The Murders in the Rue Morgue

The Murders in the Rue Morgue Summary | The Murders in the Rue Morgue Summary

This story begins with an epigraph from Sir Thomas Browne: "What song the Syrens sang, or what name Achilles assumed when he hid himself among women, although puzzling questions, are not beyond conjecture." In other words, no mystery, no matter how unsolvable it may seem, is beyond solving. This sentiment is definitely true of the murders that occur in the Rue Morgue.

Before we get to the details of the story, however, the narrator offers up a discussion of the analytical mind. To the analyst, what matters the most is his ability to untangle any tangled mystery. Analysis, though in some ways related to calculation, is much more. For example, he asserts, chess players must use calculation but they need not necessarily be analytical. Draughts (checkers) and whist are much more analytical, as they require not only game play but the analyzing of the particular habits and tells of each player. He makes the point that even if you can memorize all of the card game rules, as you can conceivably memorize all possible chess moves, that does not make you a good player. He goes on to discuss the difference between analysis and ingenuity, concluding, "while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often incapable of analysis." (pg.26). As an example, he sets out his story.

The narrator tells us that at one time in Paris, he met and befriended a young man named C. Augustine Dupin. Dupin, though from a wealthy family, has fAllan on hard times and lives on the brink of poverty. His only luxury is books, which is how he and the narrator meet. The narrator enjoys Dupin's company so much that the two decide to move in together, with the narrator paying the rent. They choose a deserted mansion and live in it completely cut off from the world, venturing out mainly at night and existing in a manner that prompts the narrator to comment that they "should have been regarded as madmen." (pg.28) The narrator notices that his friend has a particularly analytical mind, and that Dupin seems to derive much enjoyment from his analysis.

One night as the two men are walking, Dupin remarks on the appropriateness of an actor named Chantilly for a particular role he is currently performing - a comment that is in direct response to what the narrator was thinking in his head. He is stunned that Dupin seems to be reading his mind, but Dupin explains in great detail the path his analysis followed. It began when a fruiter bumped into the narrator, and from there, Dupin explains, the thought process was as follows: fruiter, the street stones, stereotomy (which is the art of stone cutting), Epicurus, Dr. Nichols, Orion, and finally, Chantilly. The narrator is amazed at his friend's power of analysis.

Soon after, the two men encounter an article in the paper detailing the seemingly unexplainable murders of two women in a home known as the Rue Morgue. The women, Mademoiselle Camille L'Espanaye and her mother Madame L'Espanaye, were found brutally murdered in their own home with no signs of forced entry and doors locked from the inside. Neighbors had been awakened by the sounds of terrible screaming and had rushed to the home but were unable to enter without a crowbar, which caused some delay. Upon entering they heard angry voices, but when they got to the fourth floor where the voices had been, they found no one.

What the neighbors did find was the room in all sorts of disarray. On the hearth, they found three long pieces of gray hair that look to have been pulled out by the roots. All around are signs of struggle, with drawers pulled out and furniture toppled. The body of the older woman is nowhere to be found but the daughter's corpse is soon discovered, stuffed feet first up the chimney. Upon examination it is revealed that she was killed by strangulation. The mother's body is soon found outside in a small paved yard, her throat cut so deeply that her head falls off.

The next day another account appears in the paper, this time with interviews of all the neighbors and witnesses. The first, a laundress, says that she knew the two women for three years and that they had always seemed on good terms. She believed that the older woman told fortunes for a living, and that there was no furniture in the house except on the fourth story. A second interview with a tobacco salesman who had sold tobacco and snuff to Madame L'Espanaye on occasion corroborated the account of the laundress, adding that at one time she had rented rooms but had grown tired of having tenants. He said he had hardly ever seen anyone enter or exit the home. Many others give similar evidence.

Of the day in question, the first to testify is a policeman who arrived on the scene to find twenty or thirty concerned neighbors at the gate trying to get inside. He could hear the screams from inside the house, and he heard them stop as he gained entrance to the gate. Once inside, he heard two angry voices, one a gruff Frenchman, the other shrill and indecipherable though he believed it to be speaking Spanish. He heard the gruff voice say the words 'sacre' and 'diable.' A neighbor backed up this story but attributed the shrill voice to an Italian. A passing restaurant owner, speaking through a translator, asserts that the shrill voice spoke in French - a language he is unfamiliar with - and corroborates the words the policeman heard, adding also 'mon Dieu.'

The next to be questioned was a banker, who said that three days before her death Madame L'Espanaye had withdrawn 4000 francs. A clerk, Adolphe Le Bon, says on that day he accompanied her home and helped her carry the bags of gold home. He saw no one but her and her daughter.

More witnesses are questioned and all tell similar stories, differing only in their accounts of the language spoken by the shrill voice; one says German, one claims English, and the third believes it to have been Russian. As with the others, each individual does not speak the language he names. Several also testify that the chimneys were much too small for anyone to pass through, and that there were no passages or other means for anyone to have passed them to exit the house. A doctor, with a corroborating surgeon, explained that the daughter had indeed been strangled while the mother had been horribly mutilated and beaten with a heavy object Her neck had been cut so violently, apparently with a razor, her head had fAllan off.

The newspaper ends with a report that there are no real clues , and though there is no evidence against him, Adolphe Le Bon has been arrested. Upon learning of this, Dupin tells the narrator that the case should not be judged unsolvable. He is determined to form his own theories because Le Bon once helped him with some matter. Dupin says he knows the head of police and will be able to obtain permission for them to visit the crime scene. Permission is granted, and the two men make a thorough investigation of the scene.

Afterward, the narrator relates Dupin's apparent disdain of the police investigation so far; he feels they are not focusing on the important aspects of the case. Dupin believes the police are choosing instead to grab on to the first suspect they find and place a flimsy motive upon him, when the gruesomeness of the murder defies any motive. He tells the narrator that he is currently awaiting the arrival of someone who knows of the crime, but who was probably not directly involved. He says that they may need to detain the man, and gives the narrator a pistol. Dupin begins to explain what he believes to have happened.

First of all, he points out that even though it seems they were locked in the room together at the time of the murder, the women did not kill each other. Somehow the killer was able to leave the room. Also, though all of the witnesses identified a French voice, all were unsure of the second voice, only agreeing that it was a foreign tongue. He concludes that with the exception of the windows, all manners of exit were impossible; therefore, since someone did exit, it had to be through the windows.

His first look at the windows showed him that they were both nailed shut from the inside, a fact the police had also noted and used to conclude that no one could escape through them. Dupin discovers on closer inspection, however, that one of the spring mechanisms makes it only seem that the window is nailed shut; the nail is forced into its place by the spring and appears untouched. Dupin also finds that directly outside the window is a lightning rod. This, combined with a precise swing from the outside shutters, could allow entrance and exit. With this set out, Dupin then goes back to the killer's odd voice and unusual strength, mentioning also that robbery was obviously not a motive as none of the money or jewelry lying about was taken. He informs the narrator that he found hair in the grasp of Madame L'Espanaye that is not human hair. Dupin then shows him that, from drawings he had obtained of the bruises around the daughter's neck, she was not strangled by human hands. The killer, Dupin hypothesizes, is an orangutan.

Dupin explains to the narrator that he has placed an ad in the paper saying that he is in possession of a stray orangutan, presumably lost by a sailor. He explains to the narrator that even if the owner is not a sailor is of no real matter, but he believes the chances of the owner being a sailor are good. A sailor would have a better chance of having an orangutan; also, Dupin tells the narrator that he found a ribbon at the scene like those sailors use to tie back their hair. When a man finally comes, Dupin locks the door and lets him know he has a pistol, but assures him he means no harm - he simply needs details of the murders at the Rue Morgue in order to clear Le Bon. The sailor tells his story, declaring that he is innocent.

The sailor had gained possession of the orangutan while in Borneo, where he had captured it with a friend. The friend later died, so the sailor was taking care of the orangutan while he nursed a wound it had received. His plan was to sell it when it was well. On the day of the murders, the sailor had arrived home to find the orangutan pretending to shave with a razor. A struggle ensued, and the orangutan ran off. The sailor arrived at the Rue Morgue in time to see the monkey trying to shave Madame L'Espanaye; the orangutan became enraged and cut off her head, then strangled her daughter. Terrified of being caught, the monkey shoved the daughter up the chimney and the mother out the window. Once Dupin relates these details to the police, Le Bon is cleared and released.