The Pit and the Pendulum

By Edgar Allan Poe

This is a interesting story. Edgar Allen Poe puts the narrator in a dreadful situation. The story is set in the late 15th century during the Spanish Inquisition. The Narrator is a prisoner of the inquisition. When the story begins he is in court waiting to hear what his sentence is going to be. The narrator describes the point in time when his punishment is being pronounced. He faints and faintly recalls being taken underground. He wakes up in a place of total darkness. He gets up and tries to find out where his kidnappers put him. After searching for a while he feels his way back to his little bed and falls asleep. When he wakes up he finds food and a pitcher of water. Realizing how thirsty he is drinks the whole pitcher. Shortly after the water is gone he starts to feel very tired again. He recognizes that the water was drugged. After he wakes up again, he finds his prison strangely lit. He tries to get up but finds that he is bound on a wooden bench. He looks up at the ceiling and finds that a sharp blade is swinging like a pendulum of a clock directly over him. As it is swinging it slowly descends. How is he going to get out of this. Is this story a tragedy or rebirth?To find out, read it. I recommend reading this story when you are supposed to be sleeping, under your covers with a flashlight.