Poe's narrator tells us almost nothing of his past; his personal qualities are revealed through his responses to the horrors of imprisonment. What do we know about him? what aspects of his personality allow him to survive this ordeal?

The question is about Edgar Allan Poe's "Pit and Pendulum". The story is about the survivor of Spanish Inquisition which he narrates of the tortures from a pit. The protagonist investigates the pit in order to escape and for that reason he uses the knife and piece of his clothing to measure the size of the pit. Poe creates a man of principle with this story amidst the horrors of the pit. Even though the narrator becomes subjected to all of these difficulties, his desire to survive makes him to be rescued.

It might be useful context to know that Poe's mother died when he was only two and he was ostracized by his family as a young adult and then his wife, the love of his life, fell ill and died at just 25. This may be why the themes of death and isolation are so prominent in his works.