The Pit and the Pendulum creates a theme of suspense. Throughout the story, Poe develops eternal suspense leading up to the execution. History is based on the human mind's craving for information. It does this by giving the reader the perspective of the prisoner, who has no useful knowledge. Furthermore, when the narrator begins to describe his suffering, he cannot finish his thoughts. A quote from the story: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay “The agony of suspense finally became intolerable, and I cautiously moved forward, with arms outstretched and eyes bulging in the hope of catching some faint ray of light.” This little snippet of the story shows that the narrator also feels the suspense of the events that happen to him, and when. About halfway through the story, as he is tied to a wooden board and a sharp pendulum slowly swings towards him, threatening to rip out his heart. This scene took much longer than expected if a pendulum intended to swing with enough force to kill him, and in the process caused readers to build suspense of impending death. Then, in a heart-pounding “ending” for our narrator, he comes up with an ingenious idea, saving himself just in time. Leaning towards the end, the walls begin to laboriously converge towards the pit, pushing our narrator along in the process. with it. Readers realize that even as the walls move at a crawl we all know he will eventually be pushed to his death, we suspensefully hope that he might have another idea just in time, forcing the reader to move forward to know what happens. Finally: “I felt I was teetering on the edge – I looked away” Keep in mind: This is just one example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The end of the paragraph left us all in suspense and made us feel like we needed to find out what happened. Throughout the story Poe manipulates every element to create a sense of suspense.