
Edgar Allen Poe tells the story of a sick man, Valdemar, in his story “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar.” Valdemar allows himself to be mesmerized as a means of suspending death. This act of mesmerization evolves as the centerpiece for the events that transpire in Poe’s work. Poe uses the narrator and responses of sleep and death to force the reader to piece together the mystery and come to a specific conclusion on what happened in the medical case of Valdemar. 

The title of the passage gives an idea of the narrating style which is basically an observation based and factual narration. “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” gives the impression of the manner of the story right from the start. It sounds like it is going to be a very rigid, factual based story, which it is. The narrator in this passage is a Doctor P--. Being the doctor overseeing the medical case, he reports it as such. He isn’t giving his opinion or his take on what is going on with the patient, M. Valdemar, but rather just a first-hand account of the medical case. The reader is left to piece together what is taking place with M. Valdemar under the surface. By not explicitly stating what the narrator thought was happening but rather the observations of the narrator, Poe forces the reader to pay more attention and think about correlations the reader saw in the text.

One such correlation is between the body and tongue of M. Valdemar. The narrator gives a few important detailed observations to the state of Valdemar. The state of Valdemar is told early in the passage (that he is dying) but the details change after the mesmerization. It is this correlation that Poe uses to guide the reader on the path towards his main point of the story. 

The story could essentially be broken up with three important parts following the mesmerization. These parts are the state of Valdemar when the question of if he sleeps is asked. Poe uses this question and the details provided by the narrator to draw a line straight toward the conclusion he wants the reader to find. The conclusion Poe wants the reader to come to is that mesmerization is only an illusion.

The narrator repeatedly asks the question to Valdemar of if he sleeps. Poe uses this question in the narration as a means to tie the piece together and be the missing puzzle piece essentially. Without it, the story would just be observations of an inanimate body that doesn’t seem mesmerized and the story would have no basis. The first time the question is asked it is right after Valdemar is mesmerized and the response from Valdemar is that he is asleep and asks to let him die so. Mesmerization is a trance-like state so Valdemar would appear to be sleeping and he is dying. These two ideas become important in the conclusion Poe wants the reader to draw as to what happens to Valdemar. Normally sleep and death are thought to be counterparts and in some ways sleep can be used in replacement of death. Death is thought of as a permanent sleep. The fact Poe separates sleep and death in the responses identifies that they are supposed to represent separate entities in the story. 

The narrator alerts the audience to the change in Valdemar stating how the reader would be startled into disbelief. This comes right at the next important piece of the narrative Poe wants the reader to pick up on which is the change in Valdemar’s body and speech. Valdemar appears to be deceased except for a sound coming from his mouth. The sleeping question is asked to which the answer changes to he has been sleeping and now he is dead. This is the next part the story is “broken up” into. The repetition of this line is altered slightly and although the character of Valdemar seems to be in a trance-like sleeping state he is supposed to be dead. The vital signs the doctor points out give evidence to the claim that he is dead. This part hints at the connection between body and the speech without full blown giving it away yet.

The third and final questioning of if Valdemar is asleep is met by the request to be put to sleep or wakened because he is already dead. Likewise, at this section the narrator has vividly described the state of Valdemar’s body and the stench it produces. This establishes the correlation completely that Valdemar is definitely dead. Throughout the story the body is kept together but exhibits the same behavior as that of a dead one. When the trance is broken, the body decays instantly. Knowing that it has been seven months past the point when Valdemar was supposed to die, the decay of the body resembles the point it should be seven months after death. 

Although it seems to be an obscure detail the fast forward in time makes it appear as the mesmerization did nothing at all in the long run. Once again it appears that mezmerization is just an illusion. 

The conclusion Poe wants the reader to draw is that mesmerization effects mostly the being and subconscious. He paints the mesmirization as a mysterious force provided by the fact that there are responses from Valdemar even after he is supposed to die so the initial reaction of the reader is that it worked to preserve him. The narration then provides observations of Valdemar’s body as well as repeating the question of being asleep to draw the attention of the reader towards the correlation between the two. The lack of personal input in the narration contributes to the feel that the events that took place were indisputable. There is no guessing as to what happened in the case of M. Valdemar because the details of the case were precise and lead to an exact conclusion.
