the murders in the

rue morgue

written by:
edgar allan poe
the murders in the rue morgue
Summary:
An unnamed narrator begins this tale of murder and criminal detection with a
discussion of the analytic mind. The narrator then describes the circumstances in
which he met a man named C. Auguste Dupin. Both men were searching for the
same book at an obscure library in the Rue Montmartre, in Paris, and began to
converse.

Soon thereafter, the narrator and Dupin read newspaper headlines about a horrible
murder in the Rue Morgue. One night at three a.m., eight or ten neighbors of
Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter, Mademoiselle Camille, wake to shrieks from
their fourth-floor apartment. Both women had been brutally killed, and there were no
signs of forced entry or exit. The police are baffled by the case, as it seems
impossible for anyone to have entered or left the room without being noticed.

The police have arrested Adolphe Le Bon, a bank clerk who once did Dupin a favor.
With the arrest of Le Bon, Dupin becomes interested in pursuing the investigation
and obtains permission to search the crime scene.

He carefully examines the crime scene and gathers information from witnesses and
newspaper reports. Through his deductive reasoning and keen observation, Dupin
pieces together the events leading up to the murders. Dupin surmises that no
ordinary human could inflict the beating that Madame L’Espanaye suffered. The
murderer would have to possess superhuman strength and inhuman ferocity. He
eventually solves the mystery by revealing that an escaped orangutan, owned by a
sailor, was responsible for the killings. The animal had entered the apartment
through a window, committed the murders in a fit of rage, and then fled.

When informed of Dupin’s solution, the police release Le Bon. The prefect is unable
to conceal his chagrin at being outwitted by Dupin. He is happy to have the crime
solved, but he is sarcastic, rather than grateful, about Dupin’s assistance. Dupin
comments, in conclusion, that the prefect is a man of ingenuity, not analysis.

JASMIN M. ESPALMADO ANGELICA R. NANALE

BSE 3C