Mystery and Detective Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe gave birth to the genre of mystery and detective story-telling, popularized through his character Auguste Dupin, who is considered the first detective character to demonstrate the disciplines of deduction and logical thinking in solving the mysteries and crimes that plague society; Conan Doyle's fictional detective character, the well-known Sherlock Holmes, exhibited similar characteristics. The author compares Poe and Doyle's literary works based on their use of stereotyping and pattern-formation (logos), ethos and establishment of pathos as rhetorical techniques in which they solve mystery cases. This paper relates that Dupin's character was portrayed in the most eccentric light as possible by Poe, perhaps giving him a single commonality with the readers through his poverty; in proving Holmes credible to solve the mysteries of English society, Doyle also utilized the character of eccentricity as the most salient points of Holmes' character.

From the Paper:

"Dupin's solution to the murders at the Rue Morgue was based on a stereotype and pattern found in the facts available about the case. Pattern formation was apparent in his analysis of the witnesses' accounts of the events before, during, and after the murder. His discovery that each witness's testimony reflected the fact that "[e]ach likens it (the voice heard)-not to the voice of an individual of any nation...but the converse," a point that led him to conclude that the murderer was of an 'alien' nature, someone who does not speak the language of any of the nationalities of the witnesses."

More papers on Mystery and Detective Literature:

• Analytical Essay # 9992 : "Unpredictable Agatha"
• Comparison Essay # 22622 : "James Patterson's "Along Came a Spider"
• Analytical Essay # 25136 : "Narrative Voice in Dickens' Short Stories"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: