Questionnaire The Pit and the Pendulum.pdf - LITE...

LITE
20-11-2020
QUESTIONNAIRE: “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe
1. Lines 8 – 11: What is happening in the first four lines of the story? Describe the
dramatic tension this opening creates.
2. Lines 8 –13: Describe the narrator’s state of consciousness and how it changes. 3. Lines 15 – 23: What creates an atmosphere of horror in these lines? Give examples
from the text.
4. Lines 42 – 54: Based on these lines, what might be a theme of the story? 5. Lines 93 – 103: What effect does withhold further details about the narrator’s
situation have on the reader? What new details about the narrator’s situation are
revealed in lines 93 – 100? Why might Poe have wanted to delay telling readers what
the narrator’s surroundings look like? Notice the phrase “my worst thoughts” in line
101. To what fear does this phrase refer? Which phrases in lines 102 – 103 contribute
to Gothic themes?
6. Lines 111 – 120: How do these lines build dramatic tension?

7. Lines 119 –126: What evidence of the narrator’s terror is in these lines? Make a
generalization about what most frightens the narrator.