the facts in the case of m valdemar summary

Valdemar's eyes at one point leak a 'profuse outflowing of a yellowish ichor', for example, though Poe's imagery in the story is best summed up in its final lines: '. his whole frame at once - within the space of a single minute, or even less, shrunk-crumbled-absolutely rotted away beneath my hands. Valdemar', displaying his own studies of medical texts. Poe uses particularly detailed descriptions and relatively high levels of gore in 'The Facts in the Case of M. As Valdemar shouts 'Dead! dead!' repeatedly, the narrator takes Valdemar out of his trance in the process, Valdemar's entire body immediately decays into a 'nearly liquid mass of loathsome - of detestable putrescence.' Analysis In between trance and wakefulness, Valdemar begs the narrator to quickly put him back to sleep or to wake him.

During this time Valdemar is without pulse, heartbeat or perceptible breathing, his skin cold and pale.įinally, the narrator makes attempts to awaken Valdemar, asking questions that are answered with difficulty as Valdemar's voice emanates from his throat and lolling tongue while his lips and jaws are frozen in death. The narrator leaves him in a mesmeric state for seven months, checking on him daily.

In a trance, he reports first that he is dying - then that he is dead. Valdemar is quickly mesmerized, just as the two physicians return and serve as additional witnesses. Again, Valdemar insists he is willing to take part and asks the narrator to hurry, for fear he has 'deferred it for too long'. After confirming again that Valdemar is willing to be part of the experiment, the narrator comes back the next night with two nurses and a medical student as witnesses. Valdemar's two physicians inform the narrator of their patient's poor condition.

Valdemar consents to the experiment and informs the narrator by letter that he will probably die in twenty-four hours. He considers experimenting on his friend Ernest Valdemar, an author whom he had previously mesmerized, and who has recently been diagnosed with phthisis ( tuberculosis). He points out that, as far as he knows, no one has ever been mesmerized at the point of death, and he is curious to see what effects mesmerism would have on a dying person. He is interested in mesmerism, a pseudoscience involving bringing a patient into a hypnagogic state by the influence of magnetism, a process that later developed into hypnotism. The narrator presents the facts of the extraordinary case of Valdemar, which have incited public discussion.

The facts in the case of m valdemar summary