Question

Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of this story.

Read this excerpt from “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe.

Inch by inch—line by line—with a descent only appreciable at intervals that seemed ages—down and still down it came! Days passed—it might have been that many days passed—ere it swept so closely over me as to fan me with its acrid breath.

How does the pacing of this passage most affect the story?

It creates a tense atmosphere that conveys the narrator's abject fear.
It injects surprise into the story, which highlights the narrator's shock.
It creates a highly-charged atmosphere that conveys the narrator's anger.
It injects mystery into the story, which highlights the narrator's confusion.

Answer 1

The correct answer is option one.

Edgar Allan Poe, in "The Pit and The Pendulum," uses the first person point of view and describes the tortures of the narrator with an exhaustive, consistent and continuous tempo in motion. As a result, he intends to convey the feeling of anguish, terror and suspense that the own narrator goes through at the same time he suffers from severe mental and physical pain.