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Edgar Allan PoeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
A recurring motif in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” is the number two. The most obvious is the dual partnership between Dupin and the narrator. Additionally, there are two women who are murder victims, two doors accessing the victims’ apartment, two windows inside the apartment, and two last words heard by eyewitnesses: “mon Dieu,” or “my God” (28). Two signifies duality, an age-old school of thought where opposite forces achieve synthesis. In the story, Poe contrasts the one who knows from the one who does not, the old from the young, and the front from the back. Yet, rather than keeping them separate, Poe merges them into a single entity according to their function. When observing Dupin’s skillful process in using rationality for detection, the narrator reflects on “the old philosophy of the Bi-Part Soul” and a “double Dupin—the creative and the resolvent” (4). It is worth mentioning that the beginning sound in Dupin, “Du,” is pronounced like the French word for two, “deux,” thus suggesting the detective’s psychological split.
The Ourang-Outang serves as a motif for the absence of reason. Brutish, wild, and instinctual, the mammal embodies superhuman strength and agility which, in turn, generates public fear.
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Berenice
Berenice
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Hop-Frog
Hop-Frog
Edgar Allan Poe
Ligeia
Ligeia
Edgar Allan Poe
Tamerlane
Tamerlane
Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat
The Black Cat
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The Cask of Amontillado
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Conqueror Worm
The Conqueror Worm
Edgar Allan Poe
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
The Gold Bug
The Gold Bug
Edgar Allan Poe
The Haunted Palace
The Haunted Palace
Edgar Allan Poe
The Imp of the Perverse
The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan Poe
The Lake
The Lake
Edgar Allan Poe
The Man of the Crowd
The Man of the Crowd
Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Edgar Allan Poe
The Oval Portrait
The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe
The Philosophy of Composition
The Philosophy of Composition
Edgar Allan Poe