Literaty Analysis of "The Murders at the Rue Morgue" by Edgar Allen Poe

Analysis of “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”

I chose to analyze the third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs of this short story written by Edgar Allen Poe. My arguable statement is that these gentlemen are not ordinary and I believe they are homosexual. These are some of the introductory paragraphs of this story. These paragraphs set the mood in the story and describe what they did during the day and the night of the first day written in this story. It also describes the situation pertaining to the housing situation that they are currently in. The bottom line is that these paragraphs have a great deal of insight and foreshadowing to the rest of the story.

When one reads these paragraphs, the first thing that jumps out is how odd these fellows are. These men are two gentlemen that are about middle aged, Caucasian, and I imagine wealthy, at least Monsieur C. Auguste Dupin is. The man invited the main character into his home to do some reading, writing and conversing with each other. Most people would think that ordinary men of their character would at least have women available to them so they aren’t “lonely”. As anyone with common sense can tell by reading these paragraphs, these men are not ordinary men. They have shut themselves inside an old creepy building to read and write and discuss what they just read and wrote. These two men closed the shudders so no light could come in to disturb them I suppose. This part especially intrigued me, these men spend all day reading and writing yet they close out all sunlight? This is not logical; a person needs light to read. So they light scented candles instead. But everyone knows no matter how many candles you light they don’t offer much light. This is even stated by the author, and he says these don’t let off much light.

So why, if a person is reading and writing all day would they shut out all daylight? This question is not a simple one to answer, but I believe that these men are having a homosexual affair together. Due to religious beliefs of these days these men would immediately be killed if they were discovered to be homosexual. This is just an inference made by these few paragraphs. There is strong evidence to back this inference however. There is a statement in these paragraphs that these two gentlemen, after daylight has finally gone, go into the streets arm in arm continuing the conversations of the day. May I repeat, arm in arm, no self-respecting man would go around the city walking arm in arm with another gentleman, no matter what time of day. These men obviously have a strong bond together, they spend their days reading and writing together so they must know each other very well.

Nowhere in these paragraphs does Poe directly state that they are homosexual, but he gives very many clues. Such as, these men light scented candles together with the blinds shut when they are the only ones in the house. They also don’t admit any visitors into the house. Also, they go around town arm in arm when everyone else has gone to bed. Also, the main character states that he gave in to Dupin’s “wild whims with perfect abandon.” This statement not normal, I would hate to look at this with a perverted eye but that statement has strong homosexual connotations.

Now all of this maybe normal for this time for upper class gentlemen that are wealthy enough to stay home all day and focus on reading and improving their intelligence. I doubt that though, I could be wrong, but these men enjoy each others company way too much to just be friends. They also don’t let any women inside the house, which is odd because if I were that wealthy, lets just say I wouldn’t stay home reading all day. The men in this story are homosexuals, Poe might not go right out and say that, but he gives us very strong clues.