Engraving by Eugene Michel AbotIn this incredible who-done-it tale of ghastly murders, Poe, again, seeks the assistance of the Hominoidea superfamily of primates to incite terror in the psyche of readers.
The description of the murders, “[…] succession of terrific shrieks,” “[..]two or more rough voices, in angry contention, were distinguished from the upper part of the house,” “the corpse of the daughter, head downward […] having been forced up the narrow aperture a considerable distance,” “[…] corpse of the old lady with her throat so entirely cut that, upon attempt to raise her, the head fell off” rouses critical anger in the reader – as well as the Parisian police investigating the murder – that precludes one from considering anyone, or anything beyond a cold-blooded, human psychopath. It is this preconceived notion that focuses the “acumen” of the Parisian police on predetermined, fruitless battery of tests, analysis, and line of questioning. Unable to consider evidence outside of normal reasoning, the officials fall miserably short of piecing together the facts: shrill, unintelligible second voice in the house, a pole leading to the trellised shutters directly beside a broken window, non-human hair collected from one of the victim. It is ultimately these facts examined in broad context that concludes an ape, more accurately an escaped Orangutan, as the culprit.
Once the reader discovers the murderer is actually an orangutan the plot makes perfect sense, knowing that it could only be the brute strength of an ape to cause such destruction and massive bodily mutilation. Poe knew, however, that given freedom to analyze relatively few facts the human mind instinctively supposes something routine or paranormal.
Differing from the roles Poe’s animals play in “Hop Frog” and “The Black Cat,” the orangutan in this short story is an ordinary large ape that has escaped from captivity and innocently found its way into a lot of trouble. Poe simply plays on the reader’s intuition by molding a murderous plot of mystery around the ape’s seemingly superhuman strength and agility.
The description of the murders, “[…] succession of terrific shrieks,” “[..]two or more rough voices, in angry contention, were distinguished from the upper part of the house,” “the corpse of the daughter, head downward […] having been forced up the narrow aperture a considerable distance,” “[…] corpse of the old lady with her throat so entirely cut that, upon attempt to raise her, the head fell off” rouses critical anger in the reader – as well as the Parisian police investigating the murder – that precludes one from considering anyone, or anything beyond a cold-blooded, human psychopath. It is this preconceived notion that focuses the “acumen” of the Parisian police on predetermined, fruitless battery of tests, analysis, and line of questioning. Unable to consider evidence outside of normal reasoning, the officials fall miserably short of piecing together the facts: shrill, unintelligible second voice in the house, a pole leading to the trellised shutters directly beside a broken window, non-human hair collected from one of the victim. It is ultimately these facts examined in broad context that concludes an ape, more accurately an escaped Orangutan, as the culprit.
Once the reader discovers the murderer is actually an orangutan the plot makes perfect sense, knowing that it could only be the brute strength of an ape to cause such destruction and massive bodily mutilation. Poe knew, however, that given freedom to analyze relatively few facts the human mind instinctively supposes something routine or paranormal.
Differing from the roles Poe’s animals play in “Hop Frog” and “The Black Cat,” the orangutan in this short story is an ordinary large ape that has escaped from captivity and innocently found its way into a lot of trouble. Poe simply plays on the reader’s intuition by molding a murderous plot of mystery around the ape’s seemingly superhuman strength and agility.
References
Poe, Edgar A. Poe: Poetry, Tales & Selected Essays - Library of America College Edition. Library of America, 1 Oct. 1996.
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