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Court Intrigue
In the background of this mystery are the complex politics of the French court. In a typical robbery, if the police knew who the culprit was, they could simply arrest him. However, because Minister D––’s robbery affects the royal family, they must tread lightly so as not to disrupt the entire country. Although we do not know the contents of the royal lady’s letter, if they imply marital or political infidelity, the fact remains that the letter itself has the ability to put her in danger. The nature of a monarchy means that even if she is only having an affair, it being publicly known could disrupt the entire country. Minister D––’s blackmail of the royal lady thus means that he can indirectly enact political control by forcing her to lobby (presumably) the King for Minister D––’s persons. The story thus explores how a small, seemingly nonviolent theft can take on monumental importance in the context of the royal court. What would have been personal stakes take on political dimensions.
Poetry vs. Mathematics
“The Purloined Letter” undoes the supposed binary between mathematics (logical thinking) and poetry (creative thinking), demonstrating that the superior mind uses both in harmony. The prefect dismisses the idea that Minister D–– can be as intelligent as he is because he’s a poet, and the prefect considers poets fools. Dupin later highlights that Minister D–– is not just a poet but a mathematician as well, just like Dupin. Dupin rejects society’s prizing of mathematical logic because he believes it forces a one size fits all approach to problem solving. The police’s methods of recovering the letter ultimately fail because they treat the crime the way they would treat any other robbery. They failed to consider Minister D––s psychology, approaching the scene with impartial science instead of looking at the situation subjectively. Although much is made of Dupin’s logical abilities, as the narrator constantly reminds us, Dupin is eccentric. He likes sitting in the dark and reads obscure books. Dupin himself states that he dabbles in poetry. With this unusual poet’s soul, Dupin can apply logic creatively and defeat Minister D—.
The Importance of Seeing the Big Picture
Even as the prefect begins to describe the theft of the Queen’s letter, Dupin urges him to stop looking at the situation so closely. He warns the prefect that he might be stumped because the solution is “too plain,” or too obvious and visible. Indeed, although Dupin does not know the exact position of the letter before he visits Minister D–– for the first time, he knows more or less how to look for it simply by hearing the facts of the case. He even has the narrator leave the lights off while the prefect explains the case, as if seeing anything other than the pure facts of the case would distract him from the plain truths his mind can discern. The police, however, have spent their time looking for the letter in meticulous detail. They leave no inch of his apartment unexamined, and even employ a microscope, in this case, a magnifying glass, to look even closer and see even more minute details. By looking at things so closely and in such detail, the police end up distracted, essentially missing the forest for the trees. To Dupin, the ability to look closely at a situation is a useless distraction from the broader implications of the facts.
