Dupin and the Narrator

After reading ‘The Purloined Letter’, the latest story in the C. Auguste Dupin series, I began to notice more and more similarities between Dupin and the narrator.  It seems that in each story, the narrator becomes more like Dupin, and if we go with the theory that Dupin is the narrator’s alter ego, the personality of Dupin becomes more dominant with each mystery solved.

In the first story, ‘Murder in the Rue Morgue’, the narrator opens with a lengthy discussion about analytics and intellect. The narrator’s purpose for this opening is to introduce us to Dupin’s logic through simple examples such as chess, checkers and cards. This shows that at this point, the narrator understands that Dupin’s mind differs from that of a common person and deems it necessary to provide an explanation of how Dupin’s mind works first before diving into the story. In the second story, ‘Mystery of Marie Roget’, the narrator cuts down significantly on his opening discussion, shortening it from three pages to just one paragraph. Finally, in ‘The Purloined Letter’, the narrator jumps straight into the story without any opening explanations. This seems to me that the narrator’s mind now works similarly to Dupin’s, and he doesn’t find his logic needing of explanation anymore, which is definitely a sign that the narrator is becoming Dupin.

Additionally, in ‘Murder in the Rue Morgue’, the narrator was more sympathetic and compassionate towards other people, such as when the narrator expressed that he “pitied [the sailor] from the bottom of [his] heart”. However, in ‘The Purloined Letter’, the narrator became much less sympathetic and less sensitive to others’ feelings. He made blunt comments without much thought, much like Dupin, which we see when he said “Then you have been making a miscalculation” (pg 368) plainly to the prefect without any consideration or tact. The narrator also seemed unbothered by the prefect’s embarrassment and discomfort when Dupin asks him to write the check.