A common use for Storyboard That is to help students create a plot diagram of the events from a story. Not only is this a great way to teach the parts of the plot, but it reinforces major events and helps students develop greater understanding of literary structures.

Students can create a storyboard capturing the narrative arc in a work with a six-cell storyboard containing the major parts of the plot diagram. For each cell, have students create a scene that follows the story in sequence using: Exposition, Conflict, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action, and Resolution.

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“The Pit and the Pendulum” Plot Diagram Example

Exposition

The narrator is standing on trial and receiving a sentence of death. He does not reveal the crimes for which he has been charged and found guilty. He sees black-robed judges issuing their judgment before he passes out.

Conflict

The narrator is in and out of consciousness, but presently finds himself in a chamber of some sort. It is at first pitch-black so he is disoriented and unable to get a grasp of his surroundings. He does not know where he is, nor why he is there, although he is sure is related to his punishment. He supposes that he is in a dungeon in Toledo, Spain.

Rising Action

The narrator tries to explore the depths of his chamber, and almost slips and falls into a chasm at one end of the chamber. After falling asleep, the narrator awakens to find bread and water next to him, so he knows someone is attending to him. After falling asleep again, the narrator awakens and the chamber is lightly glowing. He sees that it is square, and the metal walls have hideous faces in them.

Climax

The narrator finds himself strapped to a board, leaving only his head and left arm free. He looks up and sees a figure of Time painted on the ceiling, but instead of his scythe, he is holding a razor-sharp pendulum. The pendulum swings back and forth, and which each vibration, comes closer to the strapped narrator’s chest. He realizes that the pendulum will eventually kill him.

Falling Action

The narrator almost accepts his inevitable death when he gets an idea to take the fragrant meat from the basket next to him, and to rub it all over the strap holding him down. The rats, attracted by the smell of the meat, jump up and gnaw at the strap until the narrator is free. As soon as he is freed, however, the walls of the chamber begin to move and become hot, so that they push him towards the chasm.

Resolution

As the narrator again is faced with impending death, he screams in despair. Just as the walls are about to push him over the edge, he hears thundering trumpets. The walls retract, and he is saved by General Lasalle, who is leading the French troops into Toledo.

Themes, symbols, and motifs come alive when you use a storyboard. In this activity, students will identify themes and symbols from the story, and support their choices with details from the text.

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Fear

The success of the story comes from its ability to access one fundamental human quality: fear. In the case of the narrator, he is fearful of his sentence, fearful of pain, and in real fear of death. 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. 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.

Intolerance and Injustice

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. 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 whole system, however, is based on injustice because the basic premises of these trials is people’s inability to practice their own religion freely. Even his sentence is an unjust one, because it is not a simple execution or an opportunity for penance: it is sheer psychological torture and certain death.

The Power of Despair

The narrator gives in to utter despair a few times throughout the story. The first is when he physically loses consciousness after his sentence, knowing that all hope of mercy is lost. The second comes when he almost gives in to the inevitable death that the pendulum seems ready to deliver. However, this “collected calmness of despair” allows him to formulate a plan of escape, which works. Finally, the narrator’s last act of despair comes with his scream as he is about to be pushed into the pit. His scream seems to bring forth General Lasalle at the absolute last moment, who is able to save him from certain death.

The Chamber

The Chamber itself is an instrument of fear. It makes use of complete and disorienting darkness, then mysterious glowing, with pictures of horrifying creatures on the walls to wreak psychological havoc on the narrator. The walls themselves become the instrument of certain death for the narrator, as they push him towards the pit after he escapes from the pendulum.

The Pendulum

The pendulum swings back and forth, much like a grandfather clock. Each moment it swings, the narrator is confronted with the terrifying reality that it’s both getting closer, and it is razor sharp. The pendulum is part of this “just” sentence being issued by the inquisitors, but in reality, it is an instrument of psychological torture. It creates the idea of a game, giving the narrator so much time to formulate an escape, or he loses.

The Pit

The pit is the narrator’s first close call with death, as he almost tumbles headlong into it while stumbling around in the chamber in the dark. The pit becomes his final choice as he is pushed towards it by the enclosing chamber walls which are burning fire-hot. The narrator knows that the pit means certain death for him, and he screams in despair as he finds he has run out of options.

Another great way to engage your students is through the creation of storyboards that use vocabulary from “The Pit and the Pendulum”. Here is a list of a few vocabulary words commonly taught with the story, and an example of a visual vocabulary board.

Example Vocabulary Words

• spectres
• gossamer
• swoon
• auto-da-fé
• serge
• chasm
• daubed
• aperture
• insuperable
• charnel
• surcingle
• scimitar
• moiety
• voracity
• abyss