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Enlightenment ideals will triumph over superstition.
“The Pit and the Pendulum” can be read as a story of humanist and Enlightenment ideals triumphing over the horrors of superstition and tyranny. The narrator exhibits traits of the European Enlightenment. During his trial, he equates the sounds of the people with revolution, a word that evokes the American and French revolutions and the overthrow of absolute monarchies. He also mentions a galvanic battery, which stands as a symbol for electricity and hence to scientific innovation. In contrast, the Inquisition is portrayed as irrational and superstitious. Poe never makes clear to the reader what exactly the narrator has been accused of. This omission serves to make the brutal torture even more senseless. The monks rearrange the chamber and drug the narrator, manipulating space and time into a nightmarish and illogical world. There is no light, no thought of redemption, no progress to be made in the vault of the Inquisition.
Despite the Inquisition’s attempt to manipulate and thwart the narrator, he refuses to succumb. Even in his weakest moments, he attempts to learn about his surroundings, mapping the chamber instead of languishing in despair. He uses logic and rational thought to discover a way out of his bonds, escaping the pendulum. Despite the Inquisition’s efforts, he resists being pushed into the pit. The pit can be seen as representing hell, and in resisting falling into the pit himself, the narrator symbolically resists the damnation the Inquisition wants for him, cementing that what he stands for is not worthy of hell. Finally, as France at the time styled itself as a republic that had been remade according to Enlightenment ideals, the narrator’s eventual liberation by General Lasalle confirms the triumph of the Enlightenment.
The human spirit will always fight for survival.
Despite the harrowing nature of the narrator’s ordeal, he exhibits a remarkable persistence in his fight for survival. From the moment the narrator regains consciousness in the prison, he stays active and alert instead of wallowing in despair. Even when the narrator explicitly says he knows what he’s doing won’t help his escape (e.g., exploring the confines of the prison), he prefers to stay active rather than give up. He continues to eat because he’s hungry, even though he believes death is imminent. Although multiple times he considers the pendulum a mercy and even imagines straining toward the blade, he ultimately searches for a way to escape. When the monks attempt to use the heated metal walls to force him to the pit, he nevertheless holds on to solid ground, determined to survive for as long as possible.
The monks, on the other hand, do everything they can to undermine the narrator’s spirit. They have him wake in a pitch-dark room to make him believe that he is already dead. They drug him and change the walls of the room to make him question his own sense of reality. They offer him heavily spiced food without providing water to convince him to forgo eating. They use the agonizingly slow descent of the pendulum to terrify him with the inevitability of his mortality. And finally, they use the heated, moving walls to convince him to jump into the pit of his own accord. None of these tactics is strong enough to break the narrator’s resolve. The narrator’s consistent, seemingly hopeless struggle for life thus demonstrates the strength of the human spirit.
The Inquisition was a barbaric institution despite its religious veneer.
The narrator makes it very clear that despite the inquisitors calling themselves monks and believing themselves to be the arbiters of religious righteousness, they are more aligned with demons and hell itself. The monks’ barbarism is evident in the way they toy with their prisoners, causing mental anguish. The narrator describes how not knowing what his fate will be is torturous. He also notes that if he were to fall into the pit, it would likely not kill him instantly because the monks do not allow for a quick, merciful death. Additionally, the monks watch on as the narrator lies prone, facing the pendulum, giving the nightmarish affair a voyeuristic quality. The paintings of various torture methods on the false metal walls of the chamber further suggest a pride in their work. These actions associate the Inquisition more with sadism and violence than piety.
Beyond these concrete actions, the story also metaphorically associates the Inquisition with hell and the narrator with Christ. After hearing the sentence of death, the narrator hallucinates that the seven candles before him are seven angels, but this vision fades into “meaningless specters.” This change suggests that the Inquisition’s religiosity is meaningless. No appeal to God will be helpful here. When light fills the prison, it has a “sulfurous” quality, evoking hell’s brimstone. The monks’ desire for the narrator to fall in the pit is reminiscent of how demons want humanity to fall. Furthermore, the prone position of the narrator bound by straps is visually similar to Christ on the cross, which would symbolically position the Inquisition on the side of the Romans who crucified Christ, not of his disciples. Finally, Lasalle’s entrance, to the sound of trumpets, evokes the trumpets of angels announcing Judgment Day. The Inquisition may claim religious authority, but their actions reveal their true nature.
