Literary Analysis: Exploring Themes in The Purloined Letter by Poe

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Purloined Letter,' focusing on the detective story's central themes and metaphorical elements. The essay examines the narrative structure, the character of C. Auguste Dupin, and the significance of the 'game of puzzles' metaphor. It explores how the story reflects the forerunners of the modern detective genre, and how the actions of the Minister D, the Prefect, and Dupin contribute to the unfolding of the mystery surrounding the stolen letter. The analysis also covers the various clues and the methods used by Dupin to solve the case, and how the minister's actions are interpreted. The essay utilizes references to support its arguments and draws conclusions about the story's lasting impact. This assignment, contributed by a student, is available on Desklib, a platform providing AI-based study tools and resources for students.

The Purloined Letter Analysis

Introduction
In this present paper, we will discuss the story ‘The purloined letter’ which is written by the
American author Edger Allan Poe. The game of throne is taken as the metaphor in this paper and
how it is situated with the story is analyzed. It is the third detective story which is featuring the
fictional C. Auguste Dupin. The story reflects forerunners of the modern detective story. It is
published in ‘The gift for 1845'. In this story, the issues were discussed with the Dupin who is
the detective with the unnamed narrator when he joined the prefect of the police. In the case, a
letter is stolen from the private room of unnamed women by the minister D and the letter
contains important information. The letter is changed by minister D with other irrelevant
information. Now he is blackmailing the victim (Poe et al., 2016). The prefect said that the letter
is still with minister D because the relieving of letter creates some issue which does not still
arise. Secondly, the letter must create a moment of notice which shows the actual possession of
the letter, so the letter is at close hand.
The game of puzzles
In this story the author used the metaphor ‘The game of puzzles' to reflect the situation of the
map in which one party is giving the requirements and another party is finding the solution such
as the name of river, town, state and others. The inexperience person in the game seeks to
embarrass his opponents by providing the minutely lettered names but the expert in the puzzle
can easily select the word as stretch and big characters which cover the whole chart from one
place to another. These big letters and placards of the street ignore observations due to which
more obvious and the physical sight is unknown with the apprehension because of that intellect

suffers and ignored which is very touchy and obstructive. It is the same situation which is shown
in the understanding of prefect. The perfect does not consider the situation that the letter might
be deposited by the minister D under the nose of everyone for preventing the world on
perceiving it. The Dupin is using this metaphor because the situation of the story is similar to the
game of puzzle in which some requirements are provided by minister D and prefect is finding the
letter (Bernet et al., 2014). The situation of the incidence is explained by the author shows that
the letter is retrieved from the room of unnamed women which is stolen by minister M. The
prefect is the new player in the situation who is trying to identify the story behind the letter. The
intention of minister D is not good which is revealed from the limitation of dignity's ordinary
research.
Analysis
The letter is in the hands of minister D which reflects that minister is daring and clever despite
being investigated by the prefect the letter is not identified. The letter is not hidden for the
purpose of good because then the letter must not be hidden within the dignitary’s ordinary
research (Poe et al., 2015). The finding of letter became the game of puzzle in which some
requirements are provided such as the situation of the paper which is founded in the card-rack of
pasteboard which is hanged by the dirty blue ribbon. There was only one letter in the rack which
is crumpled and soiled. The letter was torn into two which is looking deliberately done because
the letter is firstly torn as a worthless paper then folded from the opposite site of the paper. The
seal on the paper was black and large which reveals the secret of minister D. The hyper
obstructive situation of the paper is shown from the superscription of the royal personage which
is highly feminine. He is the most energetic person at alone but in present of others he pretends

to be most ennui. The game of puzzle metaphor is similar to the situation in which minister D
provides the requirements, and prefect is tried to find the letter. The minister is very clever who
had torn the letter and carelessly seem in the upper division of rack. All the evidence are shown
as the parts of the puzzle which need to be settled by the prefect. The manifested position of the
paper shows that it is done deliberately by minister D (Murtagh et al., 2016). The Dupin
analyzed the letter and fund that it does not resemble with the characteristics told by prefect then
after examining the letter Dupin concluded that the letter is refolded in an opposite way and he
sealed it with his own seal.
Conclusion
The metaphor is similar to the situation in which the requirements are provided by minister M,
and prefect is finding the letter. The Dupin solve the puzzle behind the steal of a letter. The
prefect investigates the room of minister M but couldn't find anything which he concluded that
the letter is in the hands of the minister. The prefect is new in solving the situations, but Dupin
solves the mystery behind the letter. The letter is stolen from the room of unnamed women
which is in the hands of minister M. The prefect met him and found him as usual lazy which he
pretends to shows the un-excitement in the presence of others. The Dupin is not a professional
detective, but he introduces the method to solve the mystery behind the criminals (Marquart et
al., 2015). The Dupin emphasize on the lack of information which is similar to the situation of a
game of puzzle in which some information is present and other need to find, and it is
successfully found by the Dupin.

References
Marquart, A. (2015). C. Auguste Dupin meets Edgar Allan Poe. S. Fischer Verlag.
Poe, E. A. (2015). THE PURLOINED LETTER (PART ONE). Green Bag 2d, 19, 83-83.
Poe, E. A. (2016). THE PURLOINED LETTER (PART TWO). Green Bag 2d, 19, 205-205.
Bernet, R. (2014). The secret according to Heidegger and “The Purloined Letter” by Poe.
Continental Philosophy Review, 47(3-4), 353-371.
Murtagh, F., & Iurato, G. (2016). Jacques Lacan's Registers of the Psychoanalytic Field, Applied
using Geometric Data Analysis to Edgar Allan Poe's" The Purloined Letter". arXiv preprint
arXiv:1604.06952.