Copy of RL.CS.5 : The Pit and the Pendulum (9/2/2025)

Excerpt from "The Pit and Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe
"I was sick -- sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me. The sentence -- the dread sentence of death -- was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears. After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum."

Yet, for a while, I saw; but with how terrible an exaggeration! I saw the lips of the black-robed judges. They appeared to me white -- whiter than the sheet upon which I trace these words -- and thin even to grotesqueness; thin with the intensity of their expression of firmness -- of immovable resolution -- of stern contempt of human torture. I saw that the decrees of what to me was Fate, were still issuing from those lips. I saw them writhe with a deadly locution. I saw them fashion the syllables of my name; and I shuddered because no sound succeeded. I saw, too, for a few moments of delirious horror, the soft and nearly imperceptible waving of the sable draperies which enwrapped the walls of the apartment. And then my vision fell upon the seven tall candles upon the table. At first they wore the aspect of charity, and seemed white and slender angels who would save me; but then, all at once, there came a most deadly nausea over my spirit, and I felt every fibre in my frame thrill as if I had touched the wire of a galvanic battery, while the angel forms became meaningless spectres, with heads of flame, and I saw that from them there would be no help.*

0

How does the author structure the opening of this passage to create tension?

1

The dash marks in the passage primarily serve to:

0

How does the passage's structure shift from beginning to end?

1

Read the excerpt
The sentence - the dread sentence of death - was the last of distinct accentuation which reached my ears. After that, the sound of the inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy indeterminate hum. It conveyed to my soul the idea of revolution - perhaps from its association in my mind with the burr of a mill wheel. This only for a brief period; for presently I heard no more. Then silence, and stillness, and night were the universe.

The narrator's mental state appears to be:

1

What effect does the repetition of "I saw" create in the second paragraph?

0

How does the author structure the opening of this passage to create tension?

The dash marks in the passage primarily serve to:

How does the passage's structure shift from beginning to end?

What effect does the repetition of "I saw" create in the second paragraph?

How does the structure of the passage contribute to its overall effect?