The narrator of "The Pit and the Pendulum" is often uncertain about how much time has elapsed and about the physical details of the prison. What does...

The
uncertainties that the narrator experiences regarding the physical details of his prison and the
passage of time are an intentional part of the torture that the Spanish Inquisition is
conducting. Much of their efforts are put not just into physically tormenting the man but to
playing "mind games" with him, and the man, although he fights these manipulations as
best as he can, nevertheless falls prey to them. For example, when he first wakes up in the
dungeon after presumably having been drugged, he is in total darkness. The dungeon is capable of
being lit, but the tormentors make sure it is pitch black when he awakens. That makes it more
likely that he will fall into the pit, but if he doesn't, it doesn't matter to the Inquisition
because the terror of being in deep darkness for so long also suits their purposes. Drugging him
periodically keeps him in a state of confusion. Obviously when one wakes from a drug-induced
slumber and has no clock or access to natural light, one cannot determine how much time has
passed. Likewise, when the man is under the pendulum, he becomes disoriented as to time.
Sometimes he sleeps, and when he wakes, he feels that he may have only slept a moment because
the pendulum has hardly progressed. However, his mind is sharp enough to realize that his
captors may be manipulating him; he realizes that "there were demons who took note of my
swoon, and who could have arrested the vibration at pleasure." The man's
uncertainty about his physical location and the passage of time are not necessarily indicative
of his failing mental powers; they show that his captors are seeking to manipulate his mind as
well as his body.