Rhetorical questions such as ‘…why did he not take the best…’ involve the reader and make them think about possible answers to Dupin’s questions. It also makes you think along the same lines as Dupin.
The Big Sleep extract shows Marlowe questioning Brody about his involvement with Geiger. The Big Sleep is written in the first person narrative, as is The Murders in The Rue Morgue. In this extract this helps show Brody’s attitude to Marlowe (e.g. ‘Brody was breathing hard,’ shows Brody is scared of Marlowe.) This extract also shows direct speech as in the extract in The Murders of The Rue Morgue extract. This shows Marlowe’s attitude to Brody. For example Marlowe say’s to Brody, ‘you didn’t watch hard enough.’ This shows that Marlowe is not scared of Brody and he questions his judgement even thought he knows Brody is a gangster. This demonstrates something about Marlowe that is continued throughout the novel, that people of the underworld do not scare him.
Like Dupin, Marlowe can be seen in this extract analysing information to come to conclusions. This shows Brody he is one step a head of him and knows what Brody has done e.g. ‘Where did you hide Geiger’s body?’ Saying this makes Brody want to defend him and so therefore tell the truth.
French language is used in Murders of The Rue Morgue such as ‘outre’ and ‘madame.’ This helps set the scene. Formal lexis is also used such as ‘vacillating and ‘encumber.’ This shows Dupin is intellectual and can use such difficult lexis. Complex sentences are also used. This helps cram in the details of Dupin’s conclusions and is a feature on Victorian style writing. Simple sentences such as ‘Let us survey the appearances here,’ do help break things up and make the writing easier to understand. The fact that Dupin uses emotive modifiers such as ‘butchery’ shows that Dupin does feel strongly about the murders and does not just see them as a list of facts and problems to solve.
Americanisms are used in The Big Sleep to set the scene, just like in The Murders in The Rue Morgue with the French language. ‘Buick’ is an example of this. Unlike Dupin, Marlowe uses slang such as ‘racket’ and ‘sapped him down.’ This informal register allows him to communicate on the same level as Brody who is a member of the underworld. Simple and complex are used rather than complex ones like in The Murders of The Rue Morgue. This is due to changes in styles of writing and makes the storyline easy to keep up with.
Old language is used in The Murders in The Rue Morgue such as ‘ingress’ and ‘egress.’ ‘Francs’ is also an archaic word since the Euro was introduced. This helps date the text. The language in the second extract is more modern and words such as ‘Buick’ shows the story is set in the time of cars.