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The Use Of Torture In Pit And Pendulum By Edgar Allan Poe

680 Words3 Pages

During the Spanish Inquisition many people were tormented and killed because of their religious beliefs. In Edgar Allan’s Poe gothic tale Pit and Pendulum, is told by an unnamed narrator, takes place in a dungeon at Toledo, Spain. The narrator was sentenced to death because of the difference in religious beliefs. Instead of being hanged, he is tormented physically and mentally in the darkness of the dungeon. Edgar Allan Poe uses darkness, evil, and torture in the short story Pit and Pendulum through the character’s thoughts and actions.
Pit and Pendulum expresses darkness throughout the story through the character's thoughts and actions. The narrator is placed in a dark dungeon where he can’t see anything around him. “The blackness of eternal night encompassed me. I struggled for breath. The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me”(page). The author explains how darkness can affect the minds of humans causing them to images terrifying images that might not actually be there. These dark images in the narrator’s head cause him to panic and his body to shake and sweat …show more content…

The unknown narrator explains what he first imagines when he awakes in a tomb of darkness. He later realizes he is being tortured and his only outcome will eventually be death by one means or another. Poe writes his short story showing the evils of one man to another based on different beliefs. He tells the horrific tale of how men can take pleasure torturing and murdering others who have different religious beliefs. The narrator is clever and escapes what is certain death by the pendulum, only to face a pit that will surely send him to his grave. Unlike other short storeys of Poe’s he ends this one saving the narrator's life by having the French army rescue him before he descends into the pit. Leaving those who judged to be

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