Showing results for "Pendulum" in Gothic

Edgar Allan Poe’s The Pit and the Pendulum plunges listeners into the claustrophobic mind of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, who awakens in utter darkness to face a series of psychological and physical torments. Chained beneath a slowly descending pendulum blade, surrounded by monstrous iron walls and the yawning mouth of a deadly pit, he must summon every ounce of courage, reason, and instinct to survive.

The Pit and the Pendulum is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843. The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are aided by the supernatural.

Es considerado uno de los relatos más famosos de Poe y uno de los más espeluznantes dentro de la literatura de terror, pues transmite el abandono, la desorientación, el desconcierto y la desesperanza de una persona que sabe que va a morir.