Monday, March 17, 2008
In the Murders in the Rue Morgue I found it interesting that Dupin was able to overcome all of the violence by using his brain to solve the crime. The orangutan's master habitually used violence to control the animals actions which caused the horrible murders to take place. I found it interesting that Poe took this approach using an animal as the murderer instead of a person. Besides this story being more about the investigators than the victims and the process of solving the crime, it is an entirely different approach than we have seen Poe take. I'm not sure what, if anything, he's trying to say by comparing these two types of power (brain vs. physical strength) so feel free to chime in with your thoughts, but it seems that since Poe is experiencing the first police forces and the media was covering stories in a gruesome way, he is commenting on the approach they are taking as being too violent and not using their heads when they should. This would go along with a part that is mentioned in the text about someone looking at an object too close and only seeing a few parts really well but in the end they lose sight of the whole. By using a character like Dupin who takes a different approach to problems and really gives everything, no matter how insignificant it may seem, his utmost attention and is able to store it in his mind.
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3 comments:
I think you hit the nail on the head here. I thought it was strange that the orangutan did it too, but then I thought that by having such an unobvious murderer, it was just showcasing Dupin's abilities to slove crime and find even the most unlikely killer among all the rest. What other person would have suggested an orangutan and risk the possiblity of gettin laughed at.
The orangutan is a little outlandish, but I believe this to speak loudly, in loose collaboration with some of his other works, to an overarching theme of simplicity. Every time I read "The Murders in the Rue Morgue", I think to myself, "Keep it simple stupid." When all other possibilities are eliminated then the only one possible is the one remaining. If Dupin can eliminate all other suspects, then it is the one remaining. I think Poe uses this ideology of simplicity often in his works as a way to explain unimaginable events:
The rock and words in "Silence -- a Fable". The ackward death and revival of the women in "Ligeia" and "Morella". The entombing in "The Cask of Amontillado".
These literary events took place because they were the simplest solution to a thematic problem: revenge, death, importance, murder, etc.
I think that the fact that it was a man of Dupin's intelligence who found his first real foe in a beast is quite interesting. The creature is dumb but was able to outsmart the other humans who over analyzed. I think it is very similar to those riddles where adults cant figure them out but a large portion of children can. Adults try to make sense of things but in attempting to draw connections you end up leading yourself to whatever conclusion you desire.
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