The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Murders in the Rue Morgue the Story
Analysis of the Story
Ingenuity and the use of Imagery
Works Cited

Introduction

Edgar Poes The Murders in the Rue Morgue was first published in 1841 in Grahams Magazine where Poe worked as an editor at the time and has widely been accredited as being the pioneering detective story in works of fiction. The story is centered on the solving of a crime involving the murder of a lady and her daughter in a fictional street in Paris called the Rue Morgue. The story is considered to have set the stage for future fictional detective stories and with them came other fictitious detective characters.

Murders in the Rue Morgue the Story

The Murders in the Rue Morgue is a story about the murders of Madame LEspanaye and the daughter which took place at their home. What was baffling about the womens murders is that there seemed to be no evidence regarding who committed them and the escape route since according to all the preliminary evidence and witness accounts, the room in which the daughter was found was locked from the inside and all possible escape routes such as windows and doors were shut or inaccessible. Madame LEspanayes throat was badly cut so much so that the head fell off when those who found her tried to lift her from the ground. Her daughter on the other hand had been strangled and then stuffed in the chimney of the room in which she was found.

The neighbors who heard the scuffle that ensued and went to the ladies house gave evidence to the police, and in as much as most of them agree on a great extent to the events of the day, they also give conflicting views regarding the voices they heard as they approached the room where the murders were committed, which was on the fourth floor of the ladies house. They all agree that they heard two voices, one of which they agreed was a Frenchmans but they could not agree on the second, with each giving a different nationality from where they suspect the person originated from (Poe 122-124). Despite the obvious lack of evidence, a man named Le Bon was arrested for the murders.

An unqualified detective by the name of Dupin, a friend of the narrator, became interested in the events of the murders and set out to find a solution. His drive may have been the fact that Le Bon had done him favor before for which he was grateful, besides the fact that the case generally interested him (Poe, Griswold, Willis & Lowell 194). He sought permission and was allowed to visit the crime scene and examine it, after which he sat down with his friend the narrator, and started analyzing it as well as the witness accounts. His analysis led to the conclusion that an animal and not a human being had committed the murders. Through various actions of his own, such as the advertisement posted in a local magazine saying he had caught the animal and the owner was free to claim it, he was able to unearth the mystery as the owner of the animal, an Ourang-Outang (Orangutan), came to claim it from Duplin (Poe, Griswold, Willis & Lowell 209-211). This led to the release of Le Bon from prison, bringing the story to an ending.

Analysis of the Story

The story is a narration, describing the fictitious events that took place on the day of the murder. The narrator in this case is a friend of the detective and is, therefore, able to give a vivid description of the events as they took place based on his observation as well as other peoples accounts and experiences. The storys events are depicted in a sequence, first describing their friendship, how they came to know about the murders, up until the case was solved by the unqualified detective.

Ingenuity and the use of Imagery

One of the major themes portrayed in the story is that of ingenuity. That is the application of different ideas and well-planned out thoughts to solve a problem, or in this case how and who committed the murders. Duplin, who solves the murders, assesses different events surrounding the case and uses them to arrive at a solution which he sees as viable. Based on his conclusions, he proceeds to take several actions which confirm his theory. After physically analyzing the murder scene and learning other facts of the case from witnesses and what was reported in the local newspapers, he concludes that the murders were not committed by a human being, but by an animal, and he concluded the animal to be an orangutan, based on the how the bodies were mutilated and the strength that would be required to carry out such mutilation.

To prove this, he went a step further and posted an advertisement in a newspaper that he had caught the animal and the owner should come and claim it from him. True to his thoughts, the owner, a sailor just as he had suspected, came to claim the animal. Duplin forced him to narrate the events that led up to the murder and in this way confirmed his thoughts and as such an innocent man is set free. The fact that Duplin followed unconventional methods compared to those used by real detectives in solving crimes is stressed throughout the story, thereby making it an interesting read as one seeks to find out the conclusion he came to and the reasoning behind it.

Duplin was able to get a confession from the sailor who owned the orangutan without the use of violence and this asserts the importance of brainpower as opposed to the use of physical violence in solving crimes and other problems.

Imagery as a style is seen throughout the book where the narrator gives a vivid description of different events and situations, giving the reader a chance to take in the seriousness and full extent of the situation. For example, his description of the state in which the bodies were found as well as the scene of the murders helps the reader to create a mental picture of the situation as it was at the scene. He describes Madame LEspanayes daughters body as having been badly bruised, with deep scratches below her chin, protruding eyeballs, discolored face, partially bitten tongue and chafed throat, showing how bad her injuries were (Poe, Griswold, Willis & Lowell 192). Her mothers body is said to have been mutilated, as the bones in her legs had been shattered and her ribs reduced to splinters. Her neck was also deeply cut to the extent that her head was detached from the rest of her body. The level of visual imagery created in the story to some extent received criticism, but this did not prevent people from reading the book.

Due to its fictional nature, the story is regarded highly in the world of literature as it pioneered fictional literature as we know it today. Most of the fiction stories that came after Poes story were inspired by his characters in the Murders at Rue Morgue, such as Duplin who is said to have inspired characters such as Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes by Agatha Christie and Conan Doyle respectively. This story and others as written by Poe marked a significant revolution in the field of fiction and other mystery works.

Works Cited

Poe, Allan. Tales of Mystery and Imagination. London: CRW Publishing Limited, 2003.
Poe, Allan. Griswold, Wilmot. Willis, Parker. & Lowell, Russell. The works of the Late Edgar Allan Poe: Tales. Volume 1. New York: Blakeman and Mason, 1859.

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