The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter
1. The passage I found the identification of evidence to be irrefutably logical:
"In scrutinizing the edges of the paper, I observed them to be more chafed than seemed necessary. They presented the broken appearance which is manifested when a stiff paper, having been once folded and pressed with a folder, is refolded in a reversed direction, in the same creases or edges which had formed the original fold. This discovery was sufficient. It was clear to me that the letter had been turned, as a glove, inside out, re-directed and resealed" (378).
In this passage from The Purloined Letter, Dupin uses logic to prove that the paper he found is the stolen letter. Dupin concluded that the letter he found was the stolen one based on the fact that the excessive dirtiness of the letter did not align with the minister's cleanliness. Though Dupin's reasoning in this was impressive, this realization did not showcase his eye for detail like his observation of the creases did. One of Dupin's notable qualities is his ability to form logical deductions from the seemingly insignificant details. The fact that he recognizes the significance of the creases separates him from others and makes this observation impressive.
2. The passage I found the identification of evidence to be baldly untenable:
"I knew that you could not say to yourself 'stereotomy' without being brought to think of atomies, and thus of the theories of Epicurus; and since, when we discussed this subject not very long ago, I mentioned to you how singularly, yet with how little notice, the vague guesses of that noble Greek had met with confirmation in the late nebular cosmogony" (203).
This quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue is only part of the passage where Dupin describes how he followed the narrator's train of thought. Dupin's deduction here is the reader's first impression of the story's detective. Though Dupin's thought process proves logical, it still seems completely unrealistic. There seemed to be too many ideas, and when two ideas had an apparent disconnection, it happened to be supplemented with the exact evidence Dupin needed, like a murmured word or glance upwards, to help him trace the narrator's thought. The narrator, too, acknowledges the difficulty of attempting to retrace the flow of ideas due to the "apparently illimitable distance and incoherence between the starting-point and the goal" (202). The narrator includes this side story to emphasize Dupin's unparalleled ability. However, this passage merely asserted the fact that Dupin is a fictional character and would not exist in the real world.
3. The passage I found to be genuinely confounding:
"Mathematical axioms are not axioms of general truth. What is true of relation--of form and quantity--is often grossly false in regard to morals, for example. In this latter science it is very usually untrue that the aggregated parts are equal to the whole. In chemistry also the axiom fails. In the consideration of motive it fails; for two motives, each of a given value, have not, necessarily, a value when united, equal to the sum of their values apart" (374).
I had to read this passage from The Purloined Letter a few times before understanding what Dupin is trying to argue. This passage makes sense, but it feels as if Poe just wants to showcase his knowledge to the world. The footnotes in my book explain how the use of diction and allusions results from a desire to test his readers' knowledge and impress them, which could explain why Poe would want to include these sophisticated references in his writing.
"In scrutinizing the edges of the paper, I observed them to be more chafed than seemed necessary. They presented the broken appearance which is manifested when a stiff paper, having been once folded and pressed with a folder, is refolded in a reversed direction, in the same creases or edges which had formed the original fold. This discovery was sufficient. It was clear to me that the letter had been turned, as a glove, inside out, re-directed and resealed" (378).
In this passage from The Purloined Letter, Dupin uses logic to prove that the paper he found is the stolen letter. Dupin concluded that the letter he found was the stolen one based on the fact that the excessive dirtiness of the letter did not align with the minister's cleanliness. Though Dupin's reasoning in this was impressive, this realization did not showcase his eye for detail like his observation of the creases did. One of Dupin's notable qualities is his ability to form logical deductions from the seemingly insignificant details. The fact that he recognizes the significance of the creases separates him from others and makes this observation impressive.
2. The passage I found the identification of evidence to be baldly untenable:
"I knew that you could not say to yourself 'stereotomy' without being brought to think of atomies, and thus of the theories of Epicurus; and since, when we discussed this subject not very long ago, I mentioned to you how singularly, yet with how little notice, the vague guesses of that noble Greek had met with confirmation in the late nebular cosmogony" (203).
This quote from The Murders in the Rue Morgue is only part of the passage where Dupin describes how he followed the narrator's train of thought. Dupin's deduction here is the reader's first impression of the story's detective. Though Dupin's thought process proves logical, it still seems completely unrealistic. There seemed to be too many ideas, and when two ideas had an apparent disconnection, it happened to be supplemented with the exact evidence Dupin needed, like a murmured word or glance upwards, to help him trace the narrator's thought. The narrator, too, acknowledges the difficulty of attempting to retrace the flow of ideas due to the "apparently illimitable distance and incoherence between the starting-point and the goal" (202). The narrator includes this side story to emphasize Dupin's unparalleled ability. However, this passage merely asserted the fact that Dupin is a fictional character and would not exist in the real world.
3. The passage I found to be genuinely confounding:
"Mathematical axioms are not axioms of general truth. What is true of relation--of form and quantity--is often grossly false in regard to morals, for example. In this latter science it is very usually untrue that the aggregated parts are equal to the whole. In chemistry also the axiom fails. In the consideration of motive it fails; for two motives, each of a given value, have not, necessarily, a value when united, equal to the sum of their values apart" (374).
I had to read this passage from The Purloined Letter a few times before understanding what Dupin is trying to argue. This passage makes sense, but it feels as if Poe just wants to showcase his knowledge to the world. The footnotes in my book explain how the use of diction and allusions results from a desire to test his readers' knowledge and impress them, which could explain why Poe would want to include these sophisticated references in his writing.
I totally agree with your first point! It's incredible how Dupin was able to conclude that the dirty and refolded was actually the letter he was in search of. His ability to make insignificant details significant reminds me of the work of Holmes. Also, I too got a little lost in all of the analytical and mathematics talk as it strayed from the plot. It all seems unnecessary to me but it is a symbol of Poe's work.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a little bit of Poe trying to show off but I also think it's Poe trying to illustrate that English is just as important as Math, while demonstrating that Dupin is very well-read, (which we learned at the beginning of the Murders of the Rue Morgue) and has thus formulated opinions on a variety of shenanigans. I think he's just trying to put us into the mind of Dupin.
ReplyDelete