Poe’s narrator tells us almost nothing of his past; his personal qualities are revealed through his responses to the horrors of imprisonment. what do we know about him? how is his background revealed?

In "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe, we immediately learn that the narrator was sentenced to death by a panel of pale, black-robed judges. The words "inquisitorial" and "revolution" hit as an allusion to the Spanish Requisition - an instituition of Catholic government known for persecution in Spain, "... the sound of the  inquisitorial voices seemed merged in one dreamy  indeterminate hum. It conveyed to my soul the idea of  revolution ...", suggesting that our narrator is being prosecuted for religous reasons. He wakes up in a dark cell and is confused because he was expected his execution to autos-da-fé, an execution that was usually performed as a hanging, which confirms that he is a victim of the Spanish Requisition.

His responses to the pit and pendulum is mostly of horror. He viewed the pit as a punishment of the inquisitors; "... typical of hell and regarded by rumor as the Ultima  Thule of all their punishments". Yet he shows to be persistent, humorous and optimistic despite all odds.

"Milder! I half smiled in my  agony as I thought of such application of such a term."

"...  there rushed to my mind a halfformed thought of joy—of hope."

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