Murders in the Rue Morgue - A short story in the collection of stories by Edgar Allan Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher

Even though it seems his preferred game is draughts I believe the game his characters play in this story is chess. Dupin and the narrator meet at a bookstore and become friends and decide to live together. One particular day while reading the Gazzette des Tribunaux (I believe this title for a paper to be interesting because it means the Courts Paper, which seems to me to be a source of truth or of the facts which is exactly the paper's function in the story: it provides the details facts of the murders) the two men come upon a extraordinary story about the murder of two women living in the mansion or castle of the Rue Morgue. These murders wouldn't be so unordinary except for their grotesqueness in nature and the violent manner in which they were committed. The police are baffled and have not a clue as to where to begin and have rendered this case impossible. This is where the game begins. For Dupin, this is exactly where he likes to begin, from behind. He has given the police their chance and choice of attack and now he comes for his observation. We have already experienced the uniqueness and keenness of his observational skills and so now we watch as he controls this game of the Parisian Police vs. Dupin. And there are also 16 pieces (characters) in play, not counting the police or functionary at the end, and Dupin which makes this chess game even more lifelike.

The police don't have a motive, or mode of ingress and egress, and so are very baffled by the whole mystery and don't have any leads. They are "confounded by the seeming absence of the motive- not for the murder itself- but for the atrocity of the murder." And so after using up all their "moves" they have positioned themselves in a sort of stalemate, which leaves the board open for Dupin to control. And with three quick moves they are in checkmate. Dupin masterfully explains the details of what happened, how the intruder climbed up to the fourth story windows and becoming frenzied killed both of the L'Espanaye women, throwing one out of the window and stuffing the other up the chimney. Dupin does not concern himself with motive but rather looks at the details and makes an educated inference. Using all the evidence and the oversights of the police he is able to resolve the case with ease. He proves that the police's basic surface plan of attack didn't work, and that "there is no method to their proceedings, beyond the method of the moment." He proves that they are not worthy components.

And in the last paragraph we see the final defeat, the checkmate and match. Dupin has saved Le Bon (which ironically means the good), the man charged with the murders, and has defeated the police in their own game even though they tried to castle.1 The police unconsciously tried to protect the Ourang-Outang by blaming Le Bon, but the truth (Dupin) prevailed, or in other words, the superior acumen prevailed even over a vigilant concentration. "The functionary, however well disposed to my friend, could not altogether conceal his chagrin at the turn which affairs had taken, and was fain to indulge in a sarcasm about the propriety of every person minding his own business." Let him talk," said Dupin, "...let him discourse; it will ease his conscience. I am satisfied at having defeated him in his own castle." It seems these two sides have played before and that Dupin always prevails even when the other side always tries to castle to protect their ideas and pride.

Poe revels in the extraordinary, and his attention to every minute detail is what makes his stories a game, a wild puzzle to solve. His characters thrive on enigmas, conundrums, and hieroglyphics; exhibiting in their solutions each degree of acumen "which appears to the ordinary apprehension praeternatural." "His results, brought about by the very soul and essence of method, have, in truth, the whole air of intuition."

And this is the whole game of life, to live and to write the future and to figure out mysteries that baffle us. This is Dupin's clever technique to solving mysteries and the conundrum of this story, and is one maybe we should employ once we grasp it:'De nier ce qui est, et d'expliquer ce qui n'est pas': to deny what is, and to explain what is not.

Castling is a move in chess where a player will protect his king from checkmate by moving his castle over and next to the king forcing the king out of his middle position and over to either side of the board.