What are the three strongest symbols in "The Pit and the Pendulum" by Edgar Allan Poe?

Question

I need to know the three strongest symbols in Poe's short story, "The Pit and the Pendulum." Please include your source from a CREDIBLE site. Thanks.

Answer 1

Check out this article.

http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section7.rhtml
Perhaps these might be the 3 strongest symbols in the story:

1.The Pendulum itself seems to be a symbol of Time

2."Hope is manifest in the story not only in the rescue that resolves the tale, but also in the tale’s narrative strategy. "


And a third could possibly be--
3. "The blackness of eternal night encompassed me." At first, he wonders if he is dead yet still mentally conscious. This concept often appears in Poe's fiction—that is, a person will be physically dead, but he will still retain the mental ability to know things after the death of the physical body."

This a found at the link below--

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-145,pageNum-21.html

Answer 2

Read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pit_and_the_Pendulum

Good Luck!!!