So much of the human experience concerns itself with death, the afterlife, and the legacy of our actions. As much as scientific study and research has made headway in our understanding of life, humanity today is no closer to understanding death than were the first Homo sapiens. It may seem futile to waste one‘s life concerned with death, as it becomes no less important, no less thought about, and no less dreaded Poe’s specific word choices allow readers to devise their personal meanings of life and death and body and soul. M, Valdemar neither regrets nor avoids his looming death. Valdemar speaks calmly of death and does not fear it, for life and death are two sides of the same coin, opposite yet so intertwined. Mr. P-mstating Valdemar’s condition after being mesmerized, says, “When I had accomplished this, it was fully midnight, and I requested the gentlemen present to examine M. Valdemar’s condition, After a few experiments, they admitted him to be in an unusually perfect state of mesmeric trance”.
One of the few observable moments of peace is the transition from life to death and this only lasts for a fleeting moment. The more death is prolonged, the more it is feared and the more it consumes our mind Valdemar’s mesmeric trance is idolized as obtainable peace and purity; this comes in the form of mesmerism for Poe while it may be nirvana for others. In “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” Poe informs us of the mind’s purity at death. Although it truly was midnight in the life course of M. Valdemar, something held him back from the afterlife. Poe choosing to use the word ‘accomplish’, gives the appearance that the narrator, P if , has just achieved his magnus opus, yet, M. Valdemar’s death proves to be much, much more horrifying than had he passed peacefully Poe is mocking the scientific community, as such an accomplishment will be heralded as a new era in research, but has done little to improve the human condition or answer questions of death and the afterlife.
Then, interestingly, although a simple play on words, Poe utilizes the word ‘admitted.’ Admitted can be used either meaning to confess or to receive someone. This literary device also works in tandem with the use of ‘mesmeric’ later in the phrase. As stated in the footnotes, the term ‘mesmerism’ refers to the Austrian physician Franz Mesmer Poe constructs his words so as to say Valdemar is being metaphorically admitted to the care of Dr. Mesmer. In this way, Poe once again mocks the medical field by including an influential man that scientists would now distance themselves from. Poe, describing the atmosphere of the room, writes, “After a few experiments”, and what the word ‘few’ accomplishes is that it invokes the sense of a busy room filled with a bewildered medical staff. Seamlessly moving from test to test as dictated by protocol, the doctors and nurses are no closer to explaining what has happened than a layman would be.
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An experiment is thought to be a scientific study that is conducted under a controlled environment with proper thought out steps, yet there is another definition. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, an experiment is also a “course of action adopted in uncertainty whether it will answer the purpose,” This seemingly removes the scientific aspect from what the doctors are attempting, as they are uncertain if medicine or science can explain anything in Valdemar’s condition, Not that the doctors put little thought into what they were doing, but they are so unsure of what to do. When science has been unclear, or where our evidence ends is coincidentally where the spiritual realm picks up. Poe induces readers to bring the sacrosanct into their consciousness, In the last portion of the quote, Poe begins to describe this hypnotic state of Mt Valdemar, M, Valdemar was found “to be in an unusually perfect state of mesmeric trance”.
While his body was in the room, Mi Valdemar’s spirit was quite separate By choosing to use the word ‘unusually,’ Poe takes the context of Valdemar’s condition to be unearthly and foreign to the human experience. This “unusually perfect unusually perfect state of mesmeric trance” reminds readers of the euphoric meditation of Buddhist tradition. By separating themselves from external stimuli, these meditators escape their own nagging humanity and rejoin the universal oversoul, Brahma, that is the goal of major religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism. Furthermore, by writing that Valdemar was in a perfect trance, Poe idolizes this condition, marking his belief that this is the only peace in one’s earthly life, something to be desired and sought for. If Valdemar was uneasy or in a state of suffering, ‘perfect’ would have never been used. It is when Poe includes the description of Valdemar‘s trance that readers are most able to peer through the physical words and connect M. Valdemar‘s experience to whatever may resonate the most, nirvana during meditation, an epiphany, or paradise While Valdemar’s body is caught between life and death and is later consumed by death in a most violent way, the mind is quite at ease.
This binary relationship between mind and body and spirit and matter is highlighted in this quote, The mind is isolated from reality as all outward senses are numbed. This trance that Poe writes of is the pure consciousness of Valdemar. Everything in our life, every action, stimulus, interaction, comes between our mind and us. Poe exalts the state of Valdemar‘s trance. As the body decays, the mind is clearer than ever. While on his deathbed, Valdemar and the doctors are concerned about his life and his upcoming fate. But once P : speaks to him after he is mesmerized, he tranquility responds, “No pain—I am dying”. This same message is uttered every time P — contacts him. In reality, Poe is simply stating, “mind over matter” in a more eloquent and compelling way. As defined by The Oxford English Dictionary, ‘perfect’ can also mean of “sound mind” or “complete satisfaction”.
No longer concerned with either life or death, M. Valdemar has truly beaten the suffering of both life and death. ‘Trance’ is a perfect capstone for Poe’s thoughts, The narrator compares the state of M. Valdemar to that of a sleep-walker (411). In the case of someone sleep-walking, the mind has total control over the physical body that encompasses it. The mind has control over the physical body in a way that is not observable in everyday occurrences When sleep-walking, there is not thought, just pure existence devoid of consciousness‘ interference. Secondly, ‘trance’ can be used to describe “a passage between buildings” (OED). M. Valdemar is caught in this trance; he is passing between the two concretely defined states of life and death. Now, an important question to ask is if trance solely refers to M. Valdemar. ‘Trance‘ can also be used to describe a “stunned or dazed state” (OED). This almost certa‘rrrfrspeaks to the mindset of the doctors and P.
This is the idea that Poe has been circling in on throughout the text. The conscious bystanders are gripped with the task of figuring out “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,” The selected passage is a carefully and meticulously crafted sentence. As evidenced by the actions of the narrator and the doctors, a concerning amount of human life is consumed by death. By being “mesmerized in articulo mom’s,“ death is arrested and must return for Valdemar at a later time. Valdemar is subject to this condition for months, and, as death waits for him, it proves to be all the more horrifying. Just as death consumes our minds the longer we live, Valdemar’s fate is grotesque by more than tenfold had he gone when it was time, The message beneath the text finally culminates and boils over when Poe writes, “After a few experiments, they admitted him to be in an unusually perfect state of mesmeric trance.”
By showing readers how sickly the man was in life and his death being so Violent, Poe makes it very clear that the fascination—his narrator P — has with the transition between life and death is something all should be curious of. Just as M. Valdemar had no family to interfere with his mesmerism, Valdemar’s soul and mind has no physical body to interfere with his inward contemplation. By showing that M. Valdemar is truly at peace when he is mesmerized at death, Poe hints to the readers that a life full of death is certain for all and irrevocably sets in stone his glorified View of the process of death and idolization of the mind’s and Spirit’s separateness from the body.
