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The Pit and the Pendulum
- 169 statements
- 32 feature instances
- 10 referencing feature instances
| The Pit and the Pendulum | type |
TVTItem | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum | label |
The Pit and the Pendulum | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum | page |
ThePitAndThePendulum | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum | comment |
"The Pit and the Pendulum" is a classic short story by Edgar Allan Poe, originally published in the 1842 anthology The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843 and subsequently revised in 1845 for the Broadway Journal.The story is about a man who is brought to trial by The Spanish Inquisition. 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, the man discovers food and water nearby and explores the cell, learning that the perimeter of the chamber measures a hundred steps. While crossing the room he trips on his robe and just barely avoids falling into a deep pit.After losing consciousness again, the man wakes to find himself strapped to a wooden frame on his back and facing the ceiling, from which a bladed pendulum is swinging back and forth and slowly descending, designed to eventually reach its victim and kill him. In a truly nail-biting sequence, the protagonist manages to free himself 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.The story has been adapted for the screen several times, including on film in 1961 and 1991.Since it's now in the public domain, you can read the story here. | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum | fetched |
2023-10-02T05:29:27Z | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum | parsed |
2023-10-02T05:29:27Z | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum | processingComment |
Dropped link to JustInTime: Not a Feature - IGNORE | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_1869b4b1 | type |
Unreliable Narrator | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_1869b4b1 | comment |
Unreliable Narrator: The narrator is honest and tries so very hard to understand what is happening, but his senses failing him make him this. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_1869b4b1 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_18729bf8 | type |
Swarm of Rats | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_18729bf8 | comment |
Swarm of Rats: They look menacing at first, but they actually play a big part in saving the narrator. | |
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| The Pit and the Pendulum | hasFeature |
The Pit and the Pendulum / int_18729bf8 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_20215dc6 | type |
Primal Fear | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_20215dc6 | comment |
Primal Fear: Where to begin: the fear of the dark, of the emptiness, of being buried alive, of dying and being helpless to stop it, of the unknown, of being crushed by closing walls, and so on. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_20215dc6 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_2a02e5c9 | type |
Guile Hero | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_2a02e5c9 | comment |
Guile Hero: 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. | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_2a02e5c9 | featureApplicability |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_2a02e5c9 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_3bc88a7f | type |
Foregone Conclusion | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_3bc88a7f | comment |
Foregone Conclusion: There are several reminders through the story that the narrator is writing the story and tries to remember the best he can what happened to him. We know he survived and got away since the very beginning. | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_3bc88a7f | featureApplicability |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_3bc88a7f | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_3fca462c | type |
Deus ex Machina | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_3fca462c | comment |
Deus ex Machina: 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, who have taken Toledo and captured the members of the Inquisition. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_3fca462c | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_403b6f3 | type |
Fainting | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_403b6f3 | comment |
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. And his captors may have drugged his food and water. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_403b6f3 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_4128bc77 | type |
Broken Tears | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_4128bc77 | comment |
Broken Tears: The narrator bursts into tears when he realizes what is in the well. He can't even bring himself to describe it. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_4128bc77 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_4b39a18 | type |
Hope Springs Eternal | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_4b39a18 | comment |
Hope Springs Eternal: 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... | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_4b39a18 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_53407671 | type |
Action Survivor | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_53407671 | comment |
Action Survivor: The main character can't do much, but he stills succeeds to hang on until he's saved. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_53407671 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_5581b443 | type |
The Walls Are Closing In | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_5581b443 | comment |
The Walls Are Closing In: Once he's escaped by having some rats chew through his bonds, the protagonist is not out of the woods yet, as this trope proves. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_5581b443 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_55c79f7c | type |
Death Trap | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_55c79f7c | comment |
Death Trap: This story may well be the Trope Maker - featuring, among other nasty things, a Descending Ceiling, Closing Walls and a Bottomless Pit. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_55c79f7c | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_56515a39 | type |
Artistic License – History | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_56515a39 | comment |
Artistic License – History: Poe made no attempt to accurately describe the operations of the Spanish Inquisition, and took considerable dramatic license with the history that was premised in this story. It should probably go without saying that the Spanish Inquisition, despite their reputation as one of the most ruthless Inquisitions of the Catholic Church, never employed the kind of devious Death Traps 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 burned at the stake than to face the chamber of horrors the protagonist found himself in. The rescue of the protagonist by the French puts the story in the period of the Peninsular War of 1807-14, centuries after the Inquisition's height. Though the Peninsular War spelled the end of the Inquisition in Spain, only four people were condemned to death by the Inquisition during that period. In addition, the leader of the protagonist's rescuers in the story, General Lasalle, never took part in the occupation of Toledo during that period. The epigraph, the quote on top of this page, is said to have been intended for a market to be erected on the site of the Jacobin Club House in Paris, a market which never did get builtnote The Jacobins were a revolutionary political club who gained infamy in the wake of The French Revolution, through being responsible for the period known as the Reign of Terror. According to Charles Baudelaire, a French poet who was very much inspired by Poe, the building on the site of the Old Jacobin Club had no gates and, therefore, no inscription. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_56515a39 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_6126185e | type |
You Wake Up in a Room | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_6126185e | comment |
You Wake Up in a Room: We know that the narrator has been arrested and condemned to death by the Inquisition, but we never learn why. When waking up, he finds himself engulfed in total darkness and he has no idea where he is or why he's here. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_6126185e | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_62434fe2 | type |
Sanity Slippage | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_62434fe2 | comment |
Sanity Slippage: The narrator has one as he's forced to watch the pendulum which is going to kill him descending very slowly. He gets better. | |
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| The Pit and the Pendulum | hasFeature |
The Pit and the Pendulum / int_62434fe2 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_7a53b67d | type |
Sinister Surveillance | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_7a53b67d | comment |
Sinister Surveillance: The narrator knows he's being watched and every move of his is tracked. | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_7a53b67d | featureApplicability |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_7a53b67d | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_7eaf99d | type |
Malevolent Architecture | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_7eaf99d | comment |
Malevolent Architecture: And that's putting it mildly. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_7eaf99d | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_a1b27125 | type |
Nervous Wreck | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_a1b27125 | comment |
Nervous Wreck: We can hardly blame the narrator to be one. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_a1b27125 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_b1346878 | type |
Fate Worse than Death | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_b1346878 | comment |
Fate Worse than Death: The narrator considers falling into the pit a much worse punishment than burning to death on the red-hot iron walls. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_b1346878 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_bee8baee | type |
Faint in Shock | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_bee8baee | comment |
Faint in Shock: The unnamed protagonist faints when he learns that he's been condemned to death. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_bee8baee | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_c3c18143 | type |
Hope Spot | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_c3c18143 | comment |
Hope Spot: The narrator escaped the pendulum and he's freed himself! And then the walls start closing in. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_c3c18143 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_ca87e3ec | type |
No Name Given | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_ca87e3ec | comment |
No Name Given: The narrator remains unnamed. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_ca87e3ec | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_cd8709e | type |
Pendulum of Death | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_cd8709e | comment |
Pendulum of Death: This story is the Trope Maker for this particular Death Trap. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_cd8709e | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_cdfe12c3 | type |
Nothing Is Scarier | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_cdfe12c3 | comment |
Nothing Is Scarier: We never do find out what's in the pit. All we get is a vague description of a "decayed fungus" smell and some barely-visible gritty water. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_cdfe12c3 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_d5b7a6e3 | type |
Denied Food as Punishment | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_d5b7a6e3 | comment |
Denied Food as Punishment: It's implied that the narrator starves since a while, and at one point he's deprived of water. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_d5b7a6e3 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_d9e9ad7e | type |
The Cavalry | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_d9e9ad7e | comment |
The Cavalry: The protagonist is saved at literally the last moment by French soldiers who have captured Toledo. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_d9e9ad7e | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f64a9cf7 | type |
Earn Your Happy Ending | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f64a9cf7 | comment |
Earn Your Happy Ending: The narrator is rescued at the end. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f64a9cf7 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f769e261 | type |
Anything but That! | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f769e261 | comment |
Anything but That!: As the walls close in and get hotter, the narrator exclaims, "any death but that of the pit!" | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f769e261 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f88f2449 | type |
Downer Beginning | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f88f2449 | comment |
Downer Beginning: We open the narration with a sick, traumatized main character who faints from shock and exhaustion when he learns he's condemned to death. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_f88f2449 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_fb7bc4a8 | type |
Never Trust a Title | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_fb7bc4a8 | comment |
Never Trust a Title: 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”. | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum / int_fb7bc4a8 | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_ffd816e7 | type |
Everything Trying to Kill You | |
| The Pit and the Pendulum / int_ffd816e7 | comment |
Everything Trying to Kill You: Let's see: a pit that you can't see in the dark, a giant pendulum, closing walls that burn you... | |
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ItemName | |
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The Pit and the Pendulum |
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