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By Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) A Study Guide |
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Plot Summary By Michael J. Cummings...© 2006 .......Efforts to keep an account of the case of Monsieur Valdemar (M. Valdemar) from the public could not prevent leaks of certain details. Consequently, what the public heard was a distorted account. Many people reacted with disbelief at what they heard. .......“It is now rendered necessary that I give the facts—as far as I comprehend them myself,” the unnamed narrator says. For three years, the narrator has been studying mesmerism, he says, and he realizes no one has ever tried the technique on a dying person. How would it affect him? Could it forestall death?  .......While
searching for an apt subject for an experiment, the narrator thinks of
a friend, Ernest Valdemar, of Harlaem (Harlem), N.Y., compiler of Bibliotheca
Forensica. He is a very thin, nervous man with white whiskers and black
hair. Two or three times, the narrator had previously put him in a trance.
However, he failed at other times to gain full control over Valdemar’s
will—perhaps because he was suffering from phthisis (probably tuberculosis),
a disease that causes its victims to waste away. Sometimes, Valdemar spoke
calmly of his imminent death. He agrees to become a subject for experimentation—in
fact, the prospect excites him—and he has no relatives in America who would
object to it.
.......The course of the disease is predictable, even down to the hour of death, and Valdemar submits to the experiment one day before his predicted demise. .......When the narrator arrives at 7 p.m. Saturday for the experiment, Valdemar is so thin that his cheekbones show through his skin. He coughs frequently. His pulse is faint. Nevertheless, he retains presence of mind and a modicum of physical strength. Two physicians attend him. They tell the narrator that Valdemar’s disease has ruined his lungs and that they believe he has an aneurysm in his heart. He is expected to die at midnight Sunday. The doctors leave but plan to return to check on Valdemar at 10 p.m. Sunday. .......While talking with Valdemar, the narrator has second thoughts about the undertaking, for the only witnesses present to observe it are a female nurse and a male nurse. So he waits until the following evening, by which time he has hired a medical student to witness the experiment and take notes. When the narrator and the medical student arrive at 8 p.m., the narrator goes to work immediately. He would have waited for the doctors, but Valdemar is barely hanging on. .......The narrator begins by passing his hand over Valdemar’s forehead, a technique he previously found successful in mesmerizing Valdemar. However, in spite of a promising initial response from Valdemar, further efforts by the narrator have no effect. When the doctors arrive at 10 p.m., they permit the narrator to continue the experiment. After all, Valdemar will die very soon. Why not let the narrator proceed? .......At 10:55, Valdemar begins slipping into a trance. Over the next hour, the narrator continues to work on him. At midnight, all present agree that he is in a perfect state of mesmerism. One doctor, excited, decides to stay with Valdemar through the night; the other plans to return in the morning. The medical student and the nurses remain. At 3 a.m., the narrator asks Valdemar whether he is asleep. ......."Yes;—asleep now. Do not wake me!—let me die so!" .......The narrator questions the “sleep-waker” again, asking him whether he is in pain, inasmuch as his limbs are rigid. .......“No pain—I am dying,” Valdemar says. .......When the other doctor arrives in the morning, he is astonished that Valdemar still lives. After conferring, the doctors say Valdemar should remain in his present state until death, expected in minutes. The narrator then asks Valdemar whether he is still sleeping. Immediately, Valdemar’s eyes roll back, the skin turns white, the circular spots on his cheeks disappear, and the lower jaw falls, exposing a black tongue. .......So hideous does he look that everyone steps back from him. After the doctors, the medical student, and the narrator pronounce him dead, his tongue vibrates, and in a minute they hear his voice. The sound seems to come from a cavern deep in the earth. Valdemar then answers the question (whether he is still sleeping): "Yes;—no;—I have been sleeping—and now—now—I am dead.” .......The medical student faints. The nurses leave, refusing to return. After the doctors and the narrator spend an hour trying to revive Valdemar, they observe that his breathing has stopped. Moreover, an attempt to draw blood fails, as does the narrator’s effort to make him move an arm. However, Valdemar tries to answer questions but cannot articulate. Meanwhile, other nurses are hired, and the narrator leaves with the two physicians at 10 a.m. When they all return in the afternoon, Valdemar’s condition is unchanged. But to awaken him, they believe, would be to lose him completely. .......So he remains in his trance—for seven months. Nothing changes. Finally, the doctors and the narrator agree that their only course is to try to awaken him. After the narrator uses his mesmeric technique several times, the iris of Valdemar’s eye descends part way and emits a foul-smelling fluid. An effort to cause Valdemar to move an arm fails. The narrator asks Valdemar to express his wishes. ......."For God's sake!—quick!—quick!—put me to sleep—or, quick!—waken me!—quick!—I say to you that I am dead!" .......The narrator finishes his story, saying,
 The action takes place in Harlaem (Harlem), N.Y., in the first half of the 19th Century. M. Valdemar: Dying
man who willingly submits to an experiment in mesmerism.
Type of Work and Publication Date This literary work is a short
story, published as “The Facts of M. Valdemar’s Case” in December 1845
in the American Whig Review and as “The Facts in the Case of M.
Valdemar” in the same month and year in the New York Broadway Journal.
The genres into which the story falls include horror and science fiction.
Themes No one can escape death. Poe explored this theme earlier in "The Masque of the Red Death," in which a prince withdraws to an abbey with a thousand knights and ladies to escape a terrifying disease that causes death within half an hour of the onset of symptoms. He orders the gate of the abbey welded shut to keep the people in and the disease out. For more about this story, click here. It is human nature, of course, to attempt to escape death, and some people in the modern world resort to radical measures to prolong life, including quack remedies or extreme diets or exercise regimens. Some victims of disease attempt to achieve "immortality" by arranging to have their bodies frozen at death, then thawed and treated when a cure is discovered. Experimentation in science and medicine can produce horrifying results. As soon as the fictional Valdemar is released from his trance, his body decays instantly in a horrifying spectacle. In real life in modern times, science experiments and therapeutic treatments have sometimes resulted in deformities, weight loss, weight gain, abnormal growth, depression, loss of memory, loss of sight, and so on. Sometimes a cure kills. Mesmerism was a medical technique intended to modify the flow of body fluids in order to restore an ailing patient to health. Franz Anton Mesmer (1734-1815), a German educated in Austria, developed the technique. According to Mesmer, illness resulted from a blockage that inhibited the flow of body fluids. Because Mesmer believed these fluids responded to an external magnetic stimulus, he concluded that passing a wand or a hand over a patient’s body could alter the flow of fluids and restore the patient’s health. The movement of the wand or the hand tended to induce a trance in the patient. Thus, a trance state came to be regarded as a restorative or healing process. Mesmer’s technique, regarded as quackery in his time, led to the development of hypnosis as a therapeutic technique. The climax of “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” occurs when the narrator ends Valdemar's trance, resulting in instant deterioration of his body. Edgar Allan Poe was born
on January 19, 1809, in Boston. After being orphaned at age two, he was
taken into the home of a childless couple—John Allan, a successful businessman
in Richmond, Va., and his wife. Allan was believed to be Poe’s godfather.
At age six, Poe went to England with the Allans and was enrolled in schools
there. After he returned with the Allans to the U.S. in 1820, he studied
at private schools, then attended the University of Virginia and the U.S.
Military Academy, but did not complete studies at either school. After
beginning his literary career as a poet and prose writer, he married his
young cousin, Virginia Clemm. He worked for several magazines and joined
the staff of the New York Mirror newspaper in 1844. All the while,
he was battling a drinking problem. After the Mirror published his
poem “The Raven” in January 1845, Poe achieved national and international
fame. Besides pioneering the development of the short story, Poe invented
the format for the detective story as we know it today. He also was an
outstanding literary critic. Despite the acclaim he received, he was never
really happy because of his drinking and because of the deaths of several
people close to him, including his wife in 1847. He frequently had trouble
paying his debts. It is believed that heavy drinking was a contributing
cause of his death in Baltimore on October 7, 1849.
Study Questions and Writing Topics
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