Edgar Allen Poe was a short story and poem writer in the mid 1800’s, his work consisted of horror and mystery. Poe knew that in his age that many people were not well educated and took advantage of this in his writing to make his work even more frightening to the under educated people of society. In Poes’ work “The Facts of the Case of M. Valdemar” Poe writes about a man by the name of M. Valdemar that is dying of tuberculosis, and how he agrees to be mesmerized by P. a man who has attempted to mesmerize Valdermar with no success, however this time the mesmerizaation is successful and the events that follow are terrifying. The following passage exemplifies Poes intent to disturb and create fear in society when the short story was published. The passage illustrates Poes attempt to frighten his readers while using the term mesmerization along with medical terms to create an eerie mood. Each element is used prominently throughout the work, but medical terms are used in a heavy amount in the passage while P. is explaining Valdemars condition, which gives credibility to the narrator. The usage of medical terms along with the usage of mesmerization instead of other words with similar meaning, cause the readers to take the story as the documenting of real events making it a truly horrifying story. 

The word choice of Poe is specific and it leads to amplifying the horror of the short story, throughout the work Poe is constantly using the word mesmerization. Society during the time of Poe believed in mesmerization and many feared it, however other words such as hypnosis or trance bring about a less serious connotation. Hypnosis and trance bring with them a less horrifying connoatation and even a funny connotation, because they usually had to deal with performances or acts that people knew were fake. Mesmerization, however was a concerning topic and it frightened many people, the fact that Poe specifically chose the word would have made readers fearful. The reoccurring theme of mesmerism would have struck fear in the readers and made them believe it could happen to any one of them. As the story progresses so would the fear in readers and the usage of medical terms also helps to make the fictional story more believable.

In the time of Poe many were uneducated and Poe knew this and took advantage of this fact, while he never attended medical school Poe was well educated. Poe used his knowledge and resources so that he could include many medical terms in the short story. The medical terms heightened the level of fear in the readers, because the real medical terms caused readers to believe all the things spoken of in the story were fact. Interestingly, Poe uses the most medical terms in the paragraph before Valdemar is hypnotized, while P. is describing his deteriorating condition.  While describing Valdemars condtion, P. uses words such as ossified, purulent tubercles, perforations, and phthisis, the meaning of the words is not necessarily important, rather the fact that people of Poes time would have known only a highly educated person would use such complex words.  P. then describes Valdemars lungs as “semi-osseous or cartilaginous state” and also explained that it is likely Valdermar had an “aneurism of the aorta” all of the words used to describe Valdemars decaying state would have been foreign to almost everyone in society at the time and it made the story seem as if it were a medical document rather than a fictional story. In the eyes of average citizens during Poe’s time it would have been absolutely horrifying because the use of the medical terms gave credibility to the fiction creating doubt as to whether or not the story was fictional or not. 

While Poe’s story is creepy and eerie to society today, it would have been exponentially more terrifying to people of Poe’s time. Poe preyed upon the fact that people in his time were uneducated and he used this to make his fictional short story, be seen as a documenting of a medical event. The usage of the word mesmerization instead of other words with similar meaning is key to the horrifying mood of the story, other words with similar meaning bring about a less serious connotation, but mesmerization causes the readers of the time to fear they could be subject to the same thing. Mesmerization is almost mentioned as the same time medical terms are being used, which may have caused people to take the concept of mesmerization as a type of medical treatment, making the story horrifying due to the events that ensue after the mesmerization of Valdemar. Mesmerization brings about a serious theme to the story and alongside the medical terms, it reinforces the credibility of Poe and thus readers would have taken the story as fact instead of a fictional story. 
