Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- We know next-to-nothing about our narrator, except for the fact that he's been sentenced to death by the Inquisition; we don't even know why he's been locked up. Given that, how are we supposed to relate to him? Does he deserve our sympathy?
- How would the story change if it were told from a different perspective – say, from that of the inquisitors?
- What can we take away from "The Pit and the Pendulum?" Is it simply a "horror story" or something more?
- Why does Poe choose to make his narrator a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition? What makes him uniquely qualified for the job?
- Is it a cop out to have General Lasalle swoop in at the last second and save the day?
- What's the most horrifying moment of this story? And at what point did you have the most hope?