“It is now rendered necessary that I give the facts—as far as I comprehend them myself. They are, succinctly, these….”

This quotation is visually and grammatically emphasized because it constitutes its own paragraph and leads directly from the more general commentary of the Narrator into his account of the case of M. Valdemar. Building on the first sentence, this aims to establish him as an authority, communicating “facts” to the reading public. On the other hand, the qualification (“as far as I comprehend them myself”) primes the reader to expect a mysterious or hard to understand story, and also tries to account in advance for the Narrator’s recounting events that defy normal logic.

“[N]o person had as yet been mesmerized in articulo mortis. It remained to be seen, first, whether, in such condition, there existed in the patient any susceptibility to the magnetic influence; secondly, whether, if any existed, it was impaired or increased by the condition; thirdly, to what extent, or for how long a period, the encroachments of Death might be arrested by the process.”

Here, the Narrator lays out the basic premise of his experiment in mesmerism—to see if he is able to prevent Valdemar from dying through hypnosis (“in articulo mortis” is Latin for “at the point of death”). This sentence helps the reader to understand the Narrator as an ambitious practitioner of mesmerism with a genuine interest in its applications and a goal of establishing it in a scientific context as a revolutionary means of preventing the heretofore inevitable.

“It was his custom, indeed, to speak calmly of his approaching dissolution, as of a matter neither to be avoided nor regretted.”

The Narrator explains that Valdemar has accustomed himself to the idea that he will soon die and that his attitude toward it is consequently one of calm acceptance. This is in contrast with the Narrator’s goal with his experiment—i.e., to prevent the subject’s death from occurring, or to “avoid” death. It is noteworthy that Poe here uses the word “dissolution” in place of “death,” foreshadowing the final scene of the story when, at the moment Valdemar can be said to have definitely died, his body literally “dissolves” into a liquid mass of rotting material.

“His face wore a leaden hue; the eyes were utterly lustreless; and the emaciation was so extreme, that the skin had been broken through by the cheek-bones.”

An early example of Poe’s vivid use of description in this story, in this passage the Narrator describes Valdemar’s appearance when he arrives at his home the day before the doctors believe he will die. The pale, grayish color of his skin, the dimmed eyes, and the skeletal thinness of his body all make Valdemar evoke a corpse, even before he has actually died. This description allows Poe to position Valdemar at the far edge of life, teetering on the precipice of death, and making his subsequent seven-month suspension in a mesmerized state even more extreme.

“I explained to them, in a few words, what I designed, and as they opposed no objection, saying that the patient was already in the death agony, I proceeded without hesitation—exchanging, however, the lateral passes for downward ones, and directing my gaze entirely into the right eye of the sufferer.”

As the Narrator is about to begin inducing the mesmeric trance in Valdemar, he consults briefly with the doctors about his plan. Notable here is the way in which, because Valdemar is essentially already dead in the eyes of the medical professionals surrounding him, they raise no objections to the use of his body (and mind) in an unsettling experiment. Poe also uses words like “agony” and “sufferer” to convey the physical pain that Valdemar is experiencing, with the effect that we are left to wonder if he continues to feel this while in the trance.

“Yes; asleep now. Do not wake me!—let me die so!”

These are the first words the Narrator is able to pull from Valdemar once he has successfully been placed in a trance. They are notable within the context of the story because they are only the second lines directly quoted by the Narrator, who often relies on indirect discourse to render dialogue. Poe uses punctuation (semicolons, exclamation marks, dashes) and grammatical fragments to interrupt Valdemar’s speech and give it a shuddering, pained quality that distances him from the situation around him. It is also notable that he entreats the Narrator to “let [him] die” right away, and Poe uses direct quotation here to clearly convey the mesmerized Valdemar’s desires to the reader.

“[T]he circular hectic spots which, hitherto, had been strongly defined in the centre of each cheek, went out at once. I use this expression, because the suddenness of their departure put me in mind of nothing so much as the extinguishment of a candle by a puff of the breath.”

The “hectic spots” observed on Valdemar are an example of the Narrator’s use of medical terminology, referring here to flushed cheeks, possibly brought on by a fever. In this quotation, Valdemar, still in a trance, undergoes a physical transformation in which any signs of life left in his body disappear, the color drained from his cheeks suddenly. The Narrator’s description of a candle being blown out brings to mind a sudden death, an extinguishing of a life, and this seems to be the point in the story at which Valdemar has died (in body, at least).

“[B]ut so hideous beyond conception was the appearance of M. Valdemar at this moment, that there was a general shrinking back from the region of the bed.”

Another pivotal turning point in the story, the Narrator’s grotesque description of Valdemar’s mouth opening widely, revealing his “blackened” tongue, is followed by all of the characters recoiling in shock or terror from the deathbed. This repulsion is intended to parallel the reader’s reaction to Poe’s vivid, disgusting rendering of the condition of the body, and to signal the story’s shift into overt horror; whereas up to this point, Poe has merely foreshadowed the “extraordinary” events of the story and created a vague sense of dread, from here on out, he begins to describe explicitly the supernatural turns of the tale.

“I now feel that I have reached a point of this narrative at which every reader will be startled into positive disbelief. It is my business, however, simply to proceed.”

This is another point at which the Narrator directly addresses the reader and responds to the reader’s presumed reaction to the story that is being told. The Narrator assumes that he will be met with incredulity at this point, but says that he must continue as his role is merely to tell the facts. Like the first instance, this aside is visually signaled because it serves as its own paragraph, and there is a way in which these addresses to the reader constitute a breaking of the fourth wall by the Narrator.

“[T]here issued from the distended and motionless jaws a voice—such as it would be madness in me to attempt describing.”

Here, the Narrator recounts the central supernatural event of the story: Valdemar seemingly speaking from beyond the grave in an unearthly, terrifying voice. Poe combines clear, detailed description (the “distended and motionless jaws”) with its exact opposite—that is, a statement of the futility, or the impossibility of describing certain things, a refusal to put words to something that essentially exists beyond human frames of reference. The juxtaposition of the grotesquely hyper-specific with the unsettlingly vague that is exemplified in this sentence is also the primary mode of horror that Poe utilizes in this story.

“It was evident that, so far, death (or what is usually termed death) had been arrested by the mesmeric process.”

Poe combines in a single sentence two opposed impulses—the statement of verifiable or observed fact (“it was evident that…”) contrasted with a qualifying parenthetical clause (“or what is usually termed”) that admits the impossibility of precision and certainty when faced with unprecedented or inexplicable phenomena. This quotation signals the major goal of the Narrator, which is to have his readers really believe a story that seems unbelievable. Here, the Narrator both tells us something specific about Valdemar’s condition (that he has not died at the time his doctors had predicted) but also that the strange state he is in defies categorization and seems to be neither truly life nor death.

“It was observed, as especially remarkable, that this lowering of the pupil was accompanied by the profuse out-flowing of a yellowish ichor (from beneath the lids) of a pungent and highly offensive odor.”

As the story reaches its climax and the Narrator, after seven months, decides to bring Valdemar out of the trance, Poe gives us the first inkling of the imminent physical collapse of his body through his description of its leaking “ichor,” a foul-smelling discharge from his eyes. Once again, Poe is shifting into a hyper-specific, anatomical, and grotesque mode of description to elicit a sensation of horror in his reader, to make them recoil from the scene like the doctors in an earlier passage. He also draws attention to Valdemar’s eyes in order to bring back the motif of sleeping (when our eyes are closed) and waking (when they open), and to make Valdemar’s slumber seem unnatural and unhealthy.

“For God’s sake!—quick!—quick!—put me to sleep—or, quick!—waken me!—quick!—I say to you that I am dead!”

These are Valdemar’s words when the Narrator asks him how he “feels” upon being brought out of the seven-month trance. He states clearly here that he is, indeed, dead (thus resolving some of the story’s ambiguity at the very end), and once again implores the Narrator to do something to alleviate his agony and existential angst (either put him to sleep or awaken him). The frantic, stuttering quality of this speech makes clear the extent of Valdemar’s suffering, but it also rhythmically foreshadows the rapid final notes of Poe’s story, when his body rots and collapses instantly.