Arguing with Numbers by James Wynn;G. Mitchell Reyes; & G. Mitchell Reyes

Author:James Wynn;G. Mitchell Reyes; & G. Mitchell Reyes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press

Step Three: Persuading the Authorities

Once the sailor is trapped with Dupin and the narrator, Dupin manages the situation so that there is no possibility of the sailor denying his responsibility for the murders. Like a player of draughts, Dupin traps him by making it seem as though he can predict all potential moves. The fact that all of the evidence in the case has already been determined allows him to make legal and moral arguments. First, he invites the sailor to be forthright in his testimony by explaining, “You were not even guilty of robbery, when you might have robbed with impunity. You have nothing to conceal. You have no reason for concealment” (Poe 1978a, 564). However, by mentioning the possibility of robbery, Dupin shows that he knows the sailor was in the murder room and saw the crime. The sailor breaks down under the weight of Dupin’s arguments and confesses everything: how a shipmate died, leaving behind the beast, how the Ourang-Outang had escaped one evening with a shaving razor, how it had climbed—exactly as Dupin hypothesized—up the lightning rod and in through the window, and finally how it had slain the occupants of the house on the Rue Morgue. The sailor offers the following graphic account that confirms the details of the iconic diagram that Dupin had constructed:

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