Religion Issues in The Pit and the Pendulum

Down in the Pit

"The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edger Allan Poe is a thrilling story about life in a dark pit or cell. This story shows that life isn't always great and the only thing that can save man from hell is god. The setting, irony, and point of view help express the theme.

Down in the pit for only believing in his own faith. I was sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me (168).

Sick from the dirty and disgusting living quarters he could only think about death. He was now going insane from the torture and the thought of death. I felt that I lay upon my back, unbound (170). After sleeping a long time and not knowing why he was he could move freely, he began to wonder. With his eyes still shut he began to get up the courage to open his eyes, but to his worst thoughts nothing but blackness.

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All of this for living life the way he had wanted.

The cell has more to it than expected. My outstretched hands at length encountered some solid obstruction (170). After getting up enough courage, he got up a started to try and find a wall. Much to his relief one was found without injury. He just had to know how big it was. I tore a part of the hem from the robe and placed the fragment at full length, and at right angles to the wall (171).

Hoping to make his way around the whole cellar and back to the part of his robe, he set off. With the ground being moist and slippery, each step had to be places every so carefully not to fall. This plan did not work and he fell and did not get up until he was done sleeping. The figure of the room still has not been figured out.

Light was finaly there. I saw to my horror the pitcher had been removed (172). After been drugged he awoke to see light and what the pit really looked like. It wasn't anything like what he had thought it to be. Looking up at the ceiling there was a giant pendulum with razor like edges. It might have been half an hour, or perhaps even an hour (for I could take but imperfect not of time), before I cast my eyes upward (173). The pendulum begun to move closer and closer to him. Time could only tell how long it would take for it to get down to him. There was a loud blast of many trumpets (176). Right as he was about to fall into the pit a hand reached down and saved him from eternal death falling into the abyss. General Lasalle was the leader that saved him from the horrible ending of life. The Inquisition was finally in the hands of its enemies. Light became life and saved the death of the main character.

The first person point of view helped express the story though the eyes of the victim. The situational irony made you think that the main character was going to die in the middle of the story. The point of the story was to show that the only thing that can save man from hell is god. God did save him from hell and brought him back to live another day.