Edgar Allan Poe’s Dark Romanticism in The Murders in The Rue Morgue

Edgar Allan Poe was born on January 19, 1809 in the United States, more precisely in Boston in Massachusetts. He lost his parents in early childhood. His father first, to tuberculosis and alcohol (a vice that Poe inherited, and which haunted him for all his life), then his mother, who died at the age of 24. He was taken in by John and Frances Allan of Richmond. He grew up in the state of Virginia. He was a great student, and went to the new University of Virginia in February 1826. Because of the lack of financial support, he was forced to stop his studies. Edgar Allan Poe then left his adoptive family and enlisted in the army. He then joined the West Point Military Academy, from which he was voluntarily dismissed, and went to Baltimore to start his writing career.

In 1841, as legend has it if not literary history, a completely new genre was born. Readers discover with horror and surprise, under the pen of Edgar Allan Poe extraordinary news which was the first of its kind in literature. Dickens and Collins using the same formula confirms the fact: the detective story was born. Poe, an incredible genius, created the genre, its rules and broke them at the same time, offering an incredible and unforgettable resolution.

What a strange story that leaves the reader not perplexed but suspended. It is not so much the story of an investigation but it’s resolution and the full display of a complex mind in action. The path of his analysis is quite complex, he reports to the readers, after having done it, but as if he was doing it, and through a third-party narrator, who serves as witness and mediator. Not the strange affair makes up the content of the story, but the analysis which leads to the resolution of the story; but not its outcome, which is given only as framing. In what kind of narration did the readers allow themselves to be drawn in, which does not tell a story but an analysis anchored in a story - which tells a reasoning applied to the facts of the story?

The presentation of the announcement of 'extraordinary crimes' discovered by the narrator and the hero (Dupin) to read the news to the end, as if it contained only this story which corresponds perfectly to its title. Poe’s way of bringing this story alive was different from its predecessors, complex; first considering the faculty of analysis, that of chess and manifest in the game of “whist”. Then by the narrator's meeting with Dupin, the first narrative technique can be observed by the first demonstration of the hero’s extraordinary analytical faculties, as he manages to guess the thoughts of his companion, by revealing the mental path which had led him so far since an incident a few minutes earlier. Poe’s narrative perfection is in all his works such as The Raven, The Tell-Tale Heart, The Sphinx. The striking lack of cohesion between the part of the story preceding the announcement of the murder in a newspaper and the second part is fascinating. The readers share the narrator’s impressions of the revelations of Dupin on the development of his thoughts, but once Dupin's full explanation got presented, the reader expects more from the narrator, the echo of the reader’s admiration. The presentation of Dupin’s mind was enough, the reader’s surprise no longer needs to be supported by the narrator, and in addition, true intellectual admiration remains to come. This is undoubtedly, what justifies this unusual impersonal treatment in Poe's narration.

One of the main characteristics of this short story is the state of suspension. I thought a lot about this hypothesis according to which, contrary to the prevailing popular opinions, the detective story genre is not founded by the stories of Poe, the latter having a way of staging the analytical spirit having a creative power of intuition. However, I don't see how we can put the staging of the valued analytical spirit into perspective with detective stories in The Murders in the Rue Morgue. The fact remains that there must be a fundamental difference between these stories from Poe and what I suppose to be the detective story. The story seems to fit the familiar stereotype: murder, investigation, puzzle solving. The fact that Dupin is not especially a detective but only a man with exceptional analytical skills does not change much. The process of reconstructing the inexplicable path of facts through the discovery of additional clues and facts, in the movement of a remarkable analytical process is precisely what founds the possibility of the detective narrative - and this is probably not a problem.

There are, however, two elements that probably distinguish Poe's story from a simple detective story. Both stem from the narrative scenography implemented in the short story. Indeed, we have this particular structure: considerations on the spirit of analysis distinct from ingenuity, presentation of the meeting of the narrator and Dupin in a typical Poe setting (this Dark Romanticism, the two characters, their way of life isolated from Parisian life, and especially the predilection of Dupin), first demonstration of Dupin's remarkable analytical talents, then the announced the murder in the press, which Dupin will seize to brilliantly analyze and solve the enigma. If the fact that Dupin is not a detective is not particularly significant, what is more, it is the kind of character that he is and the he’s status in the story. That the one who solves the murder is the hero of the story is not meant to surprise us. The role of the narrator-witness, a Watson like figure, is both to assist and to highlight the heroism of the main character who generally succeeds in solving the crime. But it doesn’t work like that here. What the narrator continually highlights in Dupin's exceptional character is not his heroism in the traditional sense, but only the genius that makes him an extraordinary man. The story is not for the glory of his victory over the dark forces of crime. The analytical spirit that characterizes it, which is remarkable. So, there is in the short story, a study of the human mind, and its exceptional characteristics, and not an investigation. It is on this case, and on no other, that Dupin continually mocks the police, who are on the side of the vulgar. He does not seek to defend the victims or other potential victims, he does not seek to identify the criminal, nor to prevail the truth which he however aims to reach. He wants to know the truth just for himself, for the beauty of analysis. He takes first and foremost the case, as dramatic as it is, like a game, to the terror of the narrator who nevertheless follows him with confidence, to verify the extent of his capacity for analysis.

The study of the human mind is not, as often in the police and like the first analysis made by Dupin of the thoughts of his companion, the ability to understand the human behavior. This is where the story becomes more remarkable and shows its originality: there is indeed, in a way, a crime, there is not really a criminal, not human, and at the same time, no criminal intent. The real responsible for the crime is an Orangutan. Such a completely atypical situation for a police officer. It is an original scenario aiming to confuse readers' expectations, even in the story. We are looking for the criminal and his motives. Nevertheless, this is an opportunity for Poe to do something else entirely: to show that his real subject is the spirit of analysis, and this work of reconstruction from clues which makes it possible to study the real power of the human spirit. As such, The Tell-Tale Heart, where the criminal himself tells us of his crime and his arrest, is as much a study of the mind as The Murders in Rue Morgue.

It is all that makes the extraordinary flavor of Poe's tales, filled with primary emotions which attract us with so much force, and the rigorous, precise and systematic treatment with which he makes these short stories a subtle and accomplished study of human nature in its power or its fragility. This is the dark romanticism of Edgar Allan Poe.