
Mesmerism began being practiced in the 1800’s when Franz Mesmer learned how to change the energy fields of his clients. Like hypnotism today, mesmerism is when someone is able to put another person in a trance and control their actions using either words or non-verbal actions. Mesmer believed that all humans have a “magnetic fluid” running through them which powers their energy fields, and these can become unbalanced when a person becomes sick or has psychological issues. One of the many people that was fascinated with mesmerism was Edgar Allan Poe, and he shows this in his story “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.” In this story, M. Ernest Valdemar, the man who is subject to the narrator’s trance, is dying of phthisis (tuberculosis). The narrator, only known as P, has mesmerized people before but had never done so to a person very near death so he contacted Valdemar who agreed to be his test subject. Valdemar had not been given much time left to live due to his sickness so P had to act quickly and put him in a trance, which he did so successfully. He keeps Valdemar in the trance for 7 months before waking him up. In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” the narrator’s subject, M. Ernest Valdemar, is told be in a mesmeric state that is keeping him alive and makes him seem so peaceful, but Valdemar actually dies because of the trance.

 In the 19th Century, tuberculosis was a very common disease that affected many people that came to the United States from around the world, most notably Europe. People that have it may not always exhibit signs but if tuberculosis is active in a person’s system they can spread it by coughing or sneezing, and on these tightly packed ships coming to the U.S. the disease would spread quickly. It was also very rampant in overcrowded living areas like Harlem where M. Valdemar lived. Due to his sickness, Valdemar was expected to die soon, and this is the reason that the narrator (known as P) picked Valdemar as his subject. P says that he was interested in seeing how long someone could delay the death of another person if they were put into a successful trance. P also points out that Valdemar was eager to be a part of the experiment and that Valdemar’s imminent death did not scare him, rather that he tended to “speak calmly of his approaching dissolution…” showing that Valdemar was ready to meet death. P also describes Valdemar as “in articulo mortis,” which means “at the point of death” so Valdemar knew he was on the brink of death and he accepted that.

Just before P puts Valdemar in the trance, he describes Valdemar as though he is a dead man only being kept alive by a pulse that is “barely perceptible.” At this point, Valdemar has about 5 hours to live according to his physicians so Valdemar was very anxious to be mesmerized and made P feel convicted to put him in his trance already, saying “I fear you have deferred it too long.” Valdemar still knows he is going to die when he comes out of the trance when he says this because of how long he had previously been given to live, but he is more worried that he will not be a good experiment and that P is going to have another unsuccessful trance. Nonetheless, immediately after P’s first pass (the action that puts people in the trance) Valdemar is mesmerized. About 2 hours pass when P tells the physicians what he has done when they tell him that Valdemar is already in the “death agony,” otherwise known as the pain of dying. This, however, is contradicted several times after. 

Still under the trance, Valdemar is asked if he is asleep or in pain, the latter he responds to by saying “No pain – I am dying” showing that the trance has relieved him of the “death agony.” Since Valdemar is in a peaceful state, brought up by P later, he not only says he is painless but also looks the part. Though the physicians think that Valdemar is still alive, the trance is draining him of all remaining energy he has. When they returned to the room, they got P to ask if Valdemar was still asleep and P says “…some minutes elapsed ere a reply was made; and during the interval the dying man seemed to be collecting his energies to speak.” P then says that Valdemar’s response was so faint it was almost inaudible. After this response, P roughly describes Valdemar going into what is called Livor Mortis, which is when the body goes into hypostasis about 2-4 hours after death. Blood flows away from the big veins leaving the skin very pale and seemingly bruised. Though P does not say that Valdemar had bruises he does say that Valdemar’s skin “assumed a cadaverous hue, resembling not so much parchment as paper.” P tops off all of this by saying “There was no longer the faintest sign of vitality in M. Valdemar…” expressing his own belief that Valdemar had now died. 

Typically, people think that when a person dies, they cease all movements, but in reality dead people can still have several bodily functions including muscle spasms (such as Valdemar’s tongue vibrating) and gas/air escaping through the deceased’s windpipes allowing them to still make noise. After this loss of color from Valdemar’s skin, he no longer physically responds P, but he does still make sounds, showing that Valdemar has now gone into Rigor Mortis, the next stage in the death cycle where the body locks limbs and muscles. The nurses, physicians, and P all conclude he is dead when a vibratory sound comes out of Valdemar’s mouth, which was locked open after the color left his skin revealing his black tongue. This prompted P to ask if he was still sleeping and Valdemar responded with “Yes; -- no; -- I have been sleeping – and now – now – I am dead.” Now Valdemar has confirmed he is dead, while still in the trance. P goes on to tell that the physicians tried to test Valdemar’s claim of death. He says “An attempt to draw blood from the arm failed. I should mention, too, that this limb was no farther subject to my will.” Though the arm was no longer under P’s control, he could still get some verbal responses from Valdemar as the “only real indication…of the mesmeric influence, was found in the vibratory movement of the tongue” showing that P still had control over Valdemar’s magnetic field that mesmerism controls. With the knowledge that Valdemar says he is dead and that the only thing allowing him to respond is P’s voice, all those in the room realize that if they wake up Valdemar they will “insure his instant, or at least his speedy dissolution.” They know he is dead, but at least his body is still together, but if they wake him up they fear that he will crumble away and disappear. This doesn’t matter to them as P tries to move Valdemar’s arm and fails, but is then told by one of the physicians to ask a question, which he does. Unable to move his jaws and lips, only the tongue moves but Valdemar still shrieks out that he is dead, and that they either need to put him back to sleep or wake him up. So they wake him up, and amid Valdemar screaming that he is dead “his whole frame at once…absolutely rotted away beneath [P’s] hands.” The “approaching dissolution” that was mentioned earlier has now approached and Valdemar, though already dead, has now disappeared from the world, thus finally confirming his death.

M. Ernest Valdemar, a man dying of tuberculosis, is at the point of death and is put under a trance in an effort to keep him alive longer, but all the trance does is cause him to die. Throughout Edgar Allan Poe’s story “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” Valdemar says that he is sleeping, doesn’t feel pain, and is dying or is dead. Before he is put under the trance, the physicians say that Valdemar is in the “death agony”, or pain of dying. Generally, sleeping is painless, including this case of M. Valdemar, but Valdemar still dies despite not being in any pain. The trance relieves him of his death agony, but in doing so kills him.