Analysis of Poe's 'The Purloined Letter' Detective Story

The Purloined Letter By: Edgar Allan Poe Presentation Lecture By: Dr. Shubham Singh

The Background Poe invented the form of the modern detective fiction. "The Purloined Letter" is considered one of Poe s best detective stories because it does not make use of any gothic elements of his other stories but still manages to create suspense and incite our imagination. The story makes brilliant depiction of the principle of ratiocination which means that it makes a tale around the process of exact thinking or reasoning to get to the stolen letter.

The Plot In a small room in Paris, an unnamed narrator, and detective C. Auguste Dupin, talk about case that Dupin had just closed. Monsieur G, the prefect of the Paris police, arrives with another case for Dupin. The case is simple. A letter has been stolen from the royal apartments. The police know that the Minister D, an important government official, has stolen it and they suspect that since they have searched extensively for the letter, the minister must be carrying it with him all the time. According to the prefect, a young lady possessed the letter, which contains information that could harm a powerful individual. When the young lady was first reading the letter, the man whom it concerned came into the royal apartments. Not wanting to arouse his suspicion, she simply put it down on a table next to her. Minister D, noted the letter s contents and replaced it with a similar letter that exactly resembles the one that was stolen. Now the minister has enough to blackmail the lady even though he has still not made use of the letter s contents.

The Plot The prefect also tells Dupin that they have thoroughly searched the minister s hotel in his absence but have not located the letter. He even tells that it is unlikely that he carries the letter with him, because they have searched him as well. A month passes and Dupin and the narrator are again together at his place when the Prefect comes. He has still not found the letter and offers to give 50,000 francs, to anyone who could get that letter to him. Just at this moment Dupin asks him to immediately write a check of that amount and he will produce the same letter. On receiving the check, Dupin hands over the letter and explains how he got it. Dupin says that the minister is a shrewd man and so he would not have hidden the letter in some deep corner or secret cupboard of his place as the police would definitely search for such places. Instead, he must have hidden it in plain sight so no one suspects it. On his casual visit to the minister s house, Dupin finds a group of visiting cards hanging from the mantelpiece. There is also a letter slightly different in appearance but it appears to be folded back on itself. Dupin believes it is the same letter and so he knowingly leaves his stuffbox there so that he has reason to visit again and replace the letter with another duplicate without the minister coming to know of his plan.

Themes and Analysis The central theme that this simple detective story brings out is that truth is often very openly apparent, we are just not ready to see it. The detective Dupin being an intelligent man realized that it was so difficult to find the letter even after extensive search operation by the police because it was somewhere in plain sight as to not create suspicion. He also knew the minister to be a very shrewd person and so he believed that the minister did not attempt to conceal the letter in the first place and so the police could not locate it. Another related theme is that of understanding what is hidden below the surface in human behaviour. The minister has the letter but he has kept it without disclosing the contents so that he can use it at the right time. Dupin on the other hand realized that since the police have already followed all legal and correct procedure to find the letter and the minister has still not used it, it must follow that he has kept the letter so plainly that it is not paid much attention as well as he can quickly get it when needed. Therefore, in order to succeed at what one desires, sometimes it is necessary to approach the problem in unique ways.

As a Work of Detective Fiction The protagonist of ''The Purloined Letter'', Dupin has also been the central character in Poe's other detective stories, most importantly, ''The Murders in the Rue Morgue' , which was being discussed even in this story when the Prefect arrived. Edgar Allan is claimed to be the father of the modern detective genre of fiction, in which the story develops from clues and situations found by the detective as they try to solve the case. The story is a brilliant work of detective fiction because of its sheer simplicity. The letter has been stolen and its contents are so controversial that the royal lady is willing to pay a huge sum for its safe return. The police have searched intensely and failed and the minister did not even attempt to hide it. Only the detective realizes the mystery of the case to be pretty plain. Thus there is suspense, threat, fear, skill and curiosity in the story which keep the reader engaged till the very end.

Symbolism in the Story The very clear symbol in the story is the letter itself. It symbolizes the secrets that people hide and that can destroy their lives if they are let out in the open. The exact contents of the letter are never revealed but it is certain that they are so controversial that they can harm the image of the lady. The characters even function as symbols. The detective is a symbol of a rationally thinking intellectual mind. The minister is symbolic of a shrewd mentality that grabs hold of compromising information only to blackmail and harass. The police symbolize official protocol and how it can often prove to be useless when dealing in actual complicated life settings.

Conclusion Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be a representative of Dark Romanticism, a movement, which as its name suggests, focused on the dark side of humanity. In The Purloined Letter , the characters have some dark secrets, especially the lady who wishes the contents of the letter to remain a secret. The minister has a dark side to his character too and keeps the letter hidden to blackmail the lady when he needs to. Even the detective is a dark character who quickly realized the truth but does not expose the minister and simply replaces the letter so that when the minister tries to use it, he comes out as foolish and is mocked at. The detective does this to take revenge on the minister for an insult the minister had done to him in the past and the detective remembered it to get even when the right time comes. Even the characterization like many of Poe s other stories is such that the characters apart from the detective are not given a proper name, so as to create an uncertainty about it as is usual with such detective fiction.