The Best of Edgar A. Poe

Name _______________________________________________________ Date________________________

The Pit and the Pendulum

1. What is the first scene the narrator describes?

2. After "swooning" and describing various states of being conscious, where does the narrator come to his
senses?

3. How did the narrator first explore his dungeon?

4. In what way did he venture to explore after his first circuit? What problem did he encounter?

5. After they realized he would now cautiously avoid the pit, what fate did the narrator's captors plan for him?

6. What else was in the room with the narrator?

7. How did the narrator get free from the table under the pendulum?

8. After the narrator became free from the table, he was subjected to yet another means toward death. What was
it?

9. Just as he was about to be forced into the pit, what happened?

10. One of Poe's trademarks is that he uses all of his literary tools to produce a single effect for the reader. What
is the effect given by this story?

11. What effect does the ending (the narrator's being saved) have on us as readers?

12. One of Poe's favorite conflicts is that of madness vs. reason. How is that conflict resolved in his story?

13. There are many references to "hope" in this story. According to Poe, is there hope?

14. Where is the climax of this story?

15. In what ways does this story show gothic influences?

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues

Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any
clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the
underlined words mean on the lines provided.

1. I saw them writhe with a deadly locution.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

2 -3. ...I have conjured up remembrances which the lucid reason of a later epoch assures me could have had
reference only to that condition of seeming unconsciousness.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

4. This process, however, afforded me no means of ascertaining the dimensions of my dungeon...

__________________________________________________________________________________________

5-6. My cognizance of the pit had become known to the inquisitorial agents--the pit whose horrors had been
destined for so bold a recusant as myself...

__________________________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________________

7. ...I felt very--oh! inexpressibly--sick and weak, as if through long inanition.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

8. In their voracity, the vermin frequently fastened their sharp fangs in my fingers.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Part II: Determining the Meaning -- Match the vocabulary words to their definitions.

___ 1. locution                        A. Wild hunger

___ 2. lucid                             B. Easily understood; sane or rational

___ 3. epoch                           C. Exhaustion, as of from lack of nourishment

___ 4. ascertaining                  D. Awareness

___ 5. cognizance                   E. Style of speaking

___ 6. recusant                        F. Age; time

___ 7. inanition                       G. A non-conformist

___ 8. voracity                        H. Finding out