the
sheets upon which I trace these words.” In this passage, the narrator
employs the same repetitive language, stating that the tall figures “bore
me in silence down—down—still down,” an image which eerily
resembles the process of entombment. Here, the narrator employs the
literary tool anadiplosis, whereby the narrator repeats the last word
from the previous clause to begin the next. Such a tool functions to
exacerbate the narrator’s condition because it often adds a sense of
greater despair.
As the narrator wades in and out of consciousness, his hearing
becomes affected. At one moment he is enveloped in sound,
and at the next, he is surrounded in silence. The narrator
portrays this oscillation in sound through evocative language
that builds on itself through anaphora, the repetitive use of a
phrase or word at the beginning of a sentence. Throughout this
passage, the narrator repeats the word “then” at the beginning
of each line to switch imperceptibly from moments of loud
commotion to moments of utter silence.
The word “swoon” means to lose consciousness.
Through alliteration of the s sound in this sentence,
the narrator creates rhythmic language that
bookends his final descent into the pit and his loss
of all consciousness. Notice throughout the story
how Poe will create rhythms by repeating words
that begin with the same sound to create emphasis
and finality.
Up until this point in the story, the narrator has used auditory
and tactile imagery to describe what he has witnessed in the pit
—the strange sounds he overhears and the feeling of the sable
drapes or the darkness that overcomes him. Sporadically, he has
peppered the text with visual imagery to describe the whiteness
of the judge’s lips or the blackness of the pit. However, as the
narrator readily admits, “so far, I had not opened my eyes.” The
visual imagery, the narrator concedes, has been entirely
fabricated in his mind, further eroding his credibility as a
reliable, sane narrator.
One of the ways Poe induces terror throughout
his story is through the unknown. The narrator
dreads opening his eyes and seeing what might
be before him. Instead of fearing the tangible,
he fears “nothing,” and when he opens his
eyes, he confirms his worst fears when he sees
that he is trapped in an empty abyss
After the narrator opens his eyes, he sees that he is
enveloped in darkness. Through personification, the
narrator writes that the blackness encompasses,
oppresses, and stifles him; the atmosphere, he
writes, is “intolerably close.” This technique creates
a sense of claustrophobia and confinement—the
narrator fears the nothingness that surrounds and
traps him.
The term “autos-da-fe,” which stems from the
Portuguese auto da fé or “act of faith,” refers to a
heretic’s judgement ceremony during the Spanish
Inquisition. The ceremony was followed immediately by
an execution, usually a burning. The first autos-da-fe was
held in Seville in 1481, when six people were burned
alive. Due to the threat of terror by the tribunals, by 1492
the Inquisition had taken hold of much of the Kingdom
of Castile, including the capital city of Toledo, where the
narrator is located.
The adverb “convulsively” means
resembling a convulsion or a seizure-like
fit of involuntary contractions. As the
narrator tries to stand up, his body is
thrown into violent and spasmodic
convulsions, an image which highlights
his physical incapacitation.
Kinesthesia, or kinesthetic imagery, is a literary
device whereby the narrator describes physical
bodily movement or action. Poe uses this
technique frequently to detail how the narrator is
physically incapacitated. Here, readers gather a
sense of the frenzy of the narrator, whose
perspiration bursts uncontrollably “from every
pore.”
The word “subterranean” refers to something that lies
beneath the surface of the earth. However, it also
conjures a more negative subtext because it can refer to
something working in secret or something that is, in a
metaphorical sense, characteristic of the underworld.
The narrator describes the pit in which he is confined as
a “subterranean world of darkness,” a phrase which
describes not only its location below the surface of the
earth, but also its hellish or infernal connotations.
The word “insuperable” means incapable of being
overcome or solved. Here, the narrator tries to
measure the circumference of the vault, a seemingly
simple task. He takes his clothes and wraps them
along the wall to measure the dimensions of the
space. However, because he is so feeble, he
describes this task as “insuperable,” or difficult to
overcome.
The word “prostrate” has two definitions: first,
it can refer to the act of lying submissively
with one’s face on the ground; second, it can
refer to the state of being completely
overcome. The narrator, so weak and infirm,
falls to the ground, physically as well as
emotionally prostrate.
The narrator falls short of plunging into the abyss.
As he falls forward, his head suspended above the
void, he senses a “clammy vapor” and smells
“decayed fungus.” Here, the narrator provides both
tactile and olfactory imagery: readers can envision
the feeling of the damp air and the putrid smell of
death arising out of the abyss.
The word “chasm” refers to a cleft or fissure in
a surface of terrain, mountain, or rock. More
recently, it has come to mean a wide crack in
any structure, natural or manmade. Here, the
narrator drops a stone into the abyss to
measure the distance to the bottom of the
chasm.
The Spanish Inquisition, which spanned from the
15th to the 17th centuries, was an institution
established to forcibly convert and maintain
Catholic Orthodoxy throughout Spain and its
territories. Those who refused to convert to
Catholicism were brutally tortured and killed.
During the time of the Inquisition, 150,000 heretics
were prosecuted and between 3,000 and 5,000
among them were killed.
The powerful connotations of words like "victims,"
"tyranny," "agonies," and "horrors" create a pained,
almost hysteric tone. Overall, the narrator appears
to be disillusioned to the fact that certain tortures
await him, and the dramatic tone makes his
acceptance of the fact all the more unsettling and
intense.
Through repetitive language and simile,
the narrator once again describes how he
falls into a deep slumber. By comparing
his sleep to “that of death,” the narrator
demonstrates how weak he has become.
Through the dual definitions of the word
“sulphurous,” Poe employs a double entendre.
“Sulphurous” can mean both resembling
burning sulfur as well as relating to the fire of
hell. Describing the “lustre,” or light created by
the reflection off the chasm, as sulphurous
intimates the hellish nature of the pit.
The narrator, in his confused and dilapidated state, had
incorrectly measured the space of his dungeon. After he
fell the first time, he recounted the same circumference
twice. As the narrator becomes more and more oriented
with the space and with himself, he begins to see all the
ways in which he mistook his surroundings. He now
understands that the black-robed judges and the white
candles he envisioned were just figments of his
imagination.
A “charnel,” or “charnel house” is a building in
which dead bodies and bones are placed. Here,
the narrator metaphorically likens his
surroundings, including the “metallic
enclosure” of the pit, to the monastic charnel
houses which entombs the dead. To the
narrator, the pit is akin to his final resting
place.
The word “surcingle” describes a girth
used to keep a bag or saddle in place on a
horse or other animal’s back. By using
this sort of strap to secure the narrator
onto a piece of wood, Poe hints at the
inhumane treatment of heretics during the
Inquisition.
A “scythe” is a farming tool with a curved
blade used to mow grass and cut grain with
sweeping strokes. The narrator describes how
the figure of Time does not carry a scythe;
instead he holds a pendulum, which in this case
bears an uncanny likeness to a guillotine.
The author's use of imagery helps portray the narrator's
onslaught of panic and terror; the "crescent of glittering steel"
is vivid enough so as to create a clear image of the narrator's
predicament. This homicidal pendulum is symbolic of the
unavoidable nature of accountability and suffering- everyone
must be held accountable eventually for his or her actions. In
this case, it appears that the narrator is being punished for
participation with Jacobins.
The pendulum—described in menacing
metaphorical language in phrases like
“glittering steel,” “horns upward,” and “keen
as that of a razor”—represents the inexorable
passage of time. Shaped like Father Time’s
scythe, the rhythm of the pendulum mimics the
narrator’s heartbeat and brings him closer and
closer to death with each passing swing.
"Ultima Thule" is an allusion (figurative language) to
unknown realms; hence its use in the context of the pit
and hell. Also, the pit is symbolic of hell, the ultimate
and eternal punishment. Its black, never-ending abyss
signifies the depths of the classic image of hell, wherein
the narrator is apparently being condemned for his
crimes in radicalism.
In ancient Greek and Roman cartography and literature,
the phrase “Ultima Thule” referred to a northernmost
location. This was an imaginative extension of “Thule,”
a mysterious island north of England. Later, in medieval
literature, the phrase came to mean a distant location
beyond the known world. The pit, according to the
narrator, is a form of punishment beyond the known
world; he even explicitly outlines the way in which the
pit is a symbol for hell: “the pit, typical of hell.”
The pendulum is a major symbol in this story as indicated
rather obviously by the title; its descent by degrees upon the
narrator represents the inescapability of death. "Inch by inch"
and "line by line" are significant phrases as they signal how
minute or minuscule the "descent" of death may seem, yet it is
always invariably present. The motif of torment or suffering
underlies this passage as well, quite graphically in the form of
a razor sharp pendulum slowly bearing down upon the
narrator.
The adjective “acrid” refers to an unpleasant or
pungent taste or odor. As the pendulum
descends closer and closer to the narrator’s
body, the narrator personifies the pendulum as
a creature that “fans” him with “its acrid
breath,” invoking olfactory imagery to
demonstrate its diabolical qualities.
The narrator compares the “sharp steel” of the
pendulum edge to the curved, concave edge of
the “scimitar,” a cavalry sword historically
used by Arabs and Turks. Poe’s sword
descriptions reference Toledo, Spain, which has
been one of the major epicenters for steel
weaponry and sword-making since about 500
BCE.
This simile intimates the narrator’s thought
process: at first petrified of his impending death, he
now accepts it like a child admiring a “bauble,” or
a trinket. The pendulum, which moments ago
resembled a menacing, ominous “scimitar,” now
transforms before the narrator’s eyes into a
harmless knickknack.
The verb “hissing” means to make a sharp,
sibilant sound, and connotes the sound a snake
or serpent might make; the noun “vigor” refers
to an intense action. This combination of
words conjures auditory imagery that
characterizes the pendulum as a serpent
careening powerfully towards the narrator.
Following the auditory imagery of “hissing,” Poe
employs repetitive alliteration of the s consonant to
mimic the sound of the pendulum as it draws closer
to the narrator. The verb “to sunder” means to
separate violently and intimates the potential
trajectory of the pendulum. The narrator foresees
the pendulum’s splitting the dungeon in two and
violently cleaving his robe.
Throughout the next three paragraphs, the narrator becomes
intoxicated with terror, as revealed through the use of the literary
technique anaphora, the repetition of the first word or phrase in
successive phrases. Here, the narrator vividly describes as the
pendulum’s plunging downward by beginning each of these three
paragraphs with the word “down.” In the first paragraph, the
pendulum creeps; in the second, it descends “certainly, relentlessly”;
finally, it descends “still unceasingly—still inevitably.” The closer the
pendulum gets, the more frantic and urgent the diction becomes, the
more vivid and terrifying the imagery transforms.
The use of figurative language in the form of a metaphor ("the
stealthy pace of the tiger") emphasizes the immensely
threatening nature of the pendulum. The purpose of this
pendulum is ostensibly to inspire as much fear and terror in the
heart of the narrator as possible whilst dragging out his death to
excruciating lengths; evidently he is panicked as he hysterically
alternates between laughing and howling, once again bringing
to light the motif of suffering.
These metaphors imprint two images into
readers’ minds: first, the sound of the
pendulum is the “shriek of a damned spirit”;
second, the movement of the pendulum is the
“stealthy pace of the tiger.” Both metaphors
highlight the terrifying nature of the
pendulum as it violently, savagely howls
through the air while also displaying accuracy
and prowess.
Even when faced with that "glistening axe" that will
surely bring about his imminent demise, the narrator
dares to hope. When confronted with mental and
physical suffering-- as elucidated in motifs-- he clings to
hope of survival. This points to the theme that it is
human nature to hope, as inherent as the human will to
survive.
The phrase “keen, collected calmness of despair”
describes how, amid the terror, the narrator finds comfort
in distress. He is so terrified, that death would almost be
more welcome than continued torture. However, readers
know that despite his wish to die, he will survive his
torture, as the narrator lays out in the beginning of the
story. The potential of death, nevertheless, creates an
ominous, foreboding tone.
The word “moiety” refers to one of two parts
from an original. The narrator returns to the idea
of a “half formed” idea and states that one
portion of this idea has returned to taunt him.
Eventually, his whole escape plan takes form in
his brain as he attempts to carry it out.
The noun “voracity” refers to the state of being
ravenous. This word, alongside the repeated
alliteration of the v and f sounds in this phrase,
contribute to the persistent and indefatigable
nature of the rats as they lunge at the narrator’s
bindings and tear them apart.
Poe’s diction and use of the alliterative f
sound create rhythm, which in turn
mimics the sounds of the rats. Poe’s use of
“fresh troops” of rats also suggests that
the narrator has been overtaken by an
organized military infantry.
This exclamation—”Free!”—followed by a
dash and phrase pivots the narrator back into
reality, and this phrase—”I had but escaped
death...to be delivered unto worse death”—
creates a sense of claustrophobia. At this point,
the narrator has been freed, but he is still
trapped within the pit, as illustrated by the
structure of this sentence.
As the pit begins to glow from the increasing
temperature in the pit, the characters on the wall
take on a new, terrifying appearance. The adjective
“spectral” describes something as shadowy and
ghost-like; “fiendish,” as wicked and malevolent.
The faces on the walls of the pit torment the
narrator, who sees their “demon eyes” glaring at
him “in a thousand directions.”
In a medley of visual and olfactory imagery, the narrator
describes the pit as it heats up. The smell of “heated
iron” pollutes the space; the light of the bottom of the pit
encompasses the area like a “tint of crimson.” The
culmination of these different forms of imagery create a
sense of panic—seen in the narrator’s use of frantic
exclamations.
The word “ague” refers to a fever
that is marked by symptoms such as
chills and sweating. As the heat from
the bottom of the pit rises, the
narrator erupts into sudden violent
attacks, or paroxysms.
In an allusion the biblical book of Job 18:14,
the narrator describes death as the “King of
Terrors.” Like Job, who endures undeserved
physical and mental torment, the narrator
suffers plight after plight in order to evade
death and survive the Spanish Inquisition.
In this context, the word “lozenge” refers
to a diamond shape of four equal sides
with two acute and two obtuse angles.
The square dungeon begins to shapeshift,
growing in length and shrinking in width,
thus compressing and crushing the
narrator.
Imagery heightens the intensity of this climactic moment
within the short story; the reader can clearly picture the
narrator's final struggle against the shrinking walls and growing
pit. The pit is symbolic of the depths of hell- the ultimate
punishment. The fact that the narrator is saved at his last
moment bolsters the theme that hope prevails above all else.
As the narrator concedes earlier, the pit is a
representation of hell. Now, the moving walls
symbolize the unknown horrors of the Spanish
Inquisition. As the pit morphs and the red-hot
walls close in, the narrator is physically and
psychologically paralyzed—the unknown,
wanton terrors imposed by the inquisition have
left him in a state of shock.
Poe’s use of auditory imagery, which pervades and
controls the entire story, concludes with the sound
of trumpets, a symbol of triumph and liberation.
Against the sounds of rats gnawing at surcingles
and the hissing of a pendulum, the sound of the
trumpets comes as a welcome reprieve and signals
the narrator’s victory out of the pit.
General Antoine Charles Louis Lasalle (1775–
1809) served as a general under Napoleon
during the Peninsula Wars, years following the
height of the Spanish Inquisition. The
inclusion of Lasalle into the narrative is not
historically accurate, since Lasalle was not
involved in the battle of Toledo.