Madison G. McGowan - The Pit and the Pendulum Online Worksheet.pdf

The Pit and the Pendulum
(pages 249-265 in textbook)
Short story by Edgar Allan Poe
Directions: Read the background, read the story, view this video: The Pit and the Pendulum (5:00), and
then answer the following questions.
Background: Imagine being sentenced to a torturous death without any insight into when or how it is going
to happen. In Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Pit and the Pendulum' , the unnamed narrator finds himself in a
terrifying situation after 'the robed judges' sentence him. During the Spanish Inquisition, heresy often
resulted in execution in extremely public and painful ways. This story describes the experience of a man
who has been sentenced to death. Let's find out what happens.
Questions:
1. Lines 10-11: Interpret “The sentence -- the dread sentence of death -- was the last of distinct
accentuation which reached my ears.”
2. Why, when the narrator first succumbs to fatigue, do the torturers provide food and water?