Oliver Doerr

11/14/18
Mr. Stovall
ELA 11
Pit and the Pendulum Guiding Questions

1) The dramatic tension that this opening creates is dramatic tension because it is a mystery of
what has happened and where the character is located. Many questions arise during these first
four lines of the story.

2) The narrator's state of consciousness was being slowly regained however the main character
thought he was losing his own senses.

3) From lines 15-23, an atmosphere of horror is created by being very vague so it leaves the
reader's imagination to imagine what will happen next. An example from the story would be
between lines 17-20, “​They appeared to me white—whiter than the sheet upon which I trace
these words—and thin even to grotesqueness; thin with the intensity of their expression of
firmness—of immoveable resolution—of stern contempt of human torture.”

4) The theme of the story based on lines 42-54 is about what is fake and what is real.

5) By keeping the story vague, Poe hooks the reader’s in by letting us figure out what is
happening raising the suspense.

6) The lines 111-120 help build dramatic tension because by Poe giving the readers details of
what usually happens to those sentenced to death. It only makes the narrators near fate seem
more realistic.

20) Poe includes sentences 389-395 to show that there is some hope for the narrator to live.
These sentences effect the reader by making the tone of the story a bit more uplifted or happier.

21) Poe might have kept the information in lines 402-409 to show how not aware the narrator's
state of mind was at the time.

22) Poe convey the sensation of the swarming rats by using sentences with very vivid sensory
detail words. For example, “​thronging pressure”.
23) The sensory detail of feel and touch is being used by having the narrator state that he is
breathing in the vapor of heated iron, and how it is starting to turn a crimson red color. Poe uses
sensory details rather than stating it directly to build more suspense for the reader.

24) Poe conveys the horror of the pit to the readers by saying this one line and conveying this
point to the reader, “He had a hard time understanding what he saw.” This tiny bit of vagueness
can trigger many of different thoughts of horror to the reader.

25) The narrator’s ultimate fear is whatever he saw in the pit. The narrator’s state of mind as he
teeters on the brink of the pit is a state of hopelessness. Poe states, “​I struggled no more, but the
agony of my soul found vent in one loud, long, and final scream of despair. I felt that I tottered
upon the brink—I ​averted​ my eyes….”