26 pages • 52 minutes read
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.
The story begins with C. Auguste Dupin and the narrator quietly smoking meerschaum pipes together. When Monsieur G—— arrives, he immediately gets his own meerschaum pipe, and thus begins their discussion of the crime amidst “curling eddies of smoke” (6). There are numerous other references to smoke throughout their conversation, including “contemplative puff(s)” from the prefect and “puff-puff-puff(s)” from Dupin. The motif reinforces the theme of Intertwined Truth and Lies in the first half of the narrative, during which all the characters seem to be acting and speaking amid a smokescreen of illusions and omissions. Once Dupin begins his detailed description of how he solved the crime, however, all references to smoke disappear.
All the direct action in “The Purloined Letter” takes place in the darkness of night. Both visits from Monsieur G—— occur on “dark gusty evenings” in Dupin’s home (6), where all the characters are also sitting in darkness. When the prefect arrives, Dupin rises to turn on a light only to extinguish it when he realizes the nature of the visit, stating, “If it is any point requiring reflection […] we shall examine it to better purpose in the dark” (7).
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Berenice
Edgar Allan Poe
Hop-Frog
Edgar Allan Poe
Ligeia
Edgar Allan Poe
Tamerlane
Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Conqueror Worm
Edgar Allan Poe
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
The Gold Bug
Edgar Allan Poe
The Haunted Palace
Edgar Allan Poe
The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan Poe
The Lake
Edgar Allan Poe
The Man of the Crowd
Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Edgar Allan Poe
The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe