Murders in the Rue Morgue

I believe the center of this story can be found in rationale or rational thought.  As the reader follows Dupin through the narrative we observe his use of his rationale to make conclusions, even if they do not seem likely they are rational.   In the beginning of the story Poe talks of a chess game in which the "Our player confines himself not at all; nor, because the game is the object, does he reject deductions from things external to the game."   Poe is asserting right away that a rational mind must take into account all things, not just make assumptions from the way one thinks things should be - just like the missing money was a wild goose chase that didn't amount to anything in the story in the end.  

If we take the opposite of rational thought, we are left with irrational thoughts.   In this story the orangoutang actually somewhat represents the irrational.  If irrationality were to take the center of this tale, than the murders, though gruesome, would not be perplexing, they would actually be the norm, and the man or woman who would attempt to put the pieces together to find out what happened would be the outcast.  

The Murders in the Rue Morgue - Kelsey Villarino

#5 - Literary Elements

Setting: Rue Montmartre, Paris/Rue Morgue, Paris

Plot: After the meeting of the narrator and Dupin, they hear of a murder of two women in the Rue Morgue, Mademoiselle Camille and Madame L'Espanaye. The first was choked to death and left in the fireplace while Madame was taken to the back of the building and severely beaten. After analyzing the crime scene, Dupin surmises that it was not a human that committed this deadly crime but an orangutan.

Point of view: first person; an unnamed narrator that befriends Dupin, a character who begins a new genre of detective crime-solving in story telling.

Characterization: Dupin is Edgar Allen Poe's Sherlock and is considered to be the one man who can solve anything that is put before him. He has the ability to find clues that others would overlook as nonsense and connect them in a way never thought of before. Poe uses the character of Dupin to act out his own love of detective work and mind games.

Symbolism: Poe uses an animal such as the orangutan to suggest that humans are incapable of committing such a grisly and inhuman crime against innocent people.

Murders in the rue mogue by Adrian

After reading The murders in the Rue Morgue a few times I have found several examples of places and pictures associated with mystery, anonymity and violence. Starting with the identity  of the narrator which is the biggest mystery in the story because the narrator does not reveals information about his or her person . Also, in the story there are other images associated with mysterious and anonymity.  The first one is the image narrated in the lines that says "Our first meeting was in an obscure library in the Rue Montmartre, where the accident of our both being in the search of the same very rare and very remarkable volume, brought us into closer communion" the term "obscure library" suggest an empty and dark place, in other a place full of mystery where anonymity can be easy to find,  also the reference to the book they are looking for describes some of the connection between them.  In the same paragraph we can find another image associated with mystery when the narrator tell us about moving together with Dupin into what the narrator describes as " a time eaten and grotesque mansion, long deserted through superstitions" and he also described the mansion  as "a retired and desolate portion of the Faubourg St. Germain" this is another picture of a dark and mysterious place, this place creates another connection between the two characters . The narrator says they didn't admit visitors that reflects the  anonymity of them and what they do in there.

Another picture created  in the story is the one that describes the scene of the crime, from the lines "the apartment was in the wildest disorder- the furniture broken and thrown about in all directions. There was only one bedstead; and from this the bed had been removed and thrown into the middle of the floor. On a chair lay a razor, besmeared with blood. On the hearth were two or three long and thick tresses of grey human hair, also dabbled in blood and seeming to have been pulled out by the roots"  the description of this picture creates a sense of exaltation  in the reader because describes a crime of massive violence and brutality, without knowing anything else about the crime, from these picture we can anticipate that there was  lot of violence and because of the razors we can assume that there was mutilation, that creates in the reader an impact of the violence involved in the crime.

The writer uses this pictures to give the story a big sense of mystery, darkness and violence. Allan Poe is known principally because of the darkness in his stories, and in this story  the author uses the picture of the library, the mansion, and the scene of the crime as a good example of how the use of archetypals can make a great difference on the reader perception.

Feminism Critic post #2 Val hulse

The short poem "Metaphors" by Sylvia Plath,  is a perfect poem to analyze thru a feminist criticism. The poem is about pregnancy.  It is a very Gynocritisism piece of literature.
   As discussed in class, Gynocritisism is literary feminism criticism that specifically includes the physically female body.  Plath uses this type of feminism criticism to give specific details of how the female body looks when pregnant.  Plath also refers to her pregnant body as "O red fruit, ivory, fine timbers!".  Using feminism critic, I think, on this line of the poem she views her preggers body as a grand impressive thing. Comparing it to "ivory" a rare and previous jewel. Or when Plath calls her body to "strong timbers" she literally could be comparing her body to a strong house that protects and supports her child. Additionally, I think it is worth noting that ivory and timbers are both very strong objects.  Maybe Plath must be strong during her pregnancy for herself and not only the baby.  Maybe she needs the strength or ivory and timbers to accept what is and will happen to her because of her pregnancy.
     I believe she is ultimately unhappy with her pregnancy.   "O red fruit" could refer to a ripe apple.  Ah the red apple... a classic biblical symbol of sin? The one fruit tree Eve was not allowed to eat from.  Maybe Plath is eluding to the fact she did  not want to eat the red apple..not become pregnant for fear of ending up an outcast like Eve herself.
   Plath says "Money's new-minted in this fat purse. I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf".  This literally represents how her body is being used as a means of production.  She literally calls her body a "fat purse" because her baby will make her money. I also believe the line  "I've eaten a bag of green apples, Boarded the train there's no getting off" proves she is unhappy about her pregnancy.  I think this refers to animals being fattened up with food, put on a train and herded to the slaughter. Maybe Plath feels she will be symbolically slaughtered by becoming a mother.
  In conclusion, Plath being unhappy is my take on the poem. However, I also believe this could be analyzed without feminism critic.  I would then argue Plath is completely thrilled about becoming a mother. Either way this poem is interpreted, I think it's beautiful because sometimes pregnancies are joyous sometimes not!

Response to option 4 Murders in the Rue Morgue by Val hulse

       I believe the center of this story is knowledge. The narrator/main character places a huge importance  on the possession of knowledge throughout the story.  In the beginning the narrator uses a chess game to emphasize the importance knowledge has in overtaking an chess opponent.  The narrator emphasizes that knowledge is separate from wealth and both do not have to coexist in order for a person to be knowledgeable.  This is the case with Dupin.  He poor but the only person more knowledgable than himself.  The major "man crush" the narrator developed on Dupin is because he envies his knowledge. In my opinion, the main chapter is willing to live and fully support Dupin in order to gain more knowledge.  He does this by literally locking himself inside with Dupin and soaking up everything Dupin says.
       The quest for more knowledge is evident when the two roommates investigate a murder. At this point in the story, the de-centering of knowledge is easy.  Is the quest for knowledge really worth viewing a horrific crime scene?  is knowledge really worth living with a stranger and isolating yourself from the world?  I believe on some level the narrator  realizes that he is perhaps a little crazy for doing this, because of what he says after Dupin refers to investigating the murder as amusement.  "An inquiry will afford us amusement," [I thought this an odd term, so applied, but said nothing]".  The narrator is however, still willing to risk everything that he thinks is right in order to gain more knowledge.
        Dupin does solve the case but at what costs? The narrator has viewed a crime scene been forced to hold a pistol and has not solved anything with his own knowledge. Is the main character really better off for perusing knowledge? There is the saying "knowledge is power" but in this case I don't see how solving this murder with Dupin gave the narrator any power.  The quest for the knowledge of this murder wasn't really knowledge at all but more of a game that occupied the two men.  I can not see what knowledge was personally gained by the narrator by solving this crime.

Murder in Rue Morgue-Jess

Man/animal.
Through out the entire novel you are led to believe that either a man (or a woman) was the unidentifiable voice from the crime scene. In society we are taught to believe that violent crimes are perpetrated by men (or women) however in the end we discover that the killer was an orang-otang. The standing belief is that men are the dominate (idea, being race) however if that were the case in this story then the killer would have been a man and not an animal. Futher more, the animal knew enough to try and hide the first body, a skill we contribute to man alone.

living/dead
We naturally assume that living is the dominate idea, however in this text the main focus is on the dead. It doesn't matter that the people who rushed the building are alive, that the narrator is alive. Without there being two bodies upstairs there would be no murder to investigate and thus no story.

Known/unknown
There are several examples in Murder in Rue Morgue that show that dominance of the unknown. The first is the narrator and his or her companion. The companion is well know, he even has a name C. Aguste Dupin. However the narrator is entirely unknown, in fact we aren't even given a gender for the narrator and there are ambiguous statements that indicate it might be female (when they are strolling down the street arm in arm). The second is the two voices that were heard in the apartment murder scene. One was a Frenchman, no one denies that. However it is the second voice that is focused on. It might be Russian, it might be French, it might be Spanish or English. In the end it is that unknown voice that cracks the case.

BLOG POST 3, MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (DUE BY THURS)

Using “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” 

as your base, do one of the following:

1)     Identify several archetypal elements (characters, patterns, images, themes, etc.) and explain how their presence is likely to affect a reader’s interpretation and/or act as foreshadowing, their familiarity helping readers make assumptions about plot, character, etc. (i.e., as I pointed out about Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown”, the movement from a well-lit cozy house to a dark cold forest automatically signals a movement from safety to danger). The sample paper for psychological criticism deals with archetypes, so you might take a look at that.

2)     Trace the id/ego/superego in one or more characters, beginning with the psychic state of a character upon his/her introduction and ending with an analysis of the character’s psyche at the story’s conclusion.

3)     Identify and “reverse” three binaries, thus “dismantling” the text (the sample paper in the “Deconstruction” folder does exactly this, so it might be useful to you).

4)     Identify the story’s “center” (whatever you think is presented as a large-scale center of meaning) and reverse the binary, explaining how this center cannot “stay” a center as it requires supplementation (i.e., in “The Cask of Amontillado” the narrator touches on binaries like logic/emotion, revenge/acceptance, and life/death. Arguably, the central “value” might be self-preservation (Montresor implies that preservation not only of life but of reputation is of the utmost importance. As such, if the “self” rather than “others” is a center here, then what does this look like when we turn it around?)

5)     Identify several key literary elements (symbolism, characterization, point of view, setting, plot, etc.) that seem to be quite prominent/worth analyzing. Explain how exactly how each of these elements is working and how they work together (examples coming quickly of how formalist analysis works . . . several sample papers are already posted under the label “New Criticism”).