“The Pit and the Pendulum”


ID Name
 1854655 HERRERA RAMIREZ DAYRA LIA
 1845704 LOZANO VILLARREAL KATE
 1842605 MARTINEZ QUIROS JAVIER
 1866713 VALDES SALAZAR SAMANTHA
 Edgar Allan Poe

 Who Was Edgar Allan Poe?
Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 to October 7, 1849)
was an American writer, poet, critic and editor best
known for evocative short stories and poems that
captured the imagination and interest of readers
around the world. Many of Poe’s works, including “The
Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Fall of the House of Usher,”
became literary classics.
Poe is given credit for being the father of the
detective story.
 Setting

 The Pit and the Pendulum' is set in a prison cell in Toledo,
Spain, during the Spanish Inquisition.
 Because the General Lasalle mentioned at the end of the
story was a historical figure who died in 1809, we know
that 'The Pit and the Pendulum' takes place in 1808, when
the Inquisition was stopped for the first time (it took two
more attempts and twenty-six more years before it was
permanently ended).
 Characters
There is only one main character
in The Pit and the Pendulum:
the narrator. However, despite
the fact that he is the main
character, we know next to
nothing about him. There are
some other people mentioned in
passing such as the "black-robed
judges", the people who carried
him away from his sentencing,
the inquisitorial agents, and the
only named character: General
Lasalle of the French army who
inadvertently saves the narrator
at the end of the story.
Themes

 Untimely Death
 Isolation
 Torture
 Will to live vs. desire to
die- Survival
 Fear
 Loss of time
 Persecution
 Background

Poe’s ‘’The Pit and the Pendulum’’
there are several references making
an allusion to the Spanish
Inquisition, which was a nearly 400
year tribunal (1478-1834) of secular
and religius nature, established by
the Spanish crown with the Pope’s
blessing, that viciously violated
spanish laws in its quest to find and
subdue heresy and non-Catholic
religious belief.
Summary about the plot

 Vocabulary

 Conveyed -To communicate
 Immoveable -Incapable of being moved, fixed
 Locution -Style of speech or verbal expression
 Sable -The color black
 Specters -Spirit especially one of terrifying nature
 Stealthily -Careful, sneaky, secretive
 Delirium -State of confusion
 Gossamer -Something extremely light, flimsy
 Cadence -Rhythmic flow
 Conjure -to affect or influence
 Symbols

 Pit - Hell
 Pendulum - Slow, approaching
death; time ticking down
 Darkness – the unknown,
ignorance
 Rats – a potential problem
turned positive
 Reflection

The story make us think about what we would do if we
were in that situation. Thinking about what would be the
less horrible dead and accepting the death several times.
The story it´s most psychological and we can feel the fear
of death closer than ever.
Fear is everyone´s enemy.
 With a partner. . .

 Which aspect of the narrator’s torture—
physical or psychological—do you find
more horrible?
 Why?
 Name 2 symbols and their meaning.