"The Pit and the Pendulum" de E. A. Poe como alegoría de un rito de iniciación masónico

Résumé

This paper examines "The Pit and the Pendulum" in an attempt to determine Poe's masonic knowledge. The tale is an allegory of a masonic rite of initiation and also an attack against the intolerance of Jacobin Clubs in France (quatrain at the beginning of the tale) and of the Spanish Inquisition, both institutions for different reasons persecuted freemasons. The imprisoned man in the story is condemned to a symbolic death (darkness) and rebirth (light); he is an initiate who is undergoing the different ordeals of initiation (air, water, earth, fire) in freemasonry. The three stages are symbolized in the changing shape of the room: circular (Entered Apprentice), square (Fellow Craft) and rhomboid (Master Mason). Other symbols of the rite such as, cubic stone, plumb, square, compasses and so on are detected in the story.