The Pit and the Pendulum Summary

The narrator begins with a disjointed account of what appears to be his sentence at the hands of the Inquisition. He drifts in and out of consciousness, pondering how restful death would be. He then describes parts of his trial, remembers a period of feeling and thinking nothing, then of forgetting.

When he is seemingly in his right mind, he begins by saying that now that he is in his place of punishment, he has not yet opened his eyes. He is not tied up, and he is lying on his back. When he does open his eyes, his worst fears are realized - he can see nothing. He is lying in complete and utter darkness. He does not know or cannot remember his sentence, but he knows that those condemned to death are usually...