"Some Words With a Mummy" by Edgar Allan Poe

   In reading Edgar Allan Poe's "Some Words with a Mummy," one quickly and easily understands that this work is not to be taken too seriously. After all, the narrator begins the work with a brief description of his "frugal" meal of over three pounds of Welsh rabbit. In this short essay I would like to very briefly analyze Poe's "Mummy" by skimming the surface of its humorous aspects.
   When looking at Poe's humor in this work through a critical lens, it is not difficult to pinpoint the technical aspects of its tone. The focus on the seemingly unimportant is the key to Poe's satire. Some examples of this focus in "Some Words with a Mummy" include the narrator's love of Welsh rabbit and that the defining object that elevates the narrator's culture over that of the Mummy is none other than "Ponnoner's lozenges or Brandreth's pills." Poe uses this story for the purpose of poking fun at the sciences, even the idea of ethnocentrism. Poe's sentence structure also greatly adds to its humorous mood. When the time for wit is at hand, Poe abandons over-excessive detail and connotative diction and structures his sentences simply. Take, for example, this excerpt from the concluding paragraph of "Mummy":
   The former I shall behold no more. My wife is a shrew. The truth is, I am heartily sick of this life and of the nineteenth century in general. I am convinced that everything is going wrong. Besides, I am anxious to know who will be President in 2045. As soon, therefore, as I shave and swallow a cup of coffee, I shall just step over to Ponnonner's and get embalmed for a couple of hundred years.
   The reader can see the quick-witted sentences such as "My wife is a shrew" and "I am convinced that everything is going wrong." The final two sentences display a sort of sarcasm. The narrator, at the conclusion of such astounding events, humorously desires to undergo embalming.
   "Some Words with a Mummy" is a light-hearted tale about the age-old "mine is better than yours" conflict that focuses on a lengthy debate about American and Egyptian culture with a mummified corpse. It is obviously not a profound work or a psychologically astounding story, but also not to be overlooked. Poe's humor is well-crafted and should not be underestimated. After all, with a mummy named Allamistakeo, one cannot deny the satire.

   As a satire, Poe's story concerning a conversation with an old Egyptian corpse is to be admired. Doctor Ponnonner invites several of his colleagues, including the narrator, to join him in observing an Egyptian mummy that he was able to acquire. During this night excursion, these gentlemen found more than they had bargained for. In this story, Poe satirizes the way historians during his time viewed past events. Through Poe's writings, the reader gets the distinct impression that Poe seriously doubts the accuracy and reliability of historical studies. Excerpts from the text reveal that Poe's view of objective history is doubtful.
   The moral character of historical persons such as the Egyptian mummy is an issue that is discussed in this story. Not long after the mummy had risen from his deep sleep, Dr. Ponnonner, Mr. Gliddon, Mr. Silk Buckingham, and the nameless narrator are surprised that "Alamistakeo had certain scruples of conscience, the nature of which I did not distinctly learn (389)." By the narrator's reaction to the mummy's character, it would seem that many historians overlook the character of the people or societies they study. The historian tends to focus solely on what can be known from artifacts or ancient texts, but it is more difficult for them to understand the morals and characters of the civilizations they study. When a historian discovers an ancient document, such as a piece of history or discovers ruins of an ancient city, it is difficult to know about the individuals themselves. The historian can only know what these sources let them know.

   The perception by many historians that modern society is more advanced than civilizations from the past is also criticized in this work. This point is expressed when the group of gentlemen chatting with the mummy discover the true purpose of embalming a corpse in ancient Egypt. Mummification was not meant for preserving a dead body, but a living one. Poe is expressing the misconceptions of historical data and discovery. What seems to be a ritual preparing one for the after-life turns out to be a method of prolonging life. Using this satirical story, Poe is able to criticize the historian's view of the past. Another passage that sheds light on this subject occurs when the mummy informs the characters of the story that the scarab is an insignia for an ancient Egyptian type of "coat of arms," not a religious symbol. The gentlemen are astonished at these misunderstandings of Egyptian history. These are just a few of the many examples that are found in this story. In fact, the gentlemen are surprised that the mummy does not marvel at their technological advances. Again, Poe is criticizing the chronocentric minds of the modern historian during his time. All of the aspects of Western society that we hold to be superior, whether they are modern or ancient, are not intriguing to the mummy. The point made here by Poe is an attack on modern Western society in general, not just historians. Whether it is political systems, architecture, or clothing fashion, the mummy is not surprised by these ideas. Poe communicates through this story that some historians assume that these phenomena would be completely uncommon in the past. The story questions the superiority that the modern world feels toward the past.

   Poe often takes the opportunity to openly criticize historical studies. The mummy, in his dialogue with the gentlemen of the story, speaks about history and the importance of mummification. He believes that mummification is necessary because the ancient historian might "find his great work converted into a species of hap-hazard notebook- that is to say, into a kind of literary arena for the conflicting guesses, riddles, personal squabbles of whole herds of exasperated commentators (392)." The embalming of Egyptians was necessary to correct the corruption of historical data by later historians. Poe is attacking the modern historian's tendency to misunderstand information from the past. The ancient historian's work is distorted and ruined by the modern historian's method of study. It is for this purpose that a mummy who is a historian would want to be preserved in time. He would be able to correct the modern misconception of past civilizations.
   All of these aspects mentioned in Poe's story make accusations against modern historical study. Not only is he criticizing the method, he may be questioning the ability to study history accurately at all. After all, the gentlemen in the story, as well as many historians, simply made judgments with the information and evidence they had at the time. Poe communicates these point on history well through this satire.

   How we treat our own dead is a subject of much discussion and speculation by many scholars. We, as humans, have had thousands of years to define what we do with the remains and possessions of those who have ceased to exist in this world - and every culture has defined what is acceptable treatment and behaviour and what is not acceptable concerning bodies, funerals, death, and memories. In his story, "Some Words With a Mummy," Poe is making a point about how we quite often mistreat the dead.
   At the beginning of the story, a reader may believe that the excitement and anticipation of the characters concerning the mummy stems from an entirely academic and intellectual interest. Unfortunately, it does not take very much more reading to realise that the group of Dr. Ponnonner's friends is more interested in playing than in learning about embalming, death, or Egyptian culture. While dissection may, in fact, be a perfectly acceptable method of gleaning information about ancient Egyptian embalming and mummification processes, it is entirely unclear what scientific or historical insight was thought to be gained by applying electric shock to the body of Allamistakeo.
   Once the group realised that the physical state of the body had changed - Allamistakeo's eyes were almost completely closed - they were not deterred from their strange plan. Instead, they pressed on in their experiments, applying the battery to other parts of the body, including the foot and eventually the nose. Perhaps the best reprimand that could be given to the party of scientific minds is the speech given to them by Allmistakeo. In this initial verbal outpouring the mummy states, "I must say, gentlemen, that I am as much surprised as I am mortified at your behaviour" (388). While he states that his expectations of Dr. Ponnonner were already quite low, Allamistakeo assumed a much higher standard of behaviour for the others, especially those who had studied Egyptology and even lived in Egypt.

   Putting aside cultural sensitivities, being considerate with the body of a supposedly deceased man, there is a deeper issue. Why do these men, especially Dr. Ponnonner, feel that they have a right to play with the body of the honoured dead? In this story, Poe makes a firm but subtle (and humourous) statement about a possible view of death. While it is impossible to infer from this story what Poe's contemporaries believed about the treatment of the dead it is very plain that Poe wanted us, as humankind, to never deteriorate to the point where we assume we have the right to disrespect those who have gone on before us.