Pit and the Pendulam

The most curious aspect of "The Pit and the Pendulum" - an aspect that sets this story apart from most of Poe's writings - is that the prisoner is abruptly and inexplicably saved from doom in the last paragraph, which is in line with the narrator's focus on hope. Hope despite all the darkness is a theme at play here. His punishment by the Inquisition is as much about mental torture as it is about physical discomfort, and accordingly, the narrator swings back and forth between hope and despair as well as sanity and insanity. Despite his frequent fainting fits, he is able to maintain enough of a grip on his mental facilities to survive the peril of the falling pendulum.