In both Mesmeric Revelation and The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar both men suffer from tuberculosis and are kept alive after death through hypnosis. I looked it up and found these stories were written in August 1844 and December 1845 respectively. January 30, 1847 Virginia died of tuberculosis. My question seems to be do you think that these stories were written as Poe wish for a way to keep Virginia alive? Or for Poe to get his feelings out about the immortal soul, as if to say Virginia may die but its not the end, to make himself feel better?
Its interesting that if these stories are in a way referencing Virginia and his feelings about her situation, then why are the two characters who die men? As a proponent for the death of a beautiful woman you would think he would use a woman as the victim. Could it be that this would bring the event too close to home for him?
And again, if this references Virginia then why did Valdemar die so grotesquely? Do you think Poe had absolutely no hope of Virginia being kept alive?
Did anyone else have any thoughts on these two stories? Honestly, a lot of
Mesmeric Revelation went over my head. I had to read analysis online to understand what was going on. So any other thoughts on this would be great for my understanding of the text.
2 comments:
I think that Poe had Virginia in mind when writing this story, but I also was wondering why they were so grotesque. Usually his poems are not as gruesome, but the one that hits closest to home is the most disgusting- "Upon the bed, before that whole company, there lay a nearly liquid mass of loathsome- of detestable putridity". Would he really describe Virginia, the love of his life, in that way?
I could be way off base here but I am going to give it a shot. For a moment while reading the Mesmeric Revaltaion, I thought that maybe these theories and philosophies could entail a bit about what Poe thought of religion. Maybe I read it wrong but i figured since "V" is not arguing with "P" maybe this was a way to communicate common questions that people questioning Poe's faith would ask and he was answering them through the other person, kind of like a role reversal. Have I gone crazy?
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