In the story of "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe, what does the "descent of the soul into Hades" mean?

This
quotation occurs at the end of the first
paragraph of the story, and it is acomparing that which
the author is going
through to death. In mythology, Hades is the realm of the dead in the

afterlife and does not necessarily have any concept of torment or punishment associated
with it.
However, in Christian tradition, the term "Hades" is the equivalent
of hell, a place
of eternal suffering where unbelievers go when they
die.

When the narrator
speaks of Hades, he says this: "all
sensation appeared swallowed up in that mad rushing
descent
as of the soul into Hades." The word "as"

indicates that the expression is a simile. The narrator faints, as the following line
makes
clear, "I had swooned." Thus the narrator means that the act of losing
consciousness
felt to him like he imagined it must feel like for the soul of
a person to leave this life and
descend into Hades or hell. This figurative
language is consistent with the descriptions that
precede it in the story. In
his state of half-consciousness during the inquest, he imagines the
seven
candles to be angels. He goes on to consider that dying must be very
pleasant.
Consequently, the use of this simile for fainting is in keeping
with the other-worldly and
morbid thoughts the narrator is having in his
half-dream state.