When
thinking about the topic, one cannot help but wonder if death is really the end
of existence, the final stage of our human bodies, or if it could be possible
to play with it and make it obey our own rules whenever we want. Humankind has
broken down so many limits by curing sicknesses that used to me mortal,
developing medical procedures that were unthinkable in the past and even
creating life in laboratories that it seems reasonable to give this possibility
a momentary space on our thoughts.
Going
further and being more adventurous, could this event take place at the very
moment of the departure? It would be an attractive idea, for ‘death is still a
fearful, frightening happening, and the fear of death is a universal fear even
if we think we have mastered it on many levels.’ (Kübler-Ross, 2009: p. 4.) It
would certainly empower the human race to have absolute control on its
existence, including the end of it.
(Edgar Allan Poe) |
Finding
such a topic is hardly surprising after we realize that ‘literature sometimes
helps people to resolve the spiritual issues of death. It can be both objective
and personal and it can give inspiration,’ (Skelton, 2003: p. 218.) We will
also like to consider that ‘one of the central things of which literature can
make us more aware is that death means different things at different times’
(Skelton, 2003: p. 211) as we go further into this proposal of death being
controlled by humans.
In ‘The
Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar,’ Poe breaks the rules of Mother Nature by
keeping a man completely conscious and still in the realm of the living after
he dies, also forcing him to confess that ‘For God’s sake!—quick!—quick!—put me
to sleep—or, quick!—waken me!—quick!—I say to you that I am dead!’ (Poe, 1944:
p7.)
In
the story, Poe ‘thus erode the borderline parts of the physiological apparatus
to the point where that apparatus or body collapses into the abject material
itself.’ (Sutherland, 2004: p. 3.) By doing this, he alters what is commonly
understood as a living state, an aspect that becomes even more notorious when
Valdermar speaks after being turned into this strange, undead creature
By
medical means, or by mesmerism, to be more specific, the unnamed narrator
creates a new kind of zombie that is only capable of speaking in certain
moments of the story; frozen in time, he finds himself trapped in that
unnatural state. However, this same creature cannot move, eat or realize any
other activity that living beings are capable of, which gives us the clue that
he’s not completely dead despite he isn’t living either.
It
is in this limbo that Valdemar finally find a rest when ‘his whole frame at
once—within the space of a single minute, or even less, shrunk—crumbled—absolutely
rotted away beneath my hands. Upon the bed, before that whole company, there
lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome—of detestable putridity.’ (Poe, 1944: p.
7.)
(Valdemar by Clarke) |
After
such an unnatural outcome, maybe with even more reason since Valdemar agreed to
participate in the experiment of the unnamed narrator, it seems obvious that
his death wouldn’t be peaceful or calm, but brutal, graphic and described with
gory details. This is especially relevant when we consider its contrast with
Poe’s typical use of the topic of the death of a beautiful woman, which he
included in many of his stories (Elmer, 1995.)
Although
this may not be considered as a case of immortality for some, it certainly is
an early example of what it meant to be immortal for American society during
Poe’s time: unnatural, far from being permissible and a dangerous, fearsome
state that should be avoided, just like death. It is undeniable as well the
fact that he has presented the transformation of a common human being into
something else that seems to be detached of the limitations of being a mortal
entity.
What
is even more interesting about this story is not only the fact that death seems
to be stopped by a simple human, well versed in medical matters of course, yet
human nonetheless, but that it did for seven months, as specified in the tale.
This leads to conclude that, besides being possible to achieve alternative
states of consciousness, medical methods have also the capacity to control the
effects of death in both human body and mind.
The
idea is not far from reality as long as we consider that:
If the
experiences described are true to life, perhaps the strategies that were used
in this literary work, or are suggested through their absence, may be effective
in your patient’s (or even your own) predicament. Literature, or ‘the
humanities’, can enhance good practice in medicine. (Skelton, 2003: p. 218.)
However,
I would like to point to the fact that this is not an appealing panorama, as
far as I can see, if we keep in mind the results Mary Shelly’s memorable Victor
Frankenstein achieved after creating his monster, the product of his long time
experiments with corpses. Hutchisson (2005) suggests this same idea when
speaking about Valdemar’s story, stating that attempts to control the natural
course of death in human life would be unsuccessful, a point of view already
mentioned in this article.
On
the other hand, and if we keep thinking optimistically, this could mean that
death can be successfully mastered and controlled after the right amount of
research, experiments and knowledge are spent for this purpose, because ‘even
though human beings possess mortal bodies, they have always longed for
immortality.’ (Weiner & Meskimen, 2010: p. 1961.) We only need someone to
do the first try in the real world in order to see how possible it could be to
put an end to death, as ironic as it sounds.
References
Durkin,
Keith. (2018). Death, dying and the dead in popular culture. Handbook of Death
and Dying. 43-49. 10.4135/9781412914291.n5.
Elmer,
J. (1995). Terminate or Liquidate? Poe, Sensationalism, and the Sentimental
Tradition. na.
Kübler-Ross,
E. (2009). On death and dying: What the dying have to teach doctors, nurses,
clergy and their own families. Taylor & Francis.
Poe,
E. A. (1944). The facts in the case of M. Valdemar. Alex Catalogue.
Skelton,
J. (2003). Death and dying in literature. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment,
9(3), 211-217.
Hutchisson,
J. M. (2005). Poe. Univ. Press of Mississippi.
Sutherland,
H. (2004). Wide Webs of Fear: American Gothic Fiction and Its British
Counterparts. STAR (Scottish Transatlantic Relations) Project Archive. April.
Weiner,
J., & Meskimen, J. (2010). Long for this world: The strange science of
immortality. New York: Harper Collins Publishers.
Alan D. D. is an author, blogger and journalist who has been
freaking the world since 1995. Hailing and writing out of Venezuela, Alan D.D.
has worked with books, comics, music, movies and almost anything else that
catches his attention. 99% of the time, it's something about witches. He's
currently trying to get his first novel in English published and searching for
a 24/7 chocolate supplier.
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