Murders In The Rue Morgue By Edgar Allan Poe Orangutan

The Scary, Murderous Orangutan Edgar Allan Poe has been well known for his horror themed writing since the nineteenth century, indeed it was the first time readers had encountered this type of writing and his unique approach is always noted. The Murders in the Rue Morgue being one of the many Poe has written in this genre stands out with its surprising ending making the title seem very peculiar. Poe achieved this well-known theme once again in his short story The Murders in the Rue Morgue by using “a very large, tawny, Ourang-Outang” (77) discreetly as the unpredictable, exotic, and easily mistaken murderer. One of the factors that made the orangutan so horrifying is that it is unpredictable and not a well-known creature to the readers

Near the end of the story we find out the sailor had recently set out on “ a voyage to the Indian Archipelago”(79). The sailor and his companion had “… captured the Ourang-Outang” (79). The fact that the orangutan was brought to Paris from India emphasizes its exoticism. Poe stresses the orangutans exotic nature by describing it as “… something irreconcilable with our common notions of human action” (74). This explaining how the orangutan is just something completely opposite from human life and conflicts in every way with the way that we live day to day. In addition adding in that the appearance of the crime was “a grotesquerie in horror absolutely alien from humanity” (75). This says in itself the way the crime scene appeared after the orangutan had killed the two woman on the fourth story that day, however, the orangutan did not understand what it had done or ever get any justice for the crime, emphasizing his exoticism even more so because if it were a human they would most likely comprehend the justice that they would have to serve where the orangutan does not. In both descriptions the orangutan is presented in a way which is completely “alien” to human life. However its not only that the orangutan is opposite but it is completely incompatible with humanity. Also, the crime scene left behind by the orangutan was “grotesque”, totally repulsive just like he is described to the reader as. In other

The first way that leads the reader to believe it was going to be a human that committed the crimes in the Rue Morgue all along was by having a deceiving title to the story, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” (55). Here, when the reader interprets the word murder it is automatically connected to the actions of a human that has killed another human, which makes them not see the orangutan coming in the end which is a huge part in helping Poe achieve the horror theme. Poe also goes along and explains the crime scene and says “series of livid spots, evidently the impression of fingers” (75) which were on Mademoiselle L.s throat when her body was found. From this quotation, the way “fingers” is interpreted is commonly associated with only human anatomy, and in the story passes to be doings of human action. In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, there was a man named “Adolphe Le Bon” and he was later “arrested and imprisoned” (66) for the crimes that took place on the fourth story in the Rue Morgue, which proves also that people believed that a human could have committed this crime even though it was not a human at all. In addition to this, orangutans are also one of our closest primates, therefor, they can walk bipedal and have similar morphologies to us humans, although they are quite hairy their shadow could look quite similar to a human.