The Purloined Letter

Poe can actually set the standard of success for detective stories, considering that he wrote the prototype to all literature works of this genre, in the first place. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Murders...

In the opening of the story, the narrator and Dupin the detective sit in silence for an hour; during this time, the narrator has been "mentally discussing certain topics which had formed matter for...

The narrator in the story is quite truthful and reliable as a narrator. In fact, he is also good at eliciting information from the Prefect to get the full picture of what has occurred before the...

Edgar Allan Poe introduced the character Auguste Dupin in his earlier detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." In that story the narrator describes Dupin at great length and gives examples...

The real question should not be "Why does Dupin replace the real letter with a facsimile?" but "Why does Edgar Allan Poe have his character Dupin replace the real letter with a facsimile?" Dupin...

Any story must be dramatic in order to be interesting. The drama in a short story is almost always based on a single major conflict (although there might be minor conflicts that are incidental or...

Like Dupin, Minister D, who steals the Queen's compromising letter, is a daring and "ingenious" person who is able to put himself in other people's shoes, figure out how they think, and therefore...

Although the word "ratiocination" does not appear in "The Purloined Letter," Poe used it in other places to describe the mixture of rational, scientific inquiry and understanding of...

You have asked a question about one of the earliest detective stories, upon which Sir Arthur Conan Doyle based his famous detective Sherlock Holmes. One of the key ingredients in this genre is the...

It is clear that Poe is none to complimentary regarding Monsieur G. of the French Police. From the start there are somewhat dismissive remarks made about his limitations. For example, consider how...

Edgar Allan Poe's 1844 story "The Purloined Letter" is one of three of his tales to feature the detective C. Auguste Dupin. While Poe is best-known for stories that belong to the horror genre, this...

In "The Purloined Letter," Dupin is strongly asserting that to find the letter, the detective must think both like a poet and a mathematician. Dupin believes there is no other way to find the...

I can give you a general idea of what the plot diagram would look like. If you need more specific details, use the story to fill them in. eNotes also provides a thorough summary of the story. The...

In Poe's classic detective story "The Purloined Letter," an unnamed narrator is used mainly as a plot device to move the story along and to serve as a foil for Dupin and as proxy (stand in) for the...

As we're not told explicitly why everyone is uninterested in (or at least not mentioning) the contents of the letter, we need to use context clues to try to understand what is going on. These clues...

The short story "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe features C. Auguste Dupin, who also appears in other mystery stories by Poe. Although he is not a professional detective, he enjoys using...

As its name suggests, Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” tells the story of a letter—one that has been stolen from the royal apartments. Although the police know that it was stolen by...

The main resolution of the story is Dupin's realization that the letter is "hiding in plain sight" in D.'s rooms and the trick he plays on D. to take the letter and replace it with a facsimile....

The key effect in Poe’s “The Purloined Letter” is ratiocination, or reasoning. In fact, on July 2, 1844, Poe wrote to the poet James Russell Lowell and said that “The Purloined Letter” was...

"The Purloined Letter" is one of three detective stories by Edgar Allen Poe, written after "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," considered the first modern detective story, and "The Mystery Of Marie...

"The Purloined Letter" is the last of three stories written about the detective character Dupin. To determine the possible inspiration for this story, we must go back to the first of the three...

Auguste Dupin is the detective and main character in this mystery story. He born to wealth but, at this point, has lost his money. Dupin has a genius for solving mysteries. This is based on his...

Edgar Allan Poe was an early and influential contributor to the genre known as the American Gothic. It is precisely due to those conventions common to the genre which lead to your question...

By plot map, I assume you mean a plot sequence chart. I’m not sure that e-notes yet has the capabilities of using graphics in questions. Your chart, however, should have: exposition which are...

Poe's main reason for having the Prefect leave before Dupin explains how he recovered the missing letter must have been to emphasize that the problem and the solution are Dupin's and that he is the...

"The Purloined Letter" is not as intriguing as Poe's other detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue." The problem with the story about the stolen letter is that it requires a great deal of...

Dupin is not telling Prefect G- that the answer to a problem is always obvious. What he is saying is that people often make problems more complicated than they actually are. The truth is often very...

If you’ve read Poe’s famous short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” you might be familiar with Dupin. He’s the detective who figures out who killed a mom and her daughter. In the “The Mystery...

Considering that it was Poe's objective to "entertain" his reader, but most importantly, to work toward a preconceived "effect," and then use words and symbols and language to help the reader reach...

On the surface, the detective C. Auguste Dupin seems very different from Edgar Allan Poe. Dupin is French and lives in Paris; Poe was American and lived in Richmond and Baltimore. A side-by-side...

Edgar Allen Poe's "The Purloined Letter" uses a first person narrator who, by definition, participates in the story and only knows his own motives, thoughts, perceptions, feelings, and emotions:...

In Edgar Allan Poe's story “The Purloined Letter,” a certain “illustrious personage” is in a particularly annoying and potentially disastrous predicament. This lady, apparently a member of the...