The most prominent theme in any Edgar Allen Poe story or poem is without a doubt, horror. This story, The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, fall into the horror category as well. In this story, Poe uses words and phrases with dark connotations to convey a dark tone throughout the passage, he also gives his imagery a gloomy feel to it so the reader knows that something bad will eventually happen in the story. The two main themes, in my opinion, are the constant increase in the amount of gloom, darkness, and horror as the story goes on, along with the idea that experimenting with death will sometimes have unintended consequences when humans toy with it. This story shows the potential unintended consequences when you experiment with the supernatural and its role in the lives of humans.

The way Poe describes Valdemar throughout the story can help explain how the story goes from just somber and gloomy in the beginning, to plain horror at the end. On the second page of the passage, before he is put in a mesmeric trance at his moment of death, Poe describes the condition of Valdemar like this, "His face wore a leaden hue; the eyes were utterly lusterless; and the emaciation was so extreme, that the skin had been broken through by the cheek-bones. His expectoration was excessive. The pulse was barely perceptible" (Poe 14). The way Poe describes Valdemar at this point in the story shows just how bad Valdemar will look at the end of the story. If the reader pays close attention, he or she will notice the constant downward spiral in which Poe describes Valdemar's condition. On the next day, just a little bit before he is put into a trance, his condition has deteriorated even further and the author describes him like this, "By this time his pulse was imperceptible and his breathing was stertorious, and at intervals of half a minute" (Poe 16). As you can see, Poe now describes Valdemar to be in even worse condition then when he started the story, inches from death. How does one's condition seem to deteriorate so much even after being so close to death? The result of keeping him from dying basically explains itself at the end of the story.

While in a mesmeric trance, Valdemar could still communicate when commanded by the man referred to as P., but when he wasn't being experimented on he basically appeared dead, but he couldn't die in the mesmeric trance. When doctors and physicians, and this case mesmerists, experiment and try to control the circumstances around whether someone lives or dies, there is a lot of potential for things not to end well. For example, when someone is put down because they have received the death penalty or are being euthanized sometimes errors can occur. The patient goes through an extreme amount of pain and is on the brink of death for far too long. Just like how Valdemar is on the brink of death for seven months in this story while in a mesmeric trance for too long. Finally, after seven months of being kept responsive to P.'s commands, he was woken up, "His whole frame at once-within the space of a single minute, or even less, shrunk-crumbled- absolutely rotted away beneath my hands. Upon the bed, before that whole company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome- of detestable putrescence" (Poe 19). This last quote basically summarize the prominent theme in the story, you shouldn't experiment with death and try to prolong it unless you are prepared to face the consequences. At the beginning of the story, P. wonders whether the experiment would prolong the life span of the individual being mesmerized, he probably thinks that it did, but in my opinion all mesmerizing did to Valdemar was cause his death to be too long (seven months too long) and much worse than it should've been had he been left alone to die in peace. What happened to him in the last one minute of his life (arguably), while he was rotting away is what should've been done over the seven months he was being mesmerized.

One of the things that contributes to the overall horror-based theme of the story is some of the word choices he used, this also ties back into the fact that the mood of the story gradually starts to become darker and darker as the story goes on. The words he uses at the beginning of the story are much more horrific than the words that he uses at the end of it. For example, at the beginning of the story P. describes the situation as an "unpleasant representation" (Poe 13) while at the end of the story he describes Valdemar's remains as "detestable putrescence" (Poe 19). As you might agree, the word choice at the beginning is not as gloomy or death-ridden as the one at the end.  This comparison represents the constant deterioration and slow death of Valdemar. Overall, I think the choice of words in this passage fits very well within the plot of the story. To my knowledge none of the words or phrases used by the author in this passage have any extra, hidden connotations that might affect the themes of the passage, everything was straightforward and the story continued to build on itself until the end.

The most prominent theme in this story written by Edgar Allen Poe is the horror, which is common in most Edgar Allen Poe stories. Poe uses specific and detailed syntax to convey his meaning in the story and give the reader a very clear image of what he wants the reader to see. On the other hand, this story specifically also deals with the theme of impending death and how people can try to stop it, slow it down, and tamper with it, which often causes very bad, horrific situations.
