#5 Issue: The Pit and the Pendulum

Hello and welcome to the fifth issue of A Story for the Week!

The story of the week is “The Pit and the Pendulum,” a horror story written by Edgar Allan Poe.

“The Pit and the Pendulum” is a story of torture, dread, panic, and desperation. A story of an unnamed individual who was captured by the Spanish Inquisition, sentenced to death, and cast away into a pitch-dark dungeon, which does not only serve as a waiting room, but also as a means of torture and the execution place.

This room, this dungeon, is apparently fifty-two paces large, and in the middle, there’s a large pit, ready and waiting. It’s also teeming with large rats, ready to snatch that bit of water and food this individual gets. To make matters worse, this individual isn’t ready to die. Although they have the pit as an option the entire time, they are struggling, fighting, trying to survive against all odds, against all attempts of executions.

In the dungeon, dark and gloomy, time is relative, questionable. The only true measure of the passage of time in this instance is the sudden appearance of food and water after dozing off and the feeling that the room is changing each time they wake up. And so, one time they wake up, they are tied to the bed and a large pendulum is slowly waving above their head.

What makes “The Pit and the Pendulum” an exquisite story is that it’s written in first person and it evokes this true sense of terror by having these vivid and strong descriptions relying on your senses. So, the image of the pit, creeping rats, and the darkness, the never-ending darkness can really come to life. This story is quite extreme, putting the reader in the shoes of a person who’s being tortured in such inhumane ways, but it’s hard not to marvel at Poe’s narrative techniques in this one.

What evokes a complete sense of awe in me is how this individual is completely poised and aware, almost as if they are vivisecting this. Normally, you’d see a person panic, scream, or become paralyzed with fear, or all three. But not this individual. He remained calm, cool, and collected, even when looking straight at the abyss and the sense of inevitability looming over their head.

Their executioners have come up with a number of ways to torture them—the darkness, slippery floor, the pit, bondage, rats, the pendulum, and even food and drink (they give the individual seasoned food with no water). Even though “The Pit and the Pendulum” is only inspired by true events, I’m stunned every time when I read it because I remember how cruel and creative can humans get when it comes to ruining life. No other species does that.

Upon my latest read of “The Pit and the Pendulum,” I noticed that there are only two colors appearing in the story—black and white. Clearly, the colors represent life and death, as this is the main theme in the story. On top of this, I feel Poe wanted to emphasize how there’s no gray area when it comes to matters of life and death, either you’re dead or alive, no in-between.

I have to warn you, “The Pit and the Pendulum” was written in 1842, and it might be a more demanding read than the previous four stories recommended in A Story for the Week. However, it’s still an amazing read. “The Pit and the Pendulum” is a hyper-realistic horror story that puts you in the shoes of a person who’s being tortured. It is heavily focused on sensory effects and it will instill a sense of horror in you. Precisely because of that, it’s a very fitting story for Halloween.

As it’s tradition, I’ll leave you with a couple of quotes from the story to give a glimpse of what’s waiting for you:

“These shadows of memory tell, indistinctly, of tall figures that lifted and bore me in silence down—down—still down—till a hideous dizziness oppressed me at the mere idea of the interminableness of the descent.”

“To the victims of its tyranny, there was the choice of death with its direst physical agonies, or death with its most hideous moral horrors.”

“Yet what business had I with hope?”

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