Citations du Puits et du Pendule
9 citations célèbres de The Pit and the Pendulum (1842) de Edgar Allan Poe, mot pour mot, avec leur signification et leur emplacement dans l’œuvre.
25 min de lecture
- 1
I was sick—sick unto death with that long agony; and when they at length unbound me, and I was permitted to sit, I felt that my senses were leaving me.
Signification : Exhaustion and prolonged suffering overwhelm the prisoner as he struggles to remain conscious.
NarratorParagraphe 1 - 2
Then silence, and stillness, night were the universe.
Signification : As he loses consciousness, the narrator experiences the disappearance of all sensation.
NarratorParagraphe 1 - 3
In death—no! even in the grave all is not lost. Else there is no immortality for man.
Signification : The narrator insists that some part of human consciousness survives death, linking this belief to immortality.
NarratorParagraphe 2 - 4
It was not that I feared to look upon things horrible, but that I grew aghast lest there should be nothing to see.
Signification : He fears complete darkness and uncertainty more than the sight of something terrifying.
NarratorParagraphe 5
- 5
Inch by inch—line by line—with a descent only appreciable at intervals that seemed ages—down and still down it came!
Signification : The blade descends so slowly that waiting for death becomes a prolonged torture.
NarratorParagraphe 22 - 6
I prayed—I wearied heaven with my prayer for its more speedy descent.
Signification : His suffering becomes so unbearable that he begs for the approaching blade to end it sooner.
NarratorParagraphe 22 - 7
It was hope that prompted the nerve to quiver—the frame to shrink. It was hope—the hope that triumphs on the rack—that whispers to the death-condemned even in the dungeons of the Inquisition.
Signification : Even under extreme torture, his instinctive resistance reveals that he still hopes to survive.
NarratorParagraphe 27 - 8
Free!—and in the grasp of the Inquisition!
Signification : Escaping his bonds does not give him real freedom because his torturers still control the prison.
NarratorParagraphe 34 - 9
“Death,” I said, “any death but that of the pit!”
Signification : The pit terrifies him so completely that every other form of death seems preferable.
NarratorParagraphe 37
Questions sur ces citations
What is the famous opening line of The Pit and the Pendulum about?
The opening presents a condemned prisoner overwhelmed by physical suffering and fading consciousness, immediately establishing the story’s intense focus on terror and bodily sensation.
What does the quote about hope in The Pit and the Pendulum mean?
The narrator recognizes that his involuntary attempts to avoid the blade express a continuing desire to live, even when he consciously believes death would bring relief.
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