How did no one find the letter?
Although I enjoyed The Purloined Letter and reading about Dupin's explanation of the downfalls of mathematical logic, I am not convinced that simple is always better. In Dupin's long explanation of how he found the letter after the police thoroughly searched the minister's mansion, he incorporates three examples: the concept of inertia, the mathematician's inability to change his principles, and the young boy who won the game of even an odd. His explanation that "intellects with a vaster capacity" are less readily moved than those of simpler inferior thought makes sense. He supports this idea that complex thought processes are rarely challenged and improved with his example of the mathematician. For example, he says that a mathematician will never be able to consider that x2 + px does not equal q because it can be mathematically proven to be true.
This argument that over complex principles are not susceptible to change and thus have a arrow scope makes sense. However, when Dupin describes this theory in terms of the boy playing the guessing game, his ideas are less concrete. It seems to me that the boy could have just as easily won the game from random guessing than considering his opponents thought process (which one can never truly know).
In addition, the application of this principle to finding the letter also seems like a stretch. From the description of Prefect G----, it seemed as though his officers checked every single piece of paper in the apartment. For this reason, it seems unlikely that they would not notice this obvious letter. In addition, I believe that thoroughly searching the apartment is the only way to find the letter, because Dupin used the Prefect's findings to find the letter himself.
This argument that over complex principles are not susceptible to change and thus have a arrow scope makes sense. However, when Dupin describes this theory in terms of the boy playing the guessing game, his ideas are less concrete. It seems to me that the boy could have just as easily won the game from random guessing than considering his opponents thought process (which one can never truly know).
In addition, the application of this principle to finding the letter also seems like a stretch. From the description of Prefect G----, it seemed as though his officers checked every single piece of paper in the apartment. For this reason, it seems unlikely that they would not notice this obvious letter. In addition, I believe that thoroughly searching the apartment is the only way to find the letter, because Dupin used the Prefect's findings to find the letter himself.
I think the letter was so difficult to find because D--- changed its appearance by tearing it and making it dirty. It's possible that a "simple" mind like G---'s could also be inert and unable to think about the other ways that things can be hidden. Without adopting the mindset of the enemy G--- had almost no chance of success. Likewise, the boy playing marbles only has a (1/2)^n chance of winning his perfect record after the first defeat if he only guesses and doesn't reason beyond his own thought process.
ReplyDeleteI see your point here, but I think it's just that G-- over-complicated the mystery, as D-- and Dupin guessed he would, and therefore never thought of the possibility that D could just have changed the letter's appearance and camouflaged it in the most obvious place. However, I doubt that D--'s findings were of any use to Dupin, since he guessed right from the beginning that G-- would 'hide' the letter in the way he did, based on his remark to D-- that "it's the very simplicity of the thing that puts you at fault". So even if G didn't tell Dupin that he found nothing through his careful search, Dupin would still have been able to solve the mystery without having to search the entire house.
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