This system of intolerance is based in the Spanish justice system: there is a formal charge, an investigation, a trial, a judgment, and a sentence. The narrator is a victim of the Spanish Inquisition, which sentenced and tortured those who were found guilty of secretly practicing their religions, or who were found to be withholding information. The chamber itself is made to induce fear the slow descent of the pendulum creates both psychological suspense and mortal terror and the pit represents the final decision: death, the ultimate fear. He is able to maintain his rational faculties throughout his ordeal, however, which is notable because he does not become paralyzed by fear, even though his circumstance is completely terrifying. In the case of the narrator, he is fearful of his sentence, fearful of pain, and in real fear of death. The success of the story comes from its ability to access one fundamental human quality: fear.
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