Question

Write a compare and contrast essay explaining how Poe drew upon the history of the Inquisition in his short story “The Pit and the Pendulum." The essay should address the following points:

How accurate is Poe’s account of the Inquisition?
How is the Inquisition appropriate for the genre of horror?
How important is the history of Inquisition to Poe’s short story?

Answer 1

I think its acurate cause he did live it and then write about it so i would say accurate. the Inquisition is on the line of a horor story because poes story is telling you people where punished and killed. poes story is a peice of history it explains the Inquisition.The unnamed narrator has been sentenced to death and relates his violent experience, which despite being a fictional account of an unlikely event, it´s an accurate depiction of how violent the Inquisition was. In this sense, Inquisition is a great subject or setting for the genre of horror, given its explicitly violent events, which Poe enhances to conceive a suspenseful story, with only an implicit political agenda to condemn the Inquisition.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

The Inquisition is the historical context that frames Poe’s short story.

Step-by-step explanation:

The unnamed narrator has been sentenced to death and relates his violent experience, which despite being a fictional account of an unlikely event, it´s an accurate depiction of how violent the Inquisition was. In this sense, Inquisition is a great subject or setting for the genre of horror, given its explicitly violent events, which Poe enhances to conceive a suspenseful story, with only an implicit political agenda to condemn the Inquisition.