PIT AND THE PENDULUM is another one of the Poe-stories that focuses almost entirely upon the setting in which the character finds himself. However, whereas a setting like the House of Usher has become monstrous simply by dint of absorbing the nature of the corrupt Usher family, the prison-cell that encloses both the Pit and the Pendulum has been designed to be monstrous by its creators, the torturers of the Inquisition.
As with many Poe narrators, the narrator remains a nugatory presence, even when he shows more cleverness than most Poe characters in escaping the peril of the descending pendulum.
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