The Purloined Letter Essay | Critical Essay #1

The Purloined Letter Critical Essay #1

Poquette has a bachelor's degree in English and specializes in writing about literature. In the following essay, Poquette discusses Poe's theory of the "bi-part soul" and its application in Poe's story.

Throughout his career, Poe was fascinated by the idea of a "bi-part" soul, half imagination, half reason—an idea that was expressed in many of his works. As Roger Asselineau noted about Poe in his entry for American Writers, "His works reflect this double aspect of his personality: the abandonment of the self-destructive romantic artist and the self-control of the conscious and conscientious craftsman." At first glance, somebody looking at Poe's stories may be tempted to label each one as either a horror story—emphasizing imagination—or a detective story, which emphasizes reason. However, with Poe, it is not always that simple, especially with Poe's detective stories. Kenneth Graham notes in the Introduction to Selected Tales that Dupin "is the most...
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