The Pit and the Pendulum

The Pit and the Pendulum is probably one of the most iconic tales by Edgar Alan Poe in existence, it is a very tense story that really keeps you waiting on the edge of your seat. One of my favorite parts of the story is that it really puts you in a very unfamiliar setting, the very idea of being tortured in such a strange and frightening way is quite disturbing and the fact that there is not only the constant threat of torture but also as we get to the part of the story with the titular pendulum the tension is cranked up to a ten. All of this comes together to make the ending quite dissatisfying in my opinion, having the character escape at the very last second seems to annul this sense of mystery and dread.