Rats are often used as symbols of death and decay. In "The Pit and the Pendulum," how does the prisoners response to these rats€”especially when...

The
narrator in "" is painfully aware of the connection between rats and death. He knows
that they desire to make him their "prey," in other words, to eat him alive. He
wonders what food they have been used to eating within the well. Previously, he has guessed that
the pit held worse torment than simply plunging to one's death, and here the reader understands
what he meant. Worse than dying in the fall would be to have fallen into the pit and remained
alive, only to be devoured by the rats. Ironically, the man's plan of escape requires him to
submit himself to possible consumption by the rats. After he spreads the meat on his bonds, he
must lie "breathlessly" still, as if dead already, to persuade the rats that they can
eat him. He is nearly smothered by them as they swarm over him, even over his lips and throat.
He is moved to intense disgust, and a "deadly clamminess" grips his heart. Yet
everything depends on his convincing the rats he is dead, so he continues to lie perfectly
still. Thus, ironically, the agents of death become his deliverers, and he is able to escape the
descending pendulum. Had he not been willing and able to face the horrors of being consumed by
rats, he would have died under the oncoming blade.