edgar allan poe the purloined letter summary

He also alludes to Rochefoucauld, La Bruyre, Machiavelli, and Campanella. He begins by alluding to the physician John Abernethy while speaking to emphasize the importance of taking advice.

Essentially, the narrative proposes three specific things that motivate Dupin. Dupin uses allusion to explain his methods of solving the case. Auguste Dupin, a fictional protagonist detective. The story forms an integral part of Poe’s trilogy of detective stories featuring C.

The most significant is the story of the schoolboy who consistently triumphed at even and odd, which demonstrates how Dupin seeks to inhabit the mindset of his “opponent.”Īlso important are Dupin’s motives for helping to solve the crime of the purloined letter. The Purloined Letter, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe is a tale of ratiocination, i.e., the technique involving inductive and deductive reasoning. He utilizes various analogies to explain his methods of investigation to the narrator, all of which give the reader direct insight into his way of thinking. Whereas the Paris police tread lightly around the actions of Minister D, an important government official, Dupin ignores politics just as he ignores emotion in the gruesome murders of the Rue Morgue. Dupin considers himself both a poet and mathematician who disputes “the availability, and thus the value, of that reason which is cultivated in any especial form other than the abstractly logical” (18). In The Purloined Letter, Dupin solves the theft of the letter by putting himself at risk politically. He is represented as an intelligent, pipe-smoking gentleman who spends most of his time in leisurely, intellectual conversations with his friend.

“The Purloined Letter” contains no physical description of Dupin.

Edgar allan poe the purloined letter summary