The Pit and the Pendulum and you find an appeal to the nerves by tawdry physical affrightments." The Pit and the Pendulum "The Pit and the Pendulum" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in 1842 in the literary annual "The Gift: A Christmas and New Year's Present for 1843". The story is about the torments endured by a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition, though Poe skews historical facts. The narrator of the story describes his experience of being tortured. The story is especially effective at inspiring fear in the reader because of its heavy focus on the senses, such
The Inquisition Tribunal Spanish Inquisition. By the time period in which this painting was most likely completed, Goya was long finished with painting sunny pictures in the rococo style. He had suffered a grave illness in 1792 that left him permanently deaf. This crisis marked a turning point in his work; instead of light-hearted decorations he painted strong essays on the turmoil and raw emotion of man’s inhumanity to man. "The Inquisition Tribunal" is one of a series of paintings marked by an instance of cruelty—here in the Inquisition Tribunal, the threat of being burned at the stake, symbolised by the pointed hats