Rich in detail, and character, "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe, takes place during Spanish Inquisition. With him the reader faces his internal conflict, which arrives from his morbid circumstances. As this short story progresses, his moods shift along with the setting changing from feelings from determination, to desperation, and to hope. .
The darkness contributes and adds to the person's internal conflict that of man verses himself. The darkness represents despair. He is in a dark place alone and he does not know the size of the room, so he feels horrified and lonely. At one point he remarks, "I opened my eyes and my worst thoughts are confirmed." (Poe 297) This clearly defines his terror and despair. For example, he further comments, "I thrust my arms wild, above and around me in all direction. I felt nothing" (297) He tries to reach and see his external environment, but he fails. He feels that his life is doomed. Then he tries to measure the largeness of the room. He slips on the floor and falls on his face.
In this position, the narrator senses that his chin is elevated above the remainder of his head and realizes that he is lying on the edge of a large pit. He knows that he was fully expected to fall into the pit. He has an impulse to simply jump into it, fearing that by remaining alive he will be subjected to even greater horrors. As he says, " The PIT, typically of hell and regarded by rumors as the ultima Thule" (297), he pulls himself back thinking there is still hope. He hopes that there will be a way of surviving. The man sleeps and wakes up. Now he finds he can't move freely. He has been strapped down, facing the cell's ceiling. There he views a pendulum, which seems to be moving in closely towards him.
Even though the pendulum is now within a few inches of his chest, he doesn't give up. He hopes that he will be saved. He notices the rats and thinks that they are his hope of surviving.