"People imagine things that are not really there" is why people drew pictures of Nessie after seeing a fence post. The tourists were either not expecting a sighting or were expecting a sighting too much. So when the fence post rose up in the water, the tourists imagined a monster instead of a piece of wood. Because of the myth of Nessie in Loch Ness, tourists were led to believe that what they saw was could only be a monster.
Some of the elements which can be considered to be gothic in "the pit and the pendulum" are darkness, internal struggle, horror and terror experienced by the main character, lack of freedom, torture, etc.
Are there any options?
If not:
"Why do you always do that!?!"
would be different in tone from
"Why do you always do that?"
