The Pit and the Pendulum 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 as sound, emphasizing its reality, unlike many of Poe's stories which are
Black Legend of the Spanish Inquisition clergy were also far more likely to be found guilty and convicted. While for the lay Spaniard who had no education to put their thoughts on paper nor the power to spread them, the Inquisition was far more compassionate and lenient than the civil alternative (the civil tribunals and the King's prisons, with no food and unrestricted use of torture), for the powerful the Inquisition was far worse than what they were used to in civil courts (no accountability at all). The sectors the Spanish Inquisition was designed to address and control were also the same sectors that had the