[English Version] Edgar Allan Poe: Mesmerism in the case of Mr. Valdemar

Edgar Allan Poe: Mesmerism in the case of Mr. Valdemar

 

Hello my dears. I am the Raven who speaks to you.

“The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” is not among Poe's best works, much less among those best known and revered in the field of the arts, but it is undoubtedly one of the darkest tales of the first half of the 19th century. A great strength in Poe's writing is the pseudoscientific aspect. And I refer to it as pseudoscientific because it is not really scientific at all: in fact it takes scientific questions and mixes with supernatural elements, thus creating situations, phenomena and consequences that, although not in fact true or possible in reality, give the reader the feeling that they can really happen to someone. Poe was a studious fellow and it is important to say that, although he tried to make a living with literature without much success, his field of interest was never limited exclusively to this camp.

I believe that “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” is one of several tales that shows very well the length of Poe's interests and how they affect his fiction. In this tale we have very detailed descriptions about the body structure of a sick person, something arising from the studies that Poe was doing at the time with medical manuals. In a way, it is this effort and commitment that make his work so believable, even portraying the absurd. When Poe imagined a concept inspired by some event or something he had read, he doubled his efforts in understanding the theme, so that he would have enough basic knowledge to make a narrative with a high level of realism, something that ends up having a surprising impact.

He writes about absurd things, but with such propriety, dedication and attention that his readers are induced to believe that the tale corresponds to something that could or did happen in reality. “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” is perhaps the best example in the works of the victorian novelist. Many believe that the hoax, which is false information linked to some communication channel without further explanation in order to make people believe that it is true, is something from the end of the 20th century. With the popularization of internet the hoax became popular again, in fact. Before political fake news, people online created stories in order to convince a large audience of the veracity of strange events. But the hoax is something quite old. This tale was a hoax and one of the many curiosities about Poe’s work. In my analysis, I see dishonesty on the part of the novelist, although commentators at the time claim he just wanted to play a joke on readers. But when “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” was published, Poe didn't put much specification into it. And the level of detail was so vivid, precise and grotesque, supported by real physiological descriptions, that the reading public really believed that the tale was a real case. People were horrified. It is one of Poe's most macabre tales, without a doubt. His aesthetic work and the way he plays with the reader's imagination is disturbing. Only later did he clarify that this tale was fictitious, when he began to be questioned about it. But the damage was already done: many people lost sleep over the horrific ending and Poe obviously got what he wanted: publicity. Positive and negative. For a writer who was never very successful in his own era, something that happens a lot in literature with many ahead of their time and misunderstood by their own people, Poe craved any kind of attention he could get. And so he wrote one of the most macabre, appealing and disturbing tales of his time. But, don't misunderstand: the tale is brilliant, both from a technical, psychological and aesthetic point of view. It perfectly fulfills its purpose. And Poe's physiological approach in describing Mr. Valdemar's slow process of putrefaction is so precise that this is, in fact, what makes this tale so astonishing. I try to imagine victorians reading this and I can't - it must have been terrifying. The society was not prepared for something so shocking.

I imagine that Poe had even personal motivations to invest in a medical description as accurate as the one he presented here. When Poe published the story in 1845, it had been four years since his wife, Virginia, had been battling tuberculosis. Imagine, for a brief moment, what it is like to suffer from this cursed disease for four years without the modern treatments we have today, the level of despondency and pitiful state that this disease caused in people. If Poe was able to describe someone so sick and literally languishing on his deathbed, this is undoubtedly due to the fact that he also had very similar experiences with his own wife. The images are vivid because, literally, Poe experienced them every day. Quite possibly he found in literature a way to elaborate and alleviate this tension.

I could not fail to mention, of course, the second field of interest and resource used by the tale, which is mesmerism. Mind control and the hypnotic process is a topic that caused a lot of fascination in Victorian society. The 19th century was quite heated with regard to this topic, with constant studies and many experiments. An example of this is the later work of the austrian physician Josef Breuer, who, by teaching the hypnotic therapeutic method to Sigmund Freud, had a direct influence on the first works of psychoanalytic theory and on the notion of the unconscious. The most literate victorians with some level of education certainly had access to the subject. Something that Poe, by the way, helped to highlight even more. It is enough to reflect on how many times mesmerism appeared as a key element in his tales. Poe had a huge interest in the human mind and in phenomena not yet explained by science. And even though he was never actually a scientist, this victorian-era curiosity on the part of the lay public is extremely well represented in his work.

In “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” Poe's proposal is to act in two dimensions: first, he wants to incite the public's curiosity about this hypnosis. And second, inciting fear by moving, aiming at the depths of the unknown, of what is beyond life. That would be the supposed life after death, something that humanity has always had a lot of interest for not being able to deal very well with its own finitude. Poe glues one theme to another, making them work together. The central question is: if a person is in a hypnotic process and close to death, if the body dies, will the mind die with it? Or will it remain active until such time as the link is finally broken? It is simply macabre, disturbing, horrifying to imagine. And just as brilliant. Valdemar's hypnotic guidance, in the process of death and in the afterlife, is one of the most terrifying things I've ever read in literature. Poe spares no adjectives to describe the process. The pitiful state of Valdemar's physical structure, after death, progressively worsens. The man literally rots in bed and, even if you are not in the scene and your sensitivity is high, maybe you can even smell the stench that exudes from what we used to call a body. However, only one thing continues to move in his constitution, due to the hypnotic link that was not broken: the tongue.

Valdemar's death facial expression is horrendous. It would frighten even those who work in hospitals and have already followed the death of terminal patients. His mouth remained open and in turn the blackened tongue, with difficulty, continues to make movements in an attempt to answer the requested questions. Understand: the man is dead. Dead! His mouth doesn't move, JUST his tongue. And bizarrely, he still manages to make sounds with a different timbre. And this is an element that will certainly disturb the most sensitive ones, because it is practically impossible not to raise other questions from this frightening figure that we imagine during the reading: is it really Valdemar speaking there? Or is it something else? This is what give the fantastic and necessary ambiguous tone to the tale. Its true strength. The contact with this incredible and disturbing thing that will make the deepest fears and superstitions germinate in their minds. “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” is a powerful tale capable of continuing to haunt future generations, because at the same time that it is accurate in its physiological and medical descriptions, it works with questions and doubts that will remain in each generation.

Corvid greetings!

[English Version] Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven: Meanings of 'Nevermore'

Hello my dears. I am the Raven who speaks to you.

As a brazilian, from the perspective of someone born and raised in this tropical country, I feel comfortable saying that “The Raven” was and continues to be Poe's most influential poem for our people. It received the attention of important literary figures, who had a deep, notorious love for the text. The most responsible for bringing “The Raven” to us and, putting Poe on our radar was without a doubt the always admirable Machado de Assis, for whom I have deep respect (mainly for timeless works such as As Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas and O Alienista). He was the first to introduce it to us, publishing his portuguese translation in 1883. After him, others followed: Emílio de Menezes paraphrased the text already in the 20th century, in a sequence of eighteen sonnets, in 1917. In 1924, Fernando Pessoa present his translation, appreciated by many. In this list of translators, Gondin da Fonseca (1926), Milton Amado (1944, particularly my favorite version), Benedicto Lopes (1956), Cabral do Nascimento (1972), Alexei Bueno (1980) and Aluysio Mendonça Sampaio (1998) also gave their contributions.

So many names only prove the fascination and admiration that “The Raven” awakens in brazilian readers. Something to be expected from a text that, despite its otherworldly aura, is filled with inspiring musicality, as well as incredibly precise rhythm and meter. “The Raven” is not only appreciated artistically speaking: it is also a source of study, bibliographic material that serves as didactic content in technical and aesthetic lessons. “The Raven” is a poem that, in addition to building once and for all the gothic style that characterizes Poe, makes explicit all the melancholy rooted in his writings. And I appreciate that. To understand a little more clearly where his mind and heart were when he wrote the poem, it might be necessary to remember the ups and downs he was experiencing until the moment he finally managed to publish it. It is important to say that the precise date of when Poe wrote “The Raven” is unknown: what we do know is the publication date, January 29, 1845, in the New York Evening Mirror. The poem was previously rejected on more than one occasion.

The period, mainly the last five years prior to publication, are somewhat enlightening about what ended up leaking in this poem, although Poe has defended, in his essay “The Philosophy of Composition” (1846) that his approach to the poem was exclusively logical and methodical. However, I believe it is clear that, however much we use logic and technique, the character of a literary text never ceases to be emotional in its essence. This becomes quite evident when we realize the emotion present in the poem. The human aspect of our nature never leaves us even when we are looking for some accuracy in our writing. It’s not possible to losing our identity and totally repressing emotions when we are expressing ourselves artistically.

Conceptually, Poe was inspired by Charles Dickens to create his own talking raven. And it was Elizabeth Barret who elucidated and inspired the form of the composition mainly in terms of rhythm and meter. But other than that, I imagine what we discover reading “The Raven” are biographical fragments of a life that is in disgrace, about to delve into it even deeper. To justify this, let me recall some historical facts of Poe's brief life at that time. It is known that his riotous and undisciplined life led him practically to ruin. Poe was rejected from both an academic institution (more precisely at the University of Virginia) and a military one, in this case the West-Point Military Academy. A bohemian and adept at the illusory pleasures of alcohol, it was in Baltimore that he actually started to have a trade and earn some money (believed to have been $10 a week, writing for a weekly magazine). The turning point in Poe's life, which would lead him to more peaceful years, occurred precisely in one of the most controversial episodes of his biography: the marriage with his cousin Virginia Clemm. Virginia was only 13 years old, while Poe was already approaching his 30s. As the documentary sources on Virginia and Edgar are quite scarce and imprecise, some biographers disagree about the nature of the relationship: some believe that did not escalate to the sexual aspect, while others claim that this was certainly the case. Considering the time, I’m certainly with the second group and think that those who try to suggest that Poe did not have a sexual relationship with Virginia are just trying to clean up his image, which frankly has not been clean for many years. Poe was admittedly a troublemaker, given to carnal pleasures and it was precisely due to orgies and bohemian life that he was expelled from the institutions he frequented. It doesn't surprise me at all that he got involved with a teenager, as his life history pointed to that. I won't deceive you, my listener: several of the classic writers have bizarre and morally reprehensible episodes in their biographies and Poe was no exception. And I won't be the one trying to hide this facts.

That said, it goes on record that the marriage to Virginia did Poe good, mentally speaking. Dependent on alcohol, surprisingly it was the young woman who helped him to move away from drinking and to have some stability in the following years. By all accounts, Virginia had a huge influence on his behavior. The last years of the 1830s were, in this respect, the healthiest physically and mentally for Poe. That is until Virginia contracted tuberculosis in 1842. She died in 1847, aged 24, after 5 years of battle. And this period was precisely the one where it is believed that the poem “The Raven” germinated. In my perception, I can clearly feel Poe’s morbidity and suffering in the poem due to the sad and troubled moments he spent with Virginia. The black bird himself, as the one who heralds an omen and tragedy, makes me visualize Poe's fear of losing Virginia. His biography has evidence of extramarital affairs, but Virginia was the one who, in a way, supported the writer, kept him on track. When she died in 1847, Poe not only returned to heavy drinking, he himself died two years later, in 1849. I think that says a lot if you look at the whole mosaic. I believe that Lenora, mentioned in the poem, is certainly a pseudonym for Virginia. Whenever I hear this name in the poem, my mind sends me to her. The poet's poor wife, his benefactress, the woman who brought him moments of light and who was dying.

“The Raven” is very biographical, even if the author as I mentioned referred to it as something technical and logical. However, I think that the great achievement of Poe is his ability to narrate scenes that deal with the emotional and supernatural experience in a very subjective way, allowing readers who associate the character with their own experiences, which they possibly had in life. This is quite interesting to see in the way Poe wrotes his texts. In them, we can see and feel the author as if he were the character, but at the same time, we can feel ourselves in the scenes. As if the raven was visiting and talking to us. Poe writes with impersonality, although he leaks elements of his own identity in every verse. And this promotes something rich for our experience, the possibility of reading a poem like “The Raven” with different optics. We read closely, in the epidermis, or even a little further away, as an external witness. And I believe that this is one of the qualities of the poem that makes it so interesting and compatible with other forms of art, such as cinema for example.

Briefly mentioning the events narrated, we accompany a lonely man by the fireplace on a dark night, consulting ancient science tomes in an attempt to remove from his mind the memory of the death of his beloved Lenora. Then he hears a knock on his bedroom door, opens and finds no one. However, the phenomenon repeats and he realizes that the sound was actually coming from the window. In the moment when it was opened, a raven came in, landing on a bust of the goddess Athena. The man then asks the black bird what his name would be, which he then responds saying “nevermore”, surprising the man who did not expect any response, although he had asked the question.

Shortly after, the man meditates that soon the raven will also flap wings and take his life, as well as many others who have passed through it before, taking away his hopes. The raven then repeats: "nevermore", as if he had read the man’s thoughts. Depressed, the man goes on to argue that the raven learned such an expression from some unfortunate master and that this was the only thing he knew. However, such a finding is not able to demotivate him to study and discover something more about the animal, and so he pulls up a chair and sits down facing the black bird. Staring at him, Lenora's memory returns to his thoughts, making the man feel the air thicker, as if he were in the presence of angels. He asks if this would be a divine sign for him to overcome Lenora's memory and thus, once again, the raven intervenes, implying that the man would never be free of his memories and, consequently, of his torment. This rouses his fury, excommunicating the raven and its prophecy. However, in a last act, he asks the bird if he would ever be reunited in Heaven with Lenora, where the raven repeats: “nevermore”. Accusing the bird of a lying, the man calls for him to return to the Plutonian coast, certainly a reference to Pluto, god of the dead in Roman mythology, an embodiment of Hades in Greek mythology. The raven, however, does not move. It continues resting on the bust of Athena, where the man then proceeds to admit that his soul will henceforth be trapped under the raven's shadow and will "nevermore" rise. And so the poem ends.

In the essay “The Philosophy of Composition”, Poe made it very clear that choosing the raven as the symbol for the poem was not random. The writer aimed to rely on the lugubrious tone that the bird evokes in the collective imagination of society, something that comes from classical mythologies and still persists. And Poe after that starts to play ambiguously, touching on the real and the mythological, but without pointing out where the text really is located. Mythological because, by evoking the symbology of the raven and making him speak, we would have the perception of the bird as a supernatural being. However, and at the same time, it is worth remembering that the author makes the bird mention only one word (nevermore), something that is not uncommon in the animal kingdom, especially when we talk about birds and their ability to learn and emit sounds. Ravens actually can do that. In this sense, the poem enters both the rational and the supernatural world at the same time: it is possible to interpret in both ways.

I think what really speaks louder, which is something more categorical, is the fact that the raven is an allegory of death. Regardless of how we interpret, its prophetic tone indicates finitude, reaffirms at all times the loss, the feeling of mourning, the impossibility of reuniting with the loved one and the fatalities of life. The raven becomes a symbol that represents all of this. And so, it causes torture by constantly reminding of loss, thus eliciting the desolation and revolt with death, a phenomenon that escapes our knowledge, power and which we cannot overcome.

Corvid greetings!

[English Version] Edgar Allan Poe - The Raven: Meanings of 'Nevermore'

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