Read the selection below from the short story “the pit and the pendulum” by edgar allan poe and answer the question that follows.
amid the thought of the fiery destruction that impended, the idea of the coolness of the well came over my soul like balm. i rushed to its deadly brink. i threw my straining vision below. the glare from the enkindled roof illumined its inmost recesses. yet, for a wild moment, did my spirit refuse to comprehend the meaning of what i saw. at length it forced—it wrestled its way into my soul—it burned itself in upon my shuddering reason. o for a voice to speak! —oh, horror! —oh, any horror but this! with a shriek i rushed from the margin and buried my face in my hands—weeping bitterly.
how is the madness of the narrator portrayed in the passage above?

The madness of the narrator is a feeling characterized by an agonizing sensation in which despair, pain and panic alternate between reality and hallucination.

Explanation:

The Pit and the Pendulum, published in 1842, chronicles the torment of an unnamed character the tortures of the Spanish Inquisition in Toledo. The narrative narrated in the first person causes in the reader a whirlwind of feelings that border agony and despair.

The narrator-character during his oratory reveals that he does not know how to distinguish reality from hallucination, but he is aware that death has been sentenced. Faced with a synaesthesia, the convict describes through his sensations all the madness and horror of being trapped in a dungeon, the sounds, the presence of the inquisitorial judges, the visions of the movements of the walls around him, remind the reader of the likelihood of a claustrophobic space.

in "letter from a birmingham jail," king argues that there are four basic steps in any nonviolent campaign: "[c]ollection of the facts to determine whether injustices exist; negotiation; self purification; and direct action." finally, direct action is taken and acts such as boycotts and sit-ins are staged.