The Pit and the Pendulum

The narrator in "The Pit and the Pendulum" examines his surroundings by

• lighting a match so that he can see

• feeling his way around the cell

• running around the chamber

• yelling to hear echoes

In "The Pit and the Pendulum," why do the torturers put out food and water when the narrator first succumbs to fatigue?

• to poison the narrator

• to prolong the torture

• to elicit a confession

• to comply with the law

How does the narrator free himself from his bindings?

• waits until the pendulum cuts the bonds and quickly rolls out of the way

• screams and screams until they release him

• pays a great deal of money and is released

• smears meat on the bonds that hold him, and the rats chew through them

At the end of the story, the

• narrator plunges to his death in the pit

• inquisitors release him because he is really innocent

• narrator is saved from the pit by a French general

• prison burns, and in the turmoil the prisoner is able to escape

What is Poe's tone in the story?

• Serious and boring

• Happy and Joyfull

• Humorous and light 

• Dark, Serious, and Urgent

Choose the best paraphrase for the following sentence: "The sentence-the dread sentence of death-was the last distinct accentuation which reached my ears."

• My death sentence was the last thing I heard clearly.

• I distinctly heard a sentence with the word death in it.

• My torturers wanted to pronounce a death sentence.

• Prisoners rarely heard about their own death sentences.

The story is told from which point of view?

• The third-person limited point of view allows the narrator to describe the setting and events from a distance.

• omniscient view of the author

• second person point of view places the reader alongside the narrator in the tale of horror.

• The first-person point of view limits the narrative to what the narrator knows and senses, thus increasing the fear and suspense.

What aspect of Poe's style helps you understand the narrator's feelings in the following sentence: "I had been reserved for the latter. By long suffering my nerves had been unstrung, until I trembled at the sound of my own voice, and had become in every respect a fitting subject for the species of torture which awaited me."

• repeated words

• italicized words

• grotesque images

• first-person point of view

How does Poe's style help you understand the meaning of the following sentence: "Inch by inch-line by line-with a descent only appreciable at intervals that seemed ages-down and still down it came!"

• Grotesque images convey the horror of the narrator's situation.

• Unusual word choices cause confusion about what is happening.

• The first-person point of view conceals the torturers' plan.

• Repeated words add to the narrator's sense of desperation.

Choose the best paraphrase for the following sentence: "The surcingle enveloped my limbs and body close in all directions-save in the path of the destroying crescent."

• The bindings wrapped only the part of my body where the pendulum would swing.

• The bindings wrapped my entire body tightly except where the pendulum would swing.

• The pendulum is going to hit my body after it cuts through the bindings.

• The pendulum would swing through the wrappings that covered my body.