Poe's Short Stories Lesson Plan

What is the significance of the painting in “The Pit and the Pendulum”?

The painting in the prison cell in “The Pit and the Pendulum” is of Time, as a personified figure holding the scythe/pendulum. “In one of its panels a very singular figure riveted my whole attention. It was the painted figure of Time as he is commonly represented, save that, in lieu of a scythe, he held what, at a casual glance, I supposed to be the pictured image of a huge pendulum such as we see on antique clocks. There was something, however, in the appearance of this machine which caused me to regard it more attentively. While I gazed directly upward at it (for its position was immediately over my...