Anne Rodway Murder

In the short story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allen Poe, the narrator is depicted in a far more orthodox manner for the detective genre than the emotional, female narrator in Wilkie Collins’s “The Diary of Anne Rodway”. The unnamed narrator from Poe’s story lays out his mystery in a very factual manner for the reader to interpret. He describes the brutal scene of Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter’s murders by describing the physical evidence and witness testimony from the crime. It is his precise detail about the crime scene and objective tone in which he speaks that is traditionally expected when reading detective fiction. The narrator does not view the crime with much remorse for the women in his inquiries, but rather intrigue …show more content…
Dupin and the narrator were able to keep their emotions out of their investigation unlike Anne’s narration of Mary’s murder in Collin’s story. Anne’s view is very emotional upon learning of Mary’s death as is apparent in the three days she waited to write about Mary’s assault in her journal. She is distraught as she writes, “How can I write about it, with my eyes full of tears and my hand all of a tremble?”. Because the story is portrayed in a diary format, there are gaps in time where no diary entry is written and the reader is left wonder about the events that transpire. Anne does not lay out all of the details as well as the narrator did in “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, but rather focuses on her grief and finding the closure she needed. It is for that reason that Anne’s narration is so significantly different and unexpected for the …show more content…
In Poe’s story, the narrator does not question the thought process and reliability of Dupin. The narrator puts a lot of faith into a man whom he does not know much about, which is why his potential bias may be clouding his assessment of the truth. The way that Poe’s narrator is able to maintain the reader’s trust is dealing solely in the actualities of the crime. Although the idea was bizarre, the Ourang-Outang’s description matched the aspects of the criminal act. This is realized by the narrator as he says, “I see that no animal but an Ourang-Outang, of the species here mentioned, could have impressed the indentations as you have traced them”. The Ourang-Outang was not seen in person, but one could believe that such an act was possible with the descriptions discovered. Being factual is significant in this case because it helps the reader come to terms with such a fantastical ending, such as what happened in Poe’s story. In Anne’s case, her emotions may have put her too close to her investigation to see the truth objectively. When she first saw Mary being carried in by the police, the police inquired about the possibility of Mary being drunk. Angrily, Anne wouldn’t even think about the possibility and even thought about hitting him just for suggesting it. However, it is Anne’s emotions that make the reader feel a stronger connection to