i need a summary of the pit and the pendulum. if anyone has an answer please contribute it. thank you very much.

-- Anonymous, August 20, 2001

Answers

The captive narrator is condemned by the Inquisition. He awakes in a darkened room and narrowly escapes falling into the pit. Next he is tied down underneath a gradually descending pendulum blade. Escapes that to by letting the rats eat away his bindings. The walls close in to push him finally into the pit, their demonic designs and the pit illuminated by searing heat. After all this suspense the rescue comes swiftly from his army. Presumably, he is still sane and the ending happy, but Poe is not so interested in what came before or after the extreme test of trying to evade a terrible death.

-- Anonymous, August 21, 2001