The Yellow Face and the Murders in the Rue Morgue - Essay Example

A Comparative Evaluation and Literary Analysis of “The Yellow Face” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe This paper is a comparative analysis of the two landmark short stories in detective mysteries, the Sherlock Holmes’ adventure of “The Yellow Face” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe. The two stories are both unique and remarkable in their historical significance considering the age when these were written as well as the uniqueness and ingenuity of the subject matters and treatments of the same. “The Yellow Face” is a story about Mr. Grant Munro and his wife. They were a happily married couple till recently when his wife, Effie was making secret liaisons with the inhabitants of a cottage near their house. Later on it was found out that her daughter from her first marriage was alive and was living in the cottage. The little girl was black and Effie concealed this fact from Grant as she was scared that he would reject her as she was mother of a child of mixed race. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” revolves around twin murders of a mother and her daughter in Rue Morgue, which is a fictional street in Paris. Dupin, who lives in Paris takes it upon himself to solve the mystery. There were numerous witnesses who claimed they heard the suspect but could not recognise the language. At the murder venue, Dupin finds a hair which does not belong to any human. Eventually, it was revealed that an Ourang-Outang has escaped from a sailor with his shaving razor, and the animal is responsible for the murders. Compare and contrast theme Though the theme of both the stories circles around unlocking of a mystery but they are very different from one another in terms of plot in both the stories. The theme in the “The Yellow Face” lies in the mystery surrounding a previously married but devoted wife’s sudden suspicious behaviors, whereas, we witness a much more complex theme in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” where we are gripped with an aura of chilling mystery surrounding a couple of ruthless murders. The first story is a framed narrative from Dr. Watson’s point of view, like most other Holmes’ series. On the other hand, the second story is narrated in first person by an unnamed narrator. Write an introduction for each of the stories Although its inspirations can be traced back to the “Das Fräulein von Scuderi” by E.T.A. Hoffmann in 1819 and the 1748 publication of the “Zadig” by Voltaire, The Murders in the Rue Morgue (1841) by Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be the first ever detective mystery that showcases the art of deduction in solving a crime based on detection and analysis of clues that by an investigator. Also, it is the first ever locked room mystery in the genre of detective fiction (Poe, 8).Whereas published in the Strand Magazine in the year of 1893, The Yellow Face is a enthralling mystery story, and is a part of the series of short stories that immortalizes the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, clearly the most popular character in the genre of the literature of detective mysteries. This story is one of the sentimental pieces of Doyle where the sympathetic treatment about the social aspect of interracial marriage can be considered to be extraordinarily liberal given the age at which this was written. (Doyle, 11) So we can say Poe was one of the first in the genre where as Doyle began much later with his fictional work. Identify and analyze the conflicts in the stories. Identify the external and internal conflicts if both exist In the tale Poe portrays an underlying metaphor in the conflict between brains versus Brawn. The orangutan and its owner stand for physical strength represented through violence. The animal turns out to be the murderer, whereas the owner had driven the animal to its murderous tendencies by virtue of the abuse he laid out on the animal. The brainpower of the analytical Dupin ultimately triumphed over the violence. (Poe, 30-32) This conflict between brains and brawn is the external conflict conveyed through “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe. On the contrary we see that the story, the “The Yellow Face” is filled with portrayal of internal conflict in the minds of the leading characters of the story. From the story, we come to learn about how devoted and transparent Mrs. Effie Munro wishes to remain to her husband; yet at the same time, she has is afraid of the reaction she speculates will come from her husband, on knowing the truth about her daughter’s existence. The woman never intended to keep a secret from her husband however her fears were based on prevalent social values and stigmas which kept her from revealing the truth she was hiding for the last three years. Although trust is a basic premise in any relationship, Mrs. Munroe concealed the fact regarding her mixed race child for the fear of her marriage getting jeopardized. This is the internal conflict that gripped the mind of Mrs. Munroe, as she, on one hand, craves to be a wife who shares anything and everything with her husband, yet, she’s not being able to share with her husband the fact that her mixed-race daughter from her previous black husband is alive and she loves her immensely, so much so that she wants her daughter in her everyday life. (Doyle, 10-11). Again Holmes’ deductions that Mrs. Munroe was being blackmailed by her previous husband turned out to be incorrect in the end and thus Holmes was confronted with an external conflict in the end of the story (Doyle,11). So we can say Poe mainly highlights the impact of external conflicts whereas Doyle focuses on the internal conflict making the stories unique from their own perspectives. Analyze characters. Describe main characters and explain if character is static or dynamic. If character is static, explain what insight he/she fails to gain. If dynamic, explain what insight character gains In Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, the main characters are Dupin, his unnamed friend who narrates the story and the Orangutan. Dupin, who used to reside secluded from society, read about the murders in the newspaper, but he did not initially take the decision to investigate. It was only after the arrest and imprisonment of Adolphe Le Bon, when he decided to investigate. (Poe, 14) He did so, as he felt that the victim had been arrested without there being any proof suggesting that the victim was indeed behind the murders; and Dupin was a man who would always hunt for the truth. Here, we can see the character Dupin is dynamic in nature, because he went out of his way to live in total isolation with his friend, to start investigating on a case that required interacting with people a lot. As a result of his interaction, Dupin came to know much from the sailor who had lost his orangutan and this piece of information served as a valuable clue in the course of unlocking the mystery. But in Doyle’s “The Yellow Face”, the main characters are Mr. Grant Munroe, Mrs. Effie Munroe and Sherlock Holmes. Mr. Munroe had suspected his wife of deceiving him and having an extramarital affair with someone. Mrs. Munroe started feeling for her daughter whom she left behind following her first husband’s death. But since her daughter was of mixed race, she concealed the existence of her daughter, due to the prevalent social taboo surrounding mixed race child. In the end, Mr. Munroe, on discovering that his wife was actually not having an affair with anyone else and when the truth was unearthed, gladly, lovingly accepted the child of hers. We cannot conclude that Mr. Munroe’s character is dynamic because we are unsure of what his mentality was, regarding mixed race children, prior to him accepting Mrs. Munroe’s daughter. We are thus compelled to infer that the three main characters in The Yellow Face are static in nature, judging from the mentality of the characters portrayed in the story. So we can see Poe pictured a much dynamic character than Doyle in his story. Analyze the settings. Explain whether the setting is specific or general and what about the setting contributes to the central idea or conflict in the story As per scholars, this work of Poe changed the course of world literature by being the first ever work in detective stories, arguably one of the most popular genres of literature. Poe wrote “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” at a time when crime was at the forefront in people’s minds due to urban development. London had then recently established its first professional police force and American cities were beginning to focus on scientific police work. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” establishes an urban background. Being set in the middle of 19th Century Paris, Dupin is the central character of this story and eventually became the prototype for most of the future fictional detectives, including that of Doyles Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot of Agatha Christie. The style of this genre is distinctive in contrast to a usual mystery story in the fact that the focus of the plot is on analysis by the detective or investigator. Again a remarkable aspect of the adventure of “The Yellow Face” is that the inferences drawn by Holmes prove to be incorrect during the course of the story (Doyle, 11). The Yellow Face is set in England in the year 1893 unlike Poe where he took the readers to have a stroll in Paris in the year 1841. Although there were no laws to prevent miscegenation in England, but it was still a country which was certainly not without racial prejudices. “The Yellow Face” subtly outlines the then prevalent society of Britain, where although interracial marriage and a mixed race child were not illegal in anyway, but still it was a shameful secret to be closely guarded, and revelation of which most likely shall lead to retribution at a social level (Doyle, 11). Identify the points of view of the stories (first person, third person etc…) and explain how it is appropriate to the story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" had established multiple tropes that would later become a common occurrence in subsequent mystery fiction: The narrator is a personal close friend, who narrates the exploits of the detective, Dupin, who is the central character with eccentric disposition but also at the same time a brilliant mind. It also narrates the bumbling constabulary, portrayed in an unsympathetic manner, who acts to foil to efforts of the detective. Poe devised the storytelling method, where Dupin announces his inference and thereafter explains the reason that leads up to the specific conclusion. (Poe, 1-32) But in the story The Yellow Face, Doyle adopted a similar style like Poe showing Dr. Watson, a close friend of Sherlock Holmes, but unlike others narrates the story in first person. Watson is a physician by profession, a man of reasonable intelligence; however he lacks the insight of Holmes. His portrayal of the story is of an ordinary man of that of the brilliant, analytical machine. Conan Doyle very successfully paired these two characters, very different in the way they functions, and yet complement each other very usefully for his purposes. (Doyle, 1-11) Compare and contrast the language in the stories. Identify any symbols or irony. Describe what is unique about the authors style of writing Like most of the popular fictions of Poe, this piece is also an example of Gothic fiction, a genre in which he combines elements of dark horror as well as that of art of deduction. It deals with the questions of death, represented with macabre depiction of its physical signs, the grotesque description of decapitation and stuffing of dead body in the chimney. (Poe, 8)This work is a reflection of the literary theories of Poe, where he clearly disliked didacticism and the extensive use of allegory, although the meaning in literature is only an undercurrent which is just underneath the surface depicted by words. Here the works are not with obvious meanings, something that Poe considers not to be art. This is a true testimonial of Poe’s unique style of using brief and focused words desired to bring out specific single effect in the reader. In contrast, the writing style adopted by Doyle is a simple one, which avoids the use of long words to the extent possible. Although belonging to the late Victorian era, the writing style of Doyle is representative of the modern prose. One learns about characters through the interaction between each other and dialogue, unlike Poe’s long metaphorical descriptions about the characters or the settings. The writing style of Doyle is of a masterful storyteller, it is filled with concise and sensuous description of persons and spaces, the characters are memorable due to the striking personalities. “The Yellow Face” symbolizes the fear of racism through a mother’s attempt of concealing her own daughter from her second husband. Racism can evoke such extreme prejudices in the minds of a man that Effie hid the fact from Grant that her daughter is black skinned although such inheritance has come from her first husband’s side. The fact that Effie herself has no history of black ancestors does not alleviate her fear of losing the love of Grant. The yellow face itself symbolizes the mental state of Grant. He describes it as “something unnatural and inhuman” (Doyle, 4) From the beginning, he found the inhabitants of the cottage as mysterious and later on his wife’s secret rendezvous with them further fuels his suspicion. Both Grant and Holmes suspect the obvious that Effie is cheating on her husband. While Grant thinks she is having an affair with someone, Holmes on the other hand deduces that the mysterious inhabitant of the cottage is her first husband. Ironically, both their suspicions prove to be false when it gets revealed that Effie was all the time hiding her daughter from Grant. The characters in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” form the symbols in the story. Dupin represents an imaginative player with a logical mind. He has the ability to look for clues beyond the obvious ones that mislead the police like the four thousand francs found on the floor which the police think are the motives behind the murders. He mocks at the Prefect of Police as “all head and no body” (Poe, 35). Dupin, himself is all brain and no heart because he solves the case only to acquit the suspect, Le Bon, as he owes him a favour and not because Le Bon is actually innocent. Ourang-Outang, being an animal signifies the lack of human reason behind murder. The irrational nature of the crime confuses the police as they cannot a fathom a murder without motive. Dupin, with his analytical mind concludes that the murder has not been committed by a human. The twin murders take place in a fourth floor room which is locked from the inside. Although it seems that there is ingenious trickery involved, the irony lies in the fact that it was done by an ape. Compare and contrast the tone in the story. Identify which elements contribute to tone: character, setting etc The tone in the story, “The Yellow Face” is informal, where Doyle narrates in the story through easygoing conservations and interactive dialogues. The tone is easy-paced, whereas the tone in Poe’s work, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is formal and rather somber and also ironic. Poe wants to imbibe the description of imagery deeply, profoundly into the minds of the reader so that the reader can possess the exact same vivid picture as Poe does at any instant of time during the course of reading the story, whereas Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does not go so much deep in describing imagery. Poe uses extended metaphors, whereas Sir Arthur Conan Doyle does not. Poe psycho-analyze the characters and the situations rather deeply, whereas Sir Arthur Conan Doyle conveys to the reader easy emotions in his tale which touches the heart of the reader. The character Dupin is rather gloomy and dark as he prefers to stay secluded from society and adds to the soberness and seriousness of the story, whereas the characters Mr. and Mrs. Munroe are rather easy-going, light-hearted, caring and sociable and this adds to the easy flow in the tone of the “The Yellow Face”. The nature of mystery in “The Yellow Face” also adds to the calmness of the story, whereas the nature of mystery in the “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” adds a sense of fear and seriousness in the minds of the readers. Compare and contrast theme and central ideas of stories. Theme of story is the general category/subject of story. Central idea is the statement this story makes on the theme The themes in both the stories happen to encircle unfastening the knots in a mystery case, but they are very different from one another in terms of the plot, the characters, how the cases are tackled and how they are subsequently resolved. The theme in the “The Yellow Face” lies in the mystery surrounding a previously married but devoted wife’s unexpected suspicious behaviors, whereas, we witness a much more complex theme in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” where we are gripped with an aura of chilling mystery surrounding a couple of ruthless murders. The central idea in “The Yellow Face” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, revolves round the fact that assumption-based deductions, without being traced to from any physical evidences, however logical they might be, may quite often lead to incorrect inferences, as far as resolving a mystery is concerned. Whereas, in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe, the central idea spins round how step-by-step, evidence-based, rational thinking based logical approach works wonders when it comes to unchaining a mystery. Write a paragraph of evaluation. Explain which story you liked better. Identify the elements that you support your evaluation In the story of Conan Doyle, we came across the problems in a relationship where there is a lack of transparency between married couple due to fear of social persecution. Incidents from the past can be capable of destroying perfect relationship if there is social taboo associated. With the assistance of Sherlock Holmes and his friend Watson, the truth of the past of Mrs. Munroe was revealed. It was a modern and a surprisingly liberal rendering by Doyle given the setting of the background and the time when the story was written. But in the case of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, a modern reader may be put off by the unconventional approach of Poe that runs contrary to the implicit narrative convention of a detective mystery – that the reader during the course of the read should be able to guess the solution. The twist in the ending where the orangutan turns out to be the murderer betrays this convention; a reader cannot be reasonably expected to consider an orangutan in its potential list of murderers. Despite the undoubted historical significance of Poe’s work as a pioneer in arguably the most popular genre of literature, for a modern reader the work of Doyle remains more attractive given its style of narration and treatment of the subject matter. Read More