The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Arguably, the driving theme of any detective story is the glorification of the intellect. Through the capacity to reason, homo sapiens demonstrate their superiority over all other species. In “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Poe distills the embodiment of cognitive virtuosity into his detective, C. Auguste Dupin. This preoccupation with the brain, the supposed “separate organ” (3), and its scope is meticulously laid out in the preface. The flow of the preface seems to be interrupted when Poe interjects the subject of phrenology, the science of categorizing anatomical skull and brain structure by a corresponding intelligence. Poe builds upon the idea of being able to quantify one’s intelligence, although he makes sure the reader knows that the narrator disbelieves the basis of phrenology. In essence, the preface encourages metacognition and invites the reader to measure the quality of thought. From start to finish, Poe unveils a comparison/contrast between Dupin and the Ourang-Outang as symbols of extreme cognition: rationality and irrationality. It is not the characters’ anatomical differences, but rather their choices and behavior that prove the efficacy of their mind.

In a practical sense, for the murders in Paris to be solved, Dupin, the investigator, must become the clever hunter who outsmarts his guilty Ourang-Outang prey.