i need help in a paper i am writing on The facts in the case of M.Valdemar, i do not understand the poem at all and i would like to know if you can explain in to me in a way that could write a paper on it. Also i would like to know if you can help me write a thesis and an introductory paragraph i need this by november 11th 2002

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2002

Answers

Hi Kristal,

This is a short story, and an interesting one at that. It's been awhile since I've last read it. The narrator is interested in "memsmerism," like hypnosis, and he practices on a friend. His friend is very ill, and after the narrator puts his friend in a trance, he passes away. The narrator then continues his work on his friend's body. For seven months after his death, the narrator continues to hear the voices coming from his friend, as though the man where in suspended animation. When the narrator finally tries to wake his friend from the dead, the man is taken out of the trance and rots away - decompses - right in front of everyone's eyes. I'm not certain the hidden meaning of this story, or even if there is one, as Poe did not like to hide meaning as much as evoke a powerful response from the reader, but it is a very cool story. Try reading it again!

Cheers, Lynn

-- Anonymous, November 10, 2002

The unhealthy relationship between the one who would will the dead back to life, sustain memory and the equally unreal will of the undead to hagnag around or return when neither the remmeberer or the memory is very happy with the results. "Tale of the Ragged Mountains" uses hypnosis to recall memories as the one hypnotized sickens and dies. The doctor in both seems very detached yet horrible in their enthusiasm for the knowledge. "Usher" "The Premature Burial" "The Oblong Box" etc are also symptomatic of things that were haunting Poe, both with and against his will. There is nearly never a hopeful message from beyond. "Eleanora" is an exception, but this is a spiritual comfort from one truly beyond the material realm to the bereaved to live life again, an exception in every way to the usual dilemma. Pair this too with "Ligeia"and the revulsion of fighting death on the border.

-- Anonymous, November 11, 2002