Question

Read the selection below from the short story “The Pit and the Pendulum” by Edgar Allan Poe and answer the question that follows. Amid the thought of the fiery destruction that impended, the idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like balm. I rushed to its deadly brink. I threw my straining vision below. The glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost recesses. Yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse to comprehend the meaning of what I saw. At length it forced—it wrestled its way into my soul—it burned itself in upon my shuddering reason. O for a voice to speak!—oh, horror!—oh, any horror but this! With a shriek I rushed from the margin and buried my face in my hands—weeping bitterly. How is the madness of the narrator portrayed in the passage above?

Answer 1

Characterization of the narrator and illustration of the setting are strong here, though learning more about the narrator--his limited courage to enter the unknown, but his abject fear at what is revealed-- tells a lot about HIM as a complex human being and prepares the reader for how he will cope with what comes next.