History Literature / ThePitAndThePendulum

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[OverlyLongScream The agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long, and\\
final vent of despair.]]''[[note]] Art by Harry Clarke.[[/note]]]]

The story has been adapted to film several times, including on film in [[Film/ThePitAndThePendulum 1961]] and [[Film/ThePitAndThePendulum1991 1991]].

The story is about a man who is brought to trial by UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition. We do not learn this man's name or what he is being charged with, but it isn't long before he's found guilty of the unnamed crime and condemned to death, after which he promptly faints and awakens in what is soon revealed to be a cell. After fainting again, he discovers food and water nearby and explores the cell, learning that the perimeter of the chamber measures a hundred steps. He trips on his robe while crossing the room and just barely avoids falling into a deep pit.

After losing consciousness again, the man finds himself strapped to a wooden frame on his back facing the ceiling, where a bladed pendulum is swinging back and forth and slowly descending, designed to eventually reach its victim and kill him. In a truly nailbiting sequence, the protagonist manages to escape just as the pendulum is going to slice into his chest. Then the pendulum retracts, but the walls become red-hot and begin to close in, forcing him toward the center of the room and the pit. As he loses his last foothold and starts to fall into the pit, he is rescued by French soldiers who have captured the city of Toledo and rounded up the forces of the Inquisition.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"[[OverlyLongScream The agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long, and\\
final vent of despair.]]"''[[note]] Art by Harry Clarke.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[OverlyLongScream The agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long, and final vent of despair.]]''[[labelnote:Note]] Art by Harry Clarke.[[/labelnote]]]]

"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a classic short story by Creator/EdgarAllanPoe, first published in 1842 and subsequently revised in 1845 for the ''Broadway Journal''.

* {{Fainting}}: The protagonist faints an awful lot during the story. This is understandable, because he's ill, exhausted, and facing the stress of a horrific death trap of a cell.

The story is about a man who is brought to trial by UsefulNotes/TheSpanishInquisition. We do not learn this man's name or what he is being charged with, but it isn't long before he's found guilty of the unnamed crime and condemned to death, after which he promptly faints and awakens in what is soon revealed to be a cell. After fainting again, he discovers food and water nearby and explores the cell, learning that the perimeter of the chamber measures a hundred steps and trips on his robe while trying to cross the room, learning that he very narrowly avoided falling into a deep pit.

After losing consciousness again, the man finds himself strapped to a wooden frame on his back facing the ceiling, where a bladed pendulum is swinging back and forth and slowly descending, designed to eventually reach its victim and kill him. In a truly nailbiting sequence, the protagonist manages to escape just as the pendulum is going to slice into his chest. Then the pendulum retracts, the walls become red-hot and begin to close in, forcing him toward the center of the room and the pit. As he loses his last foothold and starts to fall into the pit, he is rescued by French soldiers who have captured the city of Toledo and rounded up the forces of the Inquisition.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Let's see: a pit that you can't see in the dark, a giant pendulum, closing walls that burns you...

* HopeSpringsEternal: So you're bound under a giant pendulum which is about to cut you in half, there is no escape, and you're shaking with fear. Your conclusion is ? Why, that if you tremble it means you still want to live, of course. Hope lives on. And thinking about it, there might be a chance of survival after all...

* HopeSpot: The narrator escaped the pendulum and he's freed himself ! And then the walls start closing in.
* GuileHero: Downplayed since the main character has a hard time thinking due to his terror and his poor health, but he still manages to use his wits to survive.
* NeverTrustATitle: Despite both major traps sharing double billing, it's the pendulum that everyone remembers. If the pit wasn't in the title, some people probably wouldn't know it was a plot point at all. Ironic since the narrator is much more afraid of the pit and considers the pendulum to be “a milder death”.

* NervousWreck: We can hardly blame the narrator to be one.

* {{Fainting}}: The protagonist does this an awful lot during the story, the most prominent being when he is sentenced to death.

** It should probably go without saying that the Spanish Inquisition, despite their reputation as one of the more ruthless Inquisitions of the Catholic Church, never employed the kind of devious {{Death Trap}}s depicted here to execute those they found guilty of heresy - you were more likely to be turned over to the secular authorities for punishment or [[BurnTheWitch burned at the stake]] than to face the chamber of horrors the protagonist found himself in.

The story has been adapted to film several times, including [[Film/ThePitAndThePendulum a 1961 film of the same name]].

* DeusExMachina: The ending is very abrupt. Our hero is seconds away from falling into the pit when all of a sudden he hears the sounds of trumpets! The walls cool off and rush back and he is saved by members of the French army.