The Purloined Letter
Edgar Allan Poe is a very peculiar writer who is very different in style from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but also very similar. When I first began reading the short story, I began recognizing the similarities in the ways "clues" are presented (even though Poe does not offer any real clues). Conan Doyle most likely influenced by Poe's writings as both use a similar way to present the main investigator in the stories (Holmes for Doyle and Dupin for Poe). Poe's style is a definitive mystery story in that the information itself is hard to find and makes you think about every single step. Poe is a writer who believes in not giving the reader an ordainment amount of information. This is evident as he does not give us the name of the narrator and also never gives the names of D---- and Minister G----. A normal writer would use proper names in order to make us feel as we apart of the story and rather just being a clueless bystander.
I feel that Dupin was a "detective" in the sense that he is able to deduce the information presented to himself. Holmes presents his information in a more logical fashion rather than Dupin who seems to go off an a tangent when ever he talks about how he solved the problem
My only qualms with the story are that the narrator is very unreliable as he/she does not give information that would help the reader understand whats going on more.
I agree with you that the narrator seems unreliable, providing information that seems to lack evidence as support for claims. For example, the narrator does not question Dupin's conclusions about the Ourang-Outang being the murderer in "The Murderers in the Rue Morgue". In contrast, Watson (the narrator in "Valley of Fear"), questions Sherlock Holmes's inferences and deductions about the faked death of John Douglas. Watson asks questions and raises concerns about Holmes's beliefs; consequently, Holmes provides tangible evidence and explanations about why he can make certain conclusions. However, the narrator in Poe's story does not raise doubts about Dupin's inferences. Therefore, the narrator appears less reliable as he does not independently try to determine who the murderer could be.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you said about the information being hard to find and Poe not giving the reader a lot of information. I feel like the story jumped really quickly from them talking about how the assassin escaped to the fact that the culprit was an orangutan without a whole lot of explanation in between. It's also weird how Dupin just says what he thinks with very little to back up and his claims and everyone else just rolls with it.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you. Poe doesn't walk us through the whole deduction process like Doyle does. I think Poe's stories often go from extremely slow with nothing much happening (other than Dupin showing off how smart he is) to like twenty things happening at once. I also found it very strange how no one really questioned Dupin. The narrator is even more infatuated with Dupin's brain than Watson is with Holmes' brain and it really shows, because he just accepts what Dupin says without really thinking anything.
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