In Edgar Allan Poe's short story "The Pit and The Pendulum" the theme is that the fear of the unknown can haunt anyone. The fear of the unknown is the most alarming fear of all because what can not be seen or known is difficult to face directly as Poe writes, "I put my arm forward, and shuttered to find that I had fallen at the very brink of a circular pit." (Poe). The character in this short story is locked in a dark chamber, he trips and falls and knocks himself out. When he awakes he is at the edge of a pit he had not known was there in the dark, and knowing that if he had just kept walking he would have fallen into the pit disturbed him. The fact that the pit was there and he had no idea strikes a deep fear into his body. Not knowing