Lemon Bay High School



Guided Reading Questions“The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan PoeBackground: “The Pit and the Pendulum” is set during the period of the Spanish Inquisition, which was established in 1480. The Spanish Inquisition jailed, tortured, tried, and executed thousands of people for heresy, or having opinions that differed from Catholic Church doctrine. Poe uses this setting to convey the physical and psychological horror a man experiences who is convicted and sentenced to death under the courts of the Inquisition. Poe takes liberty with the history of the period to create his story.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 8-11) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5One way writers create dramatic tension is to begin the story in the middle of the action, rather than describing the setting or introducing the characters. What is happening in lines 8-11 of the story? Describe the dramatic tension this opening scene creates.Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 8-13) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5, 1112.SL.1.1This story is an example of gothic literature, which explores the dark side of human nature. One way that Gothic writers explore the darkness of the human psyche is by having their characters experience disturbing changes in consciousness, such as fear, irrationality, or madness. Reread lines 8-13 and discuss the narrator’s states of consciousness and how it changes.Critical Vocabulary: indeterminate: The narrator could no longer understand the judges’ voices. The narrator had just heard his death sentence and was so overwhelmed with emotion, he could no longer understand the judges’ words.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 12-23) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Look back at the description of the judges’ lips. The judges are speaking, but the narrator can only see them, not hear them. Reread lines 15-23 and determine what creates an atmosphere of horror, citing specific examples from the text.Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 42-54) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5, 1112.SL.1.1Notice how the narrator’s state of consciousness has changed in the first 42 lines. He has gone from feeling sick to not being able to hear to fainting entirely. Lines 42-54 also give information about the narrator’s state of consciousness. Reread lines 42-54 and infer what a theme of the story might be.Critical Vocabulary: lucid: When the narrator remembers details of the time immediately after his trial, his reason is clear and unclouded. The narrator’s mind is not lucid while he is being taken from the scene of his trial to his prison; he is semiconscious. Critical Vocabulary: tumultuous: When the narrator regained consciousness, his heart was beating very hard. The description of a tumultuously beating heart suggests that the heart is beating wildly and irregularly.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 93-103) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5From the time the sentence is pronounced on the narrator through line 92, the reader is trapped in the narrator’s semiconscious mind and only gets vague hints about his situation. What effect does withholding further details about the narrator’s situation have on the reader?What new details about the narrator’s situation are revealed in lines 93-100?In lines 93-100, the narrator is afraid to open his eyes and speculates about what he might see when he does. Why might Poe have wanted to delay telling readers what the narrator’s surroundings look like?Notice the phrase “my worst thoughts” in line 101. To what fear does the phrase refer?Look back over Poe’s description of his surroundings in lines 102-103. Identify two phrases that contribute to Gothic themes.Critical Vocabulary: supposition: Although he was in complete darkness and solitude, the narrator did not assume that he was dead. He rejected the supposition that he might be dead because he had thoughts and feelings about what he was experiencing. Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 111-120) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Look over the narrator’s deductions about his fate and fainting fit in lines 111-120. How do these lines build dramatic tension?Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 119-126) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Reread lines 119-126 to find evidence of the narrator’s terror. Give specific examples.Make a generalization about what frightens the narrator most.Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 128-140) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Look at lines 128-130. Why is it that the narrator “breathed more freely?”Reread lines 128-139. Does the narrator’s hopeful state of mind continue? How can you tell?What happens to cause this change from hope to despair?Critical Vocabulary: insuperable: The narrator feels that the challenge of measuring his cell cannot be overcome. Other tasks that may be insuperable include figuring out how much time had passed and escaping the cell.Critical Vocabulary: prostrate: The narrator fell facedown on the floor. He is so exhausted that he could not even move to a more comfortable position. Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 179-196) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL1.3, 1112.RL.2.5There is an atmosphere of terror that pervades the description of the narrator’s discovery of the pit. Vivid sensory details are essential to the creation of this atmosphere. Reread lines 179-196 and note the sensory details that contribute to the atmosphere. To which senses does each of these details appeal? Give specific examples from the text.Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 204-201) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3Remember that what the narrator fears most is the unknown. Why might the unknown be more frightening than something that can be known and seen?Reread lines 204-210. Which do you think the narrator fears more, physical agony or psychological horror? Support your opinion with specific evidence from the text.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 224-260) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Does the narrator find his prison more or less horrible than he had supposed?How does it differ from what he originally thought? Cite specific details from the text to support your answers.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 251-259) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Look at the narrator’s description of the paintings on the cell walls. One way writers create atmosphere is by using words with strong connotations or emotional associations. Reread lines 251-259 and list the words with strong connotations of horror.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 261-272) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5The narrator spends two long paragraphs describing his prison before he tells that reader that he is tied up. Why does the author wait to let the reader know the narrator was bound?What other details are revealed in this paragraph?Interpret Images (lines 275-305) 1112.RL.2.5Look at the painted figure of Time in line 276. Time is sometimes represented by Father Time, and old man holding a scythe—a tool with a long curved blade for cutting crops. Why might the author have chosen to include this image?Identify sensory details describing the pendulum (lines 295-305) and explain their effect.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 307-310) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Remember that we, as the reader, know little about the narrator’s crime. Look at the sentence in lines 307-310. Pay attention to the narrator’s description of himself as a “bold recusant,” or heretic, and the information about the pit as the worst of the Inquisition’s punishments. Describe the effect on the reader of leaving the reasons for which the narrator was condemned unspecified.Interpret Images (lines 318-325) 1112.RL.2.5The pendulum is attached to a painted image of Father Time, who symbolizes the passage of time and the death and decay it brings. Is it fitting that the image of Father Time is attached to the pendulum? Why or why not? Use specific evidence from the text to support your answer.Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 334-344) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5The narrator experiences emotional peaks and lows as he lies waiting for death. Describe the narrator’s emotions and explain the effect on the story.Critical Vocabulary: pertinacity: The narrator keeps his mind on his belief that for several minutes the pendulum will cut only his robe. He chooses to focus on the pendulum cutting his robe with such a “pertinacity of attention” because he is afraid to think about what will happen after the pendulum cuts the robe.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 358-377) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Notice that the last three paragraphs on page 258 being with the word down. How does the repetition of the word down at the beginning of each paragraph increase the dramatic tension?How does the narrator’s state of mind change as the pendulum descends?Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 381-402) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5“It was hope—the hope that triumphs on the rack—that whispers to the death-condemned even in the dungeons of the Inquisition.” What might the narrator mean by saying that it was hope that made him shrink away from the sharp blade?What gives the narrator hope in lines 381-402?Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines389-395) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Look at the first five sentences in lines 389-395 in which the narrator thinks about the possibility of using the pendulum blade to cut the cord with which he is bound. Why does Poe include these sentences and what effect do they have on the reader?Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 428-432) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5How does Poe convey the sensation of the swarming rats? Support your answer with specific details from the text.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 470-475) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5What is happening in lines 470-475?Explain which sensory details give readers the information they need to infer that the walls are being heated by fire.Why does Poe use sensory details from which readers must infer the situation, rather than stating it directly?Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 483-489) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Remember that the narrator fears the unknown. Reread lines 483-489 in which the narrator is able to see into the pit. How does Poe convey the horror of the pit?Why do you think Poe might choose not to tell readers what the narrator saw in the pit?Determine Themes: Romanticism (lines 508-513) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5So far, these are the things that have frightened the narrator: the dark, the unknown, the pendulum, and the heated iron walls. Now, what is the narrator’s ultimate fear?Describe the narrator’s state of mind as he teeters on the brink of the pit. Give specific details from the text to support your answer.Critical Vocabulary: avert: When he is about to fall into the pit, the narrator looks away. He doesn’t want to see whatever is waiting for him in the pit.Analyze Structure: Atmosphere and Dramatic Tension (lines 514-519) 1112.RL.1.2, 1112.RL.1.3, 1112.RL.2.5Why do you think Poe might have ended the story so abruptly?Do you think the protagonist is actually rescued? Why or why not? ................
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