Characters

The most important characters in the short story “The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar” by Edgar Allan Poe are the mesmerist, who is also the narrator, and M. Valdemar, the dying patient. Other characters which appear in the short story are the two doctors – D and F, the medicine student – Mr. L-l. However, they are mostly mentioned as witnesses to the story and they are barely sketched.  

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The mesmerist

The mesmerist is one of the main characters in the short story and the narrator of the text. He is a static character, as he remains the same all throughout the events. We only can identify his traits based on what he tells us and his actions and attitude. Consequently, we do not know anything about his outer characterization such as looks, age or background, except that he is a mesmerist.

Inner characterization

When it comes to the inner characterization, the narrator reveals several things about himself directly. First of all, he explains his interest in mesmerizing experiments, showing his passion for occult, pseudo-sciences: “My attention, for the last three years, had been repeatedly drawn to the subject of Mesmerism…”

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M. Valdemar

M. Ernest Valdemar is the second important character in the short story. He is presented directly by the narrator, who focuses more on his outer characterization and less on the inner characterization.

Outer characterization

M. Ernest Valdemar is a popular person in the academic circles of New York, working as a “compiler of the “Bibliotheca Forensica””. This suggests that the he is an intellectual, educated man. However, for the narrator his physical condition is more important; suffering from phthisis, M. Valdemar becomes the ideal subject for the mesmerist’s experiments.

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Inner characterization

The narrator also directly outlines some of the character traits of M. Valdemar. The man is depicted as having a “markedly nervous” temperament. However, most of his personality traits surface indirectly, through his behavior and actions.

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