The Murders in the Rue Morgue: Plot and Resolution

The Baffling Rue Morgue Murders

The narrative centers on the perplexing double murder of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter in the Rue Morgue, a fictional street in Paris. Newspaper reports detail the gruesome scene: the mother's throat is so severely cut that her head is barely attached, and the daughter, after being strangled, has been forced into the chimney. The crime takes place in an inaccessible fourth-floor room, locked from the inside. Neighbors who heard the incident provide contradictory accounts, each asserting they heard the murderer speaking a different language. The witnesses admit the speech was unclear and they did not recognize the language they claimed to have heard.

Dupin's Intrigue and Investigation Begins

C. Auguste Dupin, a Parisian native, and his unnamed friend, the story's narrator, follow these newspaper accounts with keen interest. The two live in seclusion, permitting no visitors and having severed ties with "former associates," venturing out only at night. As the narrator explains, "We existed within ourselves alone." When Adolphe Le Bon is imprisoned despite a lack of evidence pointing to his guilt, Dupin becomes so intrigued that he offers his services to "G.", the Prefect of Police.

Unraveling the Mystery: The Orangutan's Role

Given the conflicting witness testimonies regarding the murderer's language, Dupin deduces that they were not hearing a human voice at all. At the crime scene, he discovers an unusual hair, concluding, "this is no human hair." Dupin then places a newspaper advertisement inquiring about a lost orangutan. A sailor responds to the ad, visiting Dupin's home and offering a reward for the animal's return. Dupin, in turn, requests all information the sailor possesses concerning the Rue Morgue murders.

The sailor confesses he had been keeping a captive orangutan, acquired during a stop in Borneo. The animal escaped with the sailor's shaving straight razor. When pursued, the orangutan scaled a wall and climbed a lightning rod, gaining entry into the Rue Morgue apartment through a window.

The Shocking Revelation and Aftermath

Inside the room, the startled Madame L'Espanaye was defenseless as the orangutan, mimicking the sailor's daily shaving routine, accidentally slit her throat with the razor. This bloody act enraged the animal, leading it to strangle the daughter to death. The orangutan then noticed its master's whip, which it feared, and attempted to conceal the body by stuffing it into the chimney. The sailor, witnessing the "murder," panicked and fled, allowing the orangutan to escape.

Upon hearing this extraordinary account, the Prefect of Police remarks that people should mind their own business. Dupin's sharp retort is that G. is "too cunning to be profound."