I believe everyone can agree that death is a hard part of life to ponder. Change is an aspect of life that often scares people. Likewise, the very thought of death scares most people because it is a permanent change that we know so little about experiencing. “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” by Edgar Allen Poe is a fictional article that was published in 1845 in a newspaper and presented to seem like a true story. This short story contains aspects of sadness, suffering, and death. “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” was an outlet that Edgar Allen Poe used to remind himself that death is inevitable and attempting to postpone it could make the manner of it even worse.

In “The Facts of the Case of M. Valdemar,” M. Valdemar had contracted tuberculosis and agreed for his friend (the narrator) to mesmerize him in his dying state. Mesmerization is when a mesmerist uses animal magnetism in attempt of putting a patient into a trance or hypnosis. During the time that Poe wrote “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” his mother had recently died of tuberculosis and his wife had just contracted it. Poe’s brother, mother, and stepmother had already been taken from him by the awful disease and it was taking his wife away from him as well. Poe knew that his wife would likely die soon due to the tuberculosis. As much as he wanted to postpone her death to finish their lives together, Poe knew that death does not procrastinate. He knew that he needed to accept the fact that he could not do anything about his wife’s condition.

Mesmerization ended up making the death of M. Valdemar much more agonizing and disturbing. Death by tuberculosis in that time stood classified as a relatively “good death” by society since it was one that was often foreseen long before it occurred. Since death by tuberculosis had a slow nature, people viewed it as a respectable way to die because it gave the victim time to get everything organized for his/her decease. M. Valdemar’s death transitioned from an undisturbed and peaceful expiry to an agonizing seven months of trance between life and passing, inevitably ending in a horrendous demise.

Poe used vivid imagery to depict M. Valdmar’s grotesque physical condition. He was described as having a yellowish and repulsive smelling fluid flowing from under his eyelids while the rest of his body lay pale and rigid. His face and jaw did not move when he talked from his “swollen and blackened” tongue, which looked and sounded awfully dreadful. His voice was so terrifying that when he replied to the narrator’s questions, the nurses that were observing scampered from the room immediately and the student, who was taking notes on the event, passed out. Valdemar finally yelled at the narrator to wake him or put him to sleep because he was dead. When the narrator awoke him from the mesmeric trance, Valdemar began chanting “Dead! Dead” and he decomposed and shriveled up into a “nearly liquid pile of loathsome.” This death was significantly more horrific and disturbing than his natural death would have been.

When the narrator was hesitant to start mesmerizing M. Valdemar, the patient promptly assured him that he had permission to mesmerize him. M. Valdemar rushed the narrator to start because he was afraid that death would come too soon. He was in fear of the permanent change that was about to occur. Ultimately he died and accomplished nothing by trying to postpone his death. M. Valdemar’s fate could not be escaped.

I believe that Edgar Allen Poe used this short story as a reminder to himself that despite his wishful thinking, it was impossible for his wife to escape the inevitable death of tuberculosis. This story was a type of coping mechanism that Poe used in effort of accepting the fate of his wife. He knew better than most people how unavoidable the final result of this disease remained. Despite the characters’ endeavors to avoid the fate of tuberculosis, fate took its toll on M. Valdemar.

Edgar Allen Poe used “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” to remind himself that death is inevitable and attempting to delay it is irrational and could make matters worse. Poe realized that as much as he did not want to lose his wife, he had to accept that there was nothing he could do. He had to overcome his fear of the unknown and eternal change that was about to transpire. Attempting to suspend death can only make things worse and possibly hurt people in the process. Fate is an inescapable force and when people attempt to run away from it, it ends up coming back and taking its toll on them in the cruelest ways. Poe used this story as a form of self-help while stuck in a hard place. He needed a way to cope with the fact that he was going to lose his wife to the same awful disease that took his mother, brother, and step mother away from him. The theme of this short story contained aspects of sadness, suffering, and death. More specifically, the terrifying inevitability of death that makes us, as humans, want to escape it even more. This is an existing fear of a permanent change of which we have no experience and cannot really begin to comprehend. We can obtain from Poe’s short story that death and its perpetual effects are an inevitable part of life and frequently humans have a difficult experience with accepting them. 