Name: Period: Date: DUE at the END of CLASS! POE PART #1

Name: Period: Date: DUE AT THE END OF CLASS! POE PART #1

Before Reading Summary: Like many of Poe’s stories, “The Pit and the Pendulum” (1842) is told through the eyes of one person, the narrator. In this case, the narrator has been sentenced to die by the Spanish Inquisition. We are not told his name or his crime. We do get a sense of what it was liked to be tortured and the affect it can have on a person. We also know that he survives it, since he has lived to tell us the gruesome and horrific tale!

Vocabulary Words to Study:

• Inquisition—a court appointed by the Roman Catholic Church in Spain.
• dungeon—underground room or cell in which prisoner swere held.
• captors—people who have captured a person or thing.
• tomb—grave or other burial place.
• torture—giving of severe pain as punishment or as a way of forcing people to do something against their will.
• staggered—walked unsteadily.
• clammy vapor—damp, cold air.
• decaying—rotting.
• doom—fate or death.
• monks—men who give up all worldly things and lead lives of religious duty.
• pendulum—weight hung at a central point so that it is free to swing back and forth. A tall clock is often timed by a pendulum.
• frantic—wild.
• craved—deeply desired.
• inevitably—unavoidably.
• despair—feeling of total defeat.
• gnawing—chewing.
• brink—edge.

Questions:

1-Make an inference: Based on the title, what do you think the story might be about? Why?

2-Come back to this question- what “sensory details” create pathos, or a feeling of terror?

3-Who is the author of the story?

4-Poe explored such themes as: ______, ______, and ______.

5-His literary influence was great, especially on the development of: ______and ______.

6-What does the inscription (in Latin mean)? Look at the bottom of the page:

7-What is a Jocobin?

8-The narrator was sick unto ______with that of large agony.

9-He has just found out that he has been sentence to ______. We are not told his crime (p. 249).

10-The inquisitorial voices seemed merged into one ______.

11-The narrator says that he saw the ______of the black-robed judges. What color were they? ______How are they described? (p. 250).

12-Can people really have this color of lips? Make an inference: What does this tell you about the narrator and his perception of what is happening?

13-How is the setting described? How are the drapes described? How many candles are described?

14-When the narrator sees the galvanic battery, then he is overcome with deadly nausea, and he almost has lost hope because no help is coming for him. At this point he almost hopes for death “like a rich musical note, the thought of what sweet rest there must be in the grave” (p. 250). However, in the next paragraph, things begin to change and he begins to have hope. He says “else there is not immortality for man.” Why do you think he would still have hope in a situation like this one? Is there any reason for him to hope? Explain your answer.

15-What two stages does the narrator describe? Explain your answer (p. 250).

16-The condemned usually perished at the autos-da-fe (p. 252) What is the autos-da-fe?

17-On page 252, the narrator learns that he is not going to be killed right away. In fact, he is going to be held in the prisons for now. He states, “had I been remanded to my dungeon, to await the next sacrifice, which would not have taken place for many month?” He is at the “condemned cells at Toledo.”(p. 252). How are these described?

18-Once he finds out that he is going to live, then he begins to explore. He counts the area around where he is, so that he can get back to it. Also, he tears a piece of his ______for the purpose of using it to get back (p. 253).

19-At about line 180-200, he falls to avoid the “abyss” and avoids falling into a ______.

20-At about 200, he states: “’I saw clearly the doom which had prepared for me, and congratulated myself upon the timely accident by which I had escaped.” (line 254). Another ______, and the world had seen me no more.

Answer the questions below as a way to deepen your interpretation of the selection.

21. What does the narrator fear most? What is your reaction to his harrowing plight? Explain.

22. Which of Poe’s storytelling techniques do you consider most effective in creating a sense of fear and desperation? Why?

23. What do the dungeon and the events of the story suggest about the purpose and motivation of the torturers and of the Inquisition itself?

24. How do you rationalize the narrator’s feelings of hope while facing certain death?

24. What was your first response to the short story?

After reading Summary: One of the first things he encounters is a pit. In the second part, he will encounter the Pendulum. Remember, this story reveals his plight of surviving torture.