Edgar Allan Poe's The Pit and the Pendulum: A Summary

As the pendulum swings down, the narrator notices rats emerging from the pit, drawn to the meat the captors provided. Upon closer inspection, he sees the pendulum is shaped like a scythe, forming a sharp crescent as it descends. Despite the dire situation, the narrator believes he can still survive. Just before the pendulum slices him, he has an idea: he rubs the meat from the plate onto the strap binding him to the platform. The rats are attracted and begin gnawing at the bonds, allowing the narrator to break free. As he escapes, the pendulum retracts, suggesting he is being watched.

As the pendulum descends further, the narrator realizes its bottom edge is razor-sharp, designed to cut him in half. After much anxiety and fainting, he devises an escape plan. He rubs the spiced meat on the bands tying him down, allowing the rats to chew him free just in time.

However, he is not truly free. The walls begin to glow, and the room's shape changes, revealing that he is being pushed into the pit by the closing walls.

His last-minute rescue is the story’s climax, the moment of crisis toward which the tortuously slow action has been building.

The narrator is strapped to a board, with only his head and left arm free. He sees a figure of Time painted on the ceiling, holding a razor-sharp pendulum instead of a scythe. The pendulum swings back and forth, gradually approaching the narrator’s chest, leading him to realize it will eventually kill him.

As the narrator faces impending death again, he screams in despair just as the walls are about to push him over the edge.