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Kelsey Langland-Hayes

Dr. Crews

ENGL 361

5 October 2019

The Imagination of Auguste Dupin

Possessing an imagination involves the ability to observe and analyze the world in a

deeper and more profound way than one could living “by the book.” Without an imagination, a

person is limited by what they can discover and understand about the way the world works. To

gain an understanding of this, one must not allow themselves to be held back by such limitations.

For Edgar Allan Poe, his introduction to the world of detective stories inspires this creative and

imaginative approach. One of Poe’s central characters in his detective stories, Auguste Dupin,

perfectly embodies this imaginative role. Specifically, in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the

Rue Morgue,” Auguste Dupin exemplifies the imagination through his wide-range view and

openness to analyzing the world’s endless possibilities, which enables him to see things in a way

that others do not.

Through one of the narrator’s first interactions with Auguste Dupin, it is evident that

Dupin’s imagination has incredible capabilities. While walking together one evening, Poe

illustrates Auguste Dupin’s imaginative skills through his abilities to interpret the narrator’s

thoughts. Responding to his meditations, Dupin remarks, “‘He is a very little fellow, that’s true,

and would do better for the Theatre des Varietes’” (Poe 96). Unable to comprehend how Dupin

can understand the narrator’s internal dialogue, Dupin amazes the narrator with his apparent

mind-reading abilities. Auguste Dupin explains his methods: “‘Chantilly, Orion, Dr Nichol,
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Epicurus, Stereotomy, the street stones, the fruiterer’” (97). Dupin’s imagination allows him to

work backwards, to retrace the narrator’s train of thought, and to predict the narrator’s current

meditations. Dupin’s creative approach allows him to predict the narrator’s meditations, for this

retracing process has an “illimitable distance and incoherence between the starting-point and the

goal” (97). Not only does Dupin analyze a situation based on external circumstances and his

recollection of previous interactions, but he also interprets body language. Specifically, Dupin

points out, “‘You kept your eyes upon the ground-glancing, with a petulant expression, at the

holes and ruts in the pavement’” (98). This initial interaction with Dupin serves as a catalyst for

Dupin’s imaginative analytical abilities.

In addition to this interaction with the narrator, Poe exhibits Dupin’s imaginative skills

and capabilities to view the world in a different light by contrasting Dupin’s open-mindedness

with the narrow-mindedness of the Prefect and the police. Initially, when the police break into

the locked apartment, they discover a variety of evidence, but they fail to find the older woman,

the second murder victim. Abiding by the book, a small room’s items “‘were carefully removed

and searched. There was not an inch of any portion of the house which was not carefully

searched’” (103). As expected, the police observe the obvious pieces of evidence and limit

themselves by their logic and close-mindedness. Later on, the police find her corpse; however, as

Dupin points out, the police have mishandled the pieces of evidence. According to the evening

edition, “‘The windows, both of the back and front room, were down and firmly fastened from

within’” (103). What the police fail to notice is that the springs on the windows allow them to

latch from the outside and appear unopened. Later on, when the Prefect of the police discovers

Dupin’s solution to the case, he feels embarrassed. Even though he seems satisfied with the fact
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that they resolved the case, the Prefect and the police’s narrow-mindedness prevents them from

viewing the world in the incredible manner that Dupin does.

Because of Dupin’s open-minded approach, he can observe the world in a fashion that

other analytical, close-minded characters cannot. While analyzing the crime scene, for example,

Dupin examines the whole neighborhood and the house “with a minuteness of attention for

which” the narrator “could see no possible object” (106). Retracing their steps again, Dupin

scrutinizes every detail of the crime scene. For instance, Dupin notices the peculiarity of the

second of the two voices that the witnesses each describe differently. Even though the witnesses

and the police cannot agree on the voice of the second suspect, Dupin finds a commonality

amongst all of their descriptions: “‘each one spoke of it as that of a foreigner’” (108). In doing

so, Dupin realizes that the voice seems “foreign,” but it does not seem foreign in the sense that it

is the voice of a foreign man. Regarding the details of how the suspect could enter the house,

Dupin does not simply take what the police claim as fact. Despite the scrutiny of the police’s

investigation, the police do not notice the hidden spring that allows the window to latch itself.

Additionally, Dupin reveals the nail and explains how “‘the nail could not have been replaced’”

(111). As a result of this evidence, Dupin accurately supports his claim referencing the entrance

and exit of the suspect; Dupin’s creative mind allows him to discover how the suspect makes his

descent from the window. It seems impossible for the suspect to exit through the window and

descend to the ground, but Dupin does not limit himself to thinking that the suspect is human.

Revealing the strange shutters to the narrator, Dupin emphasizes the suspect’s ability to grip the

shutters during the entrance and exit of the house. Due to Auguste Dupin’s wide-range approach

to the case, he discovers that the murderer is an “Ourang-Outang.”

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It is because of Dupin’s frame of mind that he solves the case and discovers details that

the other characters overlook, such as the suspect’s non-human qualities. Utilizing his limitless

abilities, Dupin discovers that the suspect did not steal the victims’ money, which reveals that the

unknown suspect did not have a motive pertaining to money. Moreover, he realizes the hair and

the hands of the suspect come from a different species. The narrator also realizes this when he

declares, “‘this is no human hair’” (115). After discovering the species of the suspect, Dupin

discovers that the other voice witnessed is the owner of the “Ourang-Outang.” Whilst the

animal’s owner may appear innocent, he still fears what could happen to him and his pet. Based

on the evidence leading Dupin to his owner, Dupin creatively deduces that his owner is a sailor,

so he lures the owner in to confess his “Ourang-Outang’s” faults. The creative and imaginative

skills Dupin possesses lead him to successfully solve the case by the end of the story.

Throughout “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” Edgar Allan Poe illustrates Dupin’s

impeccable imaginative abilities, which enable him to view things in a light that the Prefect and

the police cannot. Based on one of the narrator’s first interactions with Dupin, he sees that Dupin

can read and analyze people and their body language in a fashion that those limited by analytics

cannot. For characters like the Prefect and the police, they fail to notice as many details as Dupin

because of their narrow-mindedness. Thinking outside of the norms and expectations of

narrow-minded people, Dupin views the world on a wider scale than everyone around him; these

skills help Dupin to see things in a way that others cannot. Having a wide-range imagination

enables Dupin to notice deeper and more profound details than the characters who live as slaves

to the book.
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Works Cited

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” Edgar Allan Poe: Selected Tales, edited by

David Van Leer, Oxford University Press, 1841, pp. 92-122.