The Analysis of Short Story Elements

•Title of the short story : The Purloined Letter AKA The Stolen Letters

•The author : Edgar Allan Poe

•Elements of short story:

1. Setting :
a) Time : in the 1800
b) Place : in Paris

2. Character and characteristic :

a) Main character :

• C. Auguste Dupin

A famous detective from Paris, C. Auguste Dupin is not a professional detective. He

is very smart and solves his cases by trying to empathize with the criminal. Thus
when the Prefect assumed that Minister D would hide the letter inside of something
like a pillow, Dupin knew he was more clever than that, and Minister D would hide
the letter in plain sight. That is why he found the letter and the Prefect did not.
Normally, Dupin has taken cases just for the sake of solving them, but this time he
did not reveal he had found the letter until he had gotten a sizable reward for it.

b) Minor Characters :

• Unnamed Narator

The narrator is Dupin's friend and roommate. Like Dupin and G—, the narrator is in
all three of the Dupin tales. He sure does hear a lot. Not that he shares everything he
hears, though. He never describes the letter; he never explains what the letter
contains; and he never spills the exact identities of the people involved (although
presumably he knows). I think he's really good at keeping secrets.

• Monsieur ( G- )

Monsieur G— is the prefect, or head, of the Paris police. Like Dupin and the narrator, he's in
all the three of the Dupin tales of detection. And, like both of them, he's a pretty familiar
figure: the doofus policeman who can't match either the detective or criminal.

We also know that he's diligent in his search. He tells Dupin and the narrator that:

For three months a night has not passed, during the greater part of which I have not
been engaged, personally, in ransacking the D— Hotel. (36)
And then he really steps it up by bringing in Dupin and
conducting another exhaustive search of D—'s hotel room. So, he obviously takes his
work very seriously

• The Minister ( D- )

The minister D— is the official villain of the piece. Dupin and D— have had a
previous relationship, and previous conflict (122).

"The thief," said G——, "is the Minister D——, who dares all things, those
unbecoming as well as those becoming a man. The method of the theft was not less
ingenious than bold." (28)

This is quite an introduction. He's bold, ingenious, and—yep—manly. Notice that the
passage also suggests that there are at least two sides to his daring. While this story
depicts him as villainous, G— suggests that he does occasionally act in a way
"becoming [appropriate to] a man."

The second thing we hear about him is this:

"His lynx eye immediately perceives the paper, recognises the handwriting of the
address, observes the confusion of the personage addressed, and fathoms her
secret." (28)

The lynx is an adorable kitty cat known for its keen eyesight and magnificently furry
paws. So, D— is sharp, ferocious, and predatory. You might even say he purrloins the
letter. (Rimshot).

• The Royal Lady

The royal lady is the victim, right? It's her letter that's stolen; she's the one being
blackmailed. Sure, she might be a victim of corrupt political forced—but, frankly, it
seems just as likely that she's deceitful, irresponsible, corrupt, and impressively
powerful.

• The other Royal Person

Okay, so here we’re going to have a clear victim. The other royal person is the guy
being lied to and deceived, and he doesn’t even get the dignity of a consistent name.
He’s called “a third person, who shall be nameless” (26), “the other exalted
personage” (28), and “the third personage” (28).

• (S-)

S— is one of the biggest mysteries of the story. This whole mess begins when he
sends the royal lady a letter. We deduce that this person has a name that begins
with an "S" because the purloined letter is sealed with, you guessed it, S—. (Hey, if
anyone's throwing around any 50,000 franc checks….) We also know that S— comes
from a "ducal family," thanks to the seal that G— describes.
 So, we know he's a powerful guy. Other than that, we're as lost as you are.

3. Plot :
a) Exposition :

Two guys sit in the dark, silently smoking. Yep, that’s about it. C. Auguste Dupin,
private detective, and his roommate, the unnamed narrator, are puffing away in
a smoky reverie when G—, the head of the Paris police, enters the scene.

b) Rising action :

G— spends a lot of time rather cryptically explaining the mystery at hand.

Basically, the crafty D— has made off with (purloined!) a secret and scandalous
letter belong to some unnamed royal lady. He’s now blackmailing her to get what
he wants politically, and she’s called in G— to purloin it back.

Every night for the past three months, G— has been searching D—‘s hotel room
for the letter. Thoroughly. How thoroughly? Try this:

We examined the rungs of every chair in the hotel, and, indeed, the jointings of
every description of furniture, by the aid of a most powerful microscope. Had
there been any traces of recent disturbance we should not have failed to detect it
instantly. A single grain of gimlet-dust, for example, would have been as obvious
as an apple. Any disorder in the glueing —any unusual gaping in the joints —
would have sufficed to insure detection. (53)

All this, and still no luck. Meanwhile, the political situation isn’t improving. So now
we know why G— just so happened to show up at Dupin’s door after an absence
of several years: he needs help.

c) Climax :

A month later, G— show up again still letter-less. Surprise! Dupin has it now, and sells it
to G— for fifty thousand francs. G— gets what wants, Dupin shows off his massive
brain, and the narrator's man-crush on Dupin gets just a little crushier.

d) Falling Action

Great! The letter is (presumably) on its way back to its rightful owner; it's been confirmed
that Dupin is both smart and sneaky; and, best of all, we're finally about to know what's in
this stinkin' letter. Right? Wrong. All the narrator wants to know is how his genius BFF
came up with the answer, and for him the suspense is in waiting to find out how Dupin
located it, rather than what it says.

Here, Dupin tells the narrator (but not G—) how he does find it. But don’t think
that there’s any real resolution. In fact, what we end up with is just what you’d
expect from unraveling (“denouement” means “unraveling”) a piece of cloth: a
whole bunch of loose ends.

e) Conclusion

At the very end, Dupin reveals that he purloined the letter because he (1) digs the royal
lady on a political and possibly personal level, and (2) wants to get revenge on D—.
 Which, if you think about it, is totally weird. Throughout the entire story, we've assumed
D— is just doing this out of boredom or (non)professional curiosity. Instead, the ending
sets up the story as merely one installment of a long plot. If this were a Hollywood movie,
you'd know to expect "The Purloined Letter II: The Return of D—" to be coming out next
summer.

4. Conflict :
The conflict in The Purloined Letter involves the necessity of finding the stolen letter and
returning it to its rightful owner before it is too late.

5. Theme :
the themes is that the truth is often hidden in plain sight.

6. Point of View :
First Person (Peripheral Narrator) Purloined Letter" is told in the first person, by an unnamed
narrator, who doesn't participate directly in any of the story's major action. This narrator is
Dupin's roommate, and he also narrates the other two Dupin tales of detection.

7. Time connective :

Just after dark one, before i begin, after some business transaction,

8. Prepositional Phrase of Time