The Murders in the Rue Morgue Themes
Cunning and Cleverness
In the first paragraph of the story, the narrator says that he doesn't want to "write a treatise" (i.e., an essay) about his suggestion that reason is always the better for a little imagination, an...
Justice and Judgment
When we think "detective story," we think of something like Law and Order: SVU or The Mentalist or Cold Case, where the point is to put together all the clues to catch the perpetrator before he can...
Foreignness and 'The Other'
The narrator of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a stranger in a strange land, a man of unknown nationality visiting Paris. While he and Dupin are bonded, he nevertheless often describes Dupin sp...
Awe and Amazement
The narrator of "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is upfront about his own personal tastes, and when we say upfront, we mean it literally. He spends the first several paragraphs of his story expressi...