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The Main Problem
The main problem of the story is the narrator is diagnosed with a disease called catalepsy, which gives the victim exaggerated lethargy, senselessness, and external motionlessnes with a faint pulsation of the heart. It is commonly mistaken that a person is dead if they have catalepsy, because they have almost no color in their skin with dead-like features -
Rising Action 1
The woman was sick and they thought her to be dead, so they buried her. After two days of being buried, she came back to consciousness and struggled to break out of the vault. She died from terror of being buried alive and her husband found her, out of the tomb, lose in the vault. -
Rising Action 2
A man in France was rejected by a woman he loves. The woman then gets married to a banker. Soon after marrying, she neglects her decision and later dies (or appears dead). The rejected man goes to her grave and digs it up. He opens the coffin and her eyes open, she was buried alive. The couple ran away together to America and came back to France 20 years later. The husband of the thought-dead woman recognized her and made a claim for his wife. The court ruled that the marriage had expired. -
Rising Action 3
An officer of artillery was thrown from a horse and hit his head. He was given medical treatment and he fell into a hopeless state until they pronounced him dead. He was buried and a couple days later people were walkiing above. The man was thrusting around in the coffin and they dug it up and found he was alive. -
Rising Action 4
Mr. Edward Stapleton was assumed dead from typhus fever. He had other symptoms that intrigued his doctors and made them want to study his body. Three days after the funeral, when he was buried, The doctors decided to take his body to run some tests, and discovered that under many tests, his body had life-like qualities and reactions. While one student was running a test, Mr. Edward Stapleton rose off the table and spoke. He fell to the floor with a thud. -
Climax
The narrator realizes that he is trapped inside something and wants to shout out, but cannot because of his disease and because his throat is too dry. -
Falling Action 1
He awakes and realizes that he is not buried. -
Falling Action 2
His friend helps restore his memory. -
The Resolution
The problem of the man is resolved when he is in screaming and shreiking to get out of his coffin, when four people notice him and restored him to full possesion of his memory
