Thursday, October 29, 2009
My thoughts on "The Purloined Letter"
"The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allen Poe was a short detective story. The most interesting part of this story is the relationship between Dupin and the Paris police. After a month of searching every nook and cranny of the Minister's apartment the Prefect was not able to find the missing letter. Dupin visits the apartment and is able to find the letter with ease for it is hidden in plain sight. He explains to the narrator how he finds it. To me it seems like the Prefect represents the institutionalized and "to the book" way of doing things; while Dupin's approach seems more of a use of reason and logic. Dupin comes across as a smart intellectual detective who proves that it is not always best be overly scrutinous but rather better to sit back and apply logic to the situation.
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I agree over scrutinous isnt the best way to go. but rather seeing things as a whole. in the end they found what they were looking for.
ReplyDeleteYes, Dupin does show the the limits of policial methods, but not through just logic, or logic as we usually think of it--see my extensive comments under "older posts."
ReplyDeleteThe relationship between Dupin and Minister D is also interesting.
Aleksandra--this "whole" may be interesting, but what do you mean by that?
I also think that although the devil is in the detail, but at times we should step back and look at the full scenarios and not over think the situation. Dupin was better at applying his skill to find the letter, but I think his motivation was part of it also since "The relationship between Dupin and Minister D is also interesting." The "interesting" part for me is that they Dupin was also seeking revenge not only trying to help the police.
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