The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar

In this case, the lack of a common literary device becomes a device in its own right. In literature, an author’s job often entails describing people, places, and events to us in clear terms that allow us to recreate a picture in our mind, to visualize the story. In certain areas, Poe does this to a significant degree in this story, extensively describing the condition of Valdemar’s body in precise terms, highlighting what is easily communicable. Just as important is what Poe does not describe. The moments when the Narrator is unable to tell us precisely what he saw and heard are even more striking because they are surrounded by such elaborate and specific descriptions. For example, the Narrator says “it would be madness in [him] to attempt describing” the voice that speaks from the mesmerized Valdemar, that it is “indescribable,” and that the horror he feels is “unutterable” (101). He uses these phrases to create the impression of a general, unspecifiable oddness about the scene, and in this way, these words, even though they don’t conjure up specific images or make things clearer to the reader, provide “some idea of [the voice’s] unearthly peculiarity” (101). Faced with these suggestive blanks, the reader’s imagination is left to fill in the details.

Though the story is told by a Narrator who addresses the reader directly, presenting his memories and impressions of events, it is notable that the only direct dialogue is spoken by the Narrator himself or Valdemar. While the Narrator describes other conversations, he does not use direct quotations (e.g., “Dr. F– then intimated a desire to have me put a question” [102]), and the reader never experiences the voices of the other characters present during the events of the story. Instead, their questions or statements are related indirectly by the Narrator. This makes them more peripheral and de-emphasizes their importance. All of the direct dialogue pertains to the story’s central experiment in mesmerism. Aside from the first direct quotation, in which Valdemar confirms his willingness to be put into a trance, all of the lines quoted are questions from the Narrator seeking to get an idea of whether, and to what extent, Valdemar is hypnotized (e.g., “M. Valdemar, do you still sleep?” [100]) or replies from the mesmerized subject (e.g. “Yes; still asleep – dying” [100]). This dialogue is easily visible because of the use of quotation marks, but it is also used sparingly throughout the story. Poe thus establishes the significance of the words spoken by the mesmerized Valdemar and, because these lines are visually and contextually striking within the frame of the larger story, further underscores the strangeness of the voice speaking from the beyond. Just as the voice emanating from Valdemar’s immobilized body is incongruous, the written lines presenting these words stand out from the body of Poe’s story.