Comparison | Edgar Allan Poe And Edogawa Rampo

This study compares ‘The Murders in the Rue Morgue’ written by Edgar Allan Poe and ‘The D-slope Murder Case’ by Edogawa Rampo. The two writers are known as the Father of detective stories2 in their respective motherlands. There are similarities in characters and settings and also differences in relationships between characters and plot. Through those similarities and differences, we can see the propensity of Poe’s and Rampo’s work. There are some factors that cause those similarities and differences in Poe’s and Rampo’s works. Social and cultural factors cause similarities; other factors such as personalities, family or career cause differences.

The factors produce the similarities and differences between them. Finally, the thesis analyzes the influences on society, readers and other authors by the two writers.

Introduction

1. 1. General background

1. 1. 1. A brief introduction to mystery genre

The American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) and the Japanese writer Edogawa Rampo (1894-1965) are both famous for writing mystery novels. Mystery fiction is a synonym for detective fiction or crime fiction. From the late 19th to the early 20th century, detective fiction was defined as the process of solving problem related to crime. However, as time went by, this genre has been changed to various genres such as classics, inventory and crime fiction. Classics, also called legitimate or puzzled detective story is just the typical detective stories like Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murder Case in the Rue Morgue. The basic story line introduces the case and a detective then solves it. Inventory genre is originated in England. The Singing Bone (1912) of Richard Austin Freeman is the representative novel of inventory genre. This genre shows the scene of committing something in detail in the first part of the story, and then a detective solves the case. The example of crime fiction can be Francis Iles’ Malice Aforethought (1931). It analyzes the motivation or process of the crime.

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Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue is considered the first detective fiction in the English-speaking countries. After success of the gaining fame from the novel, he published several other works: The Mystery of Marie Roget (1842), The Gold Bug (1843) and The Purloined Letter (1845). All the four detective stories are known as the classic of mystery genre and they form the basic structure of detective stories which include crime, criminal and detective. The influence of detective stories also goes in to Britain and France. There are a lot of mystery works by Emile Gaboriau [1] , Arthur Morrison [2] , and Agatha Christie [3] and so on.

Japan is also well-known for the mystery genre. Japanese detective fiction is generally called Suiri shousetsu in Japanese. It includes a couple of genres such as detective fiction, mystery fiction, crime fiction, historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy. Edogawa Rampo is said to be the originator of the genres [4] . He is the first Japanese modern mystery writer and also the founder of the Detective Story Club in Japan. Moreover, there is Edogawa Rampo Award for authors who write mystery fictions. It is named after Edogawa Rampo, and it has been honored every year by the Mystery Writers of Japan since 1955. Nowadays, writers who have already won this award are very popular in Japan.

With the development of the society as a whole, mystery genre has enjoyed growth and popularity worldwide.

1. 1. 2. The reasons why I chose this topic

There are two reasons that I chose this topic: personal interest and the relationships between the two authors that I found in “Classic of American Literature” class [5] .

First of all, I have always been fond of reading Japanese mystery novels and have also paid close attention to Japanese mystery stories; this is, because Japan is famous for mystery genre. In Japan, Edogawa Rampo establishes the base of detective stories. After success of Rampo, other writers have also written detective stories which reveal darkness of society, focusing on illustrating the criminal who committed crime. Therefore, that novel is not describing unique tricks or crimes, but illustrating something that can be found in the real world, so the reality attracts readers like me. Therefore, the mystery genre has become to be popular. Every time when I read a Japanese mystery novel, I can feel not only interest of inference, but also Japanese culture or social backgrounds of the period that the story was written.

In “Classic of American Literature” class, I have learned a lot about Edgar Allan Poe and his works generally. After reading “The Fall of the House of Usher,” I have been much more interested in Poe’s mystery stories. I have found there is a connection between Edogawa Rampo and Edgar Allan Poe, simply by judging from Rampo’s pen name: Edogawa Rampo. Although Poe and Rampo are different in nationality, writing period, and education, they are known as the Father of detective stories [6] in their respective countries. Their common things are just a few things like occupation. The most important thing is literary characteristic. In both of their detective fictions, they focus on the logic process of ratiocination with psychological view. In short, on the perspective of writing techniques, Poe and Rampo pursue similar thing: psychology.

1. 1. 3. My approach to the research work

I would like to compare two representative works of two writers: The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe and The D-slope Murder Case by Edogawa Rampo. The Murders in the Rue Morgue is known as the first detective story which is meaningful in the western countries [7] . I think The D-slope Murder Case is seemingly similar in the several parts like title and storyline. Moreover, the title The Murders in the Rue Morgue directly appears in the story. It obviously indicates that The D-slope Murder Case is influenced by The Murders in the Rue Morgue. Due to those interesting points, I select The Murders in the Rue Morgue and The D-slope Murder Case.

What I want to stress is the factors that influenced Poe’s and Rampo’s works and also want to know influences on today’s readers, writers and even society. I will cover both of similarities and differences on Poe’s and Rampo’s work and the results of them with the categories of analysis including social, cultural and other factors.

1. 2. Literature review

Most of the research papers I have read mainly focus on individual study about Edgar Allan Poe or Edogawa Rampo. When I went through the research work done by others, I found several similarities between the two writers, so I decided to compare and analyze them together.

1. 2. 1. Research on Edgar Allan Poe

In The Psychology of The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the author J. A. Leo Lemay emphasizes psychological things like metaphors such as the conclusion of the fiction, the meaning of house, sailor and orangutan that appear in The Murders in the Rue Morgue and one of them, the orangutan is found as the murderer. And the sailor, who is the master of orangutan, dose not notices that his orangutan is the killer, so at the ending of the story, he is totally shocked. I agree with the view of suggestions likes “Poe’s analysis, therefore, specifically refers to the motivations and psychology of humans” (Lemay 167). Moreover, there are interesting views of homosexual relationships among some characters in the stories. The question about the relationships between psychology and sex is raised in the text. The answers to the question are in the several parts of Lemay’s research work: 19th century theory, religion and social background. At this point, we can guess influences of Poe’s work would be mostly from Western culture, not only American, but also European culture. However, the reason of “Why did Poe introduce the homosexual suggestions?” (Lemay 172) needs to be improved. The writer of the thesis, Lemay mentions about the amusement for the readers. I think there must be other reasons for that, for example that social backgrounds during that period of time.

Another research paper titled “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”: Edgar Allan Poe’s Evolutionary Reverie focuses on scientific views i.e. the evolution rather than psychological things. There is an interesting point in the paper:

A case in point is Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, arguably the first detective story, the first manifestation of a new genre “born and nourished in a new era of world history (Frank 169).

And I’m also interested in the point on Ourang-outang: regard as a sub-human. However, the text has an opposite point, which is tend to assert scientific thing overall, against my point of view. In other words, the writer of this research, Lawrence Frank, regards the objectivity is more important thing. However, I would like to address from the psychological perspective in my study.

1. 2. 2. Research on Edogawa Rampo

The general idea of Review, The Journal of Asian Studies, Robert H. Brower is the opinions of Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination translated by James B. Harris. Brower says Edogawa Rampo has great ability to express his own characteristics such as abnormal, weird and gloomy atmosphere in his novels. However, the writer of the review becomes more critical. Brower says:

But alongside The Murders in the Rue Morgue, these stories may seem merely weird at best. But there is little in the way of ingenuity in plot or presentation to exposure in the one’s powers of deduction (Brower 480).

I assert that there are not many translated fictions which are Rampo’s in Western countries, so the readers may approach world of Rampo limitedly.

Mad Scientists and Their Prey: Bioethics, Murder, and Fiction in Interwar Japan suggests that the point that how Japanese feel the detective stories. This essay focuses on kind of lunatic scientist who has killed someone, a subgenre within the larger stream of Japanese detective fiction during the 1920s and 1930s. She, the writer of the research, keeps tracking down the ways of the motif of the mad scientist and emphasizes the discord between science and ethics. I agree with the point:

The more “traditional” motivations of greed, jealousy, and simple hatred came to share the spotlight with more detached and clinical reasons to kill (Kawana 118).

Although it is not directly about Rampo’s works, the whole opinions of Japanese mystery fictions are interesting, because it is different from what Western people think. I also have an interest of the view:

It is ironic that detective fiction, a genre considered frivolous and disposable, offered an arena in which writers could voice their serious concerns about the world around them (Kawana 119).

This point is quite related to one of my views on both of Poe’s and Rampo’s works. However, I wonder about other factors that influence on the mystery genre in Japan. World War â…¡ or the other wars may be just one of the factors which influence mystery genre. It was the only factor that influences the development of detective fictions in Japan? What about the Japanese culture, thoughts or influences from other cultures?

1. 3. My research questions

Through the literature reviews, I come up with the following research questions: firstly, what are the similarities and differences between the two? Secondly, why do similarities and differences exist between the two novels and the two writers? Thirdly, how the two writers and their works influence on society, other authors and readers will cover in this thesis.

A Comparison between Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Edogawa Rampo’s The D-slope Murder Case

I would like to compare The Murders in the Rue Morgue of Edgar Allan Poe and The D-slope Murder Case of Edogawa Rampo to find out how the two are similar to or different from each other.

Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” was published in 1841. It is known as the first detective story in the western culture. It is about the murder case which involves victims Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter in the Rue Morgue, and the detective C. Auguste Dupin helps solve the case.

Rampo’s “The D-slope Murder Case” was released in 1925. It is one of his classics of early twentieth-century Japanese popular literature. The story is about a woman who is killed by sadomasochistic games with her husband. The detective named Akechi Kogoro then started his work. In the following sections, I will discuss the similarities and the differences between the two novels.

2. 1. Similarities between the two stories

There are similarities between the two stories in characters and settings. In the session of analysis of the character, the number, occupation, hobby and personality are explained.

2. 1. 1. Similar characters

There are two main characters in each work. In Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue, there are the detective C. Auguste Dupin and the narrator. In Rampo’s The D-slope Murder Case, the detective is called Akechi Kogoro and the narrator lead the story. Moreover, it is the debut of famous detectives: Auguste Dupin and Akechi. Poe introduces the prototype of the detective who is always keen and carefully observes everything in The Murders in the Rue Morgue for the first time. Rampo’s Akechi is also the first to appear in The D-slope Murder Case.

The characters in both stories are alike. For example, the two detectives almost have the same hobby. I think that it is because Dupin and Akechi do the same thing for a living as detective. Detectives are usually men of keen observation and are good at inferring a conclusion.

Therefore, both of them like reading books. In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the narrator illustrates the first time when Detective Dupin and the narrator meet at the library where there are many books. In The D-slope Murder Case, there is also an illustration of Akechi’s room which is filled with numerous books.

Moreover, their general characteristics are also similar. As I suggested in the above paragraph, both of them are good at observation and reading one’s mind:

I felt my soul enkindled within me by the wild fervor and the vivid freshness of his imagination. I could not help remarking and admiring a peculiar analytic ability in Dupin. How was it possible you should know I was thinking of? (Tails of Edgar Allan Poe, The Murders in the Rue Morgue 50)

In The D-slope Murder Case, when the narrator and Akechi have a conversation with each other, both of them are having a great ability of observation and memorization.

There is also an important character: narrator. In both of Poe and Rampo’s stories, the narrator explains the whole story and sometimes illustrates the detectives and even their thoughts. In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the narrator describes Dupin’s general characteristics like this:

Observing him in these moods, I often dwelt meditatively upon the old philosophy of the Bi-Part Soul, and amused myself with the fancy of a double-Dupin-the creative and the resolvent (The Murders in the Rue Morgue 52).

The narrator also mentions a whole story, for example, the narrator mentions the evening edition of the magazine which covers the murder case. Also, the narrator says the next day’s paper which is also mentions the same case. Lastly, he is able to correctly guess Detective Dupin’s thoughts and mind:

Dupin seemed singularly interested in the progress of this affair-at least so I judge from his manner, for he made no comments (The Murders in the Rue Morgue 64).

In Rampo’s novel, for instance, the narrator guesses Detective Akechi is a criminal who has a lithe gait and wears striped Ukata (Japanese traditional clothes) a typical clothes criminal may wear when he committed a crime. To tell the whole story to the readers, the narrator usually rouses readers using direct speech in this way:

All of you readers can guess enough that my conclusion of inference through Akechi and my conversation. (The D-slope Murder Case 8)

2. 1. 2. Similar settings: theme, focus and conclusion of the stories

In this session, settings includes theme, focus and conclusion. These elements in the stories also have a likeness to each other.

Firstly, the general theme in the novel suggests peculiarity of criminals and the relationships between the characters and background stories of the cases. In Poe’s novel, Orangutan, the criminal is not a human:

There was something in his manner of emphasizing the word “peculiar,” which caused me to shudder, without knowing why. (The Murders in the Rue Morgue 67)

Also in Rampo’s story, the criminal is not Akechi but someone else.

The relationships are also peculiar. For example, the narrator and Dupin in Poe’s story and the victim and the criminal in Rampo’s story interact with each other in a ridiculous manner. In Poe’s story, someone like Lemay who writes the research paper on Poe’s work argue that they are in homosexual relationship. I will analyze the issue in the next session.

The victims’ background stories are also peculiar. As I mentioned before, in Rampo’s novel, both of the victim and criminal are sadomasochistic. In Poe’s story, the two female victims’ behind rumor have sexual relationship. It is not very weird today, but those novels were written around early 20th century. To me, the results and settings of the stories were weird enough at that time.

Additionally, the focus of inference in both fictions is based on the logical process of ratiocination. While Dupin or Akechi solve the murder case, both of them regard the inside of human more important. In short, the detectives are focusing on psychology. Here is the part of related research paper:

The following sentences confirm this interpretation. The narrator comments that the analyst ‘derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play.’ In addition to such necessary literal matters as bringing on stage the narrator and Dupin, describing their first meeting and subsequent relationship, and telling of their characters, Part Two of the introduction begins the particular psychological explorations that are the major undercurrent (Lemay 168).

In The D-slope Murder Case, the narrator suspects Akechi as a murder

because of the narrator’s own inference, although the process of ratiocination is not correct at the end. Detective Akechi finally says that the best ratiocination is the awareness of one’s motive psychologically. He also mentions “word association test,” which is originated in psychology.

Lastly, conclusion of the stories has the similar point. Both of the criminals are unexpected. In Poe’s story, the killer is not human, but Orangutan. Dupin read the passage from Cuvier which introduces general characteristics of Orangutans, and then found the criminal’s special features accord with Orangutan’s as he said “I see that no animal but an Ourang-Outang (The Murders in the Rue Morgue 80).” Moreover, the original master of Orangutan is quite shocked and says:

I am innocent; I am poor; my Ourang-Outang is of great value-to one in my circumstances a fortune of itself-why should I lose it through idle apprehensions of danger? (The Murders in the Rue Morgue 82)

In Rampo’s fiction, the murderer is not Akechi, but the owner of Asahiya who is a husband of the victim. At first, the narrator continuously suspects detective Akechi because of his clothes, alibi and witness. However, Akechi brings a matter to light by Munsterberg’s theory and related event. The narrator listens to the story of sadomasochistic, which means that enjoyment from hurting somebody and being hurt, especially during sexual activity, and clears up misunderstanding of Akechi.

2. 2. Differences between the two stories

I would like to compare the differences in the relationships between the main characters and the plot details of the two stories.

2. 2. 1. Different relationships between the main characters

The relationships among the characters are rather different. In Poe’s novel, the narrator and Detective Dupin are close to each other, but in Rampo’s story, the narrator and Detective Akechi are rather hostile. Here are some examples from Poe’s novel:

I felt my soul enkindled within me by the wild fervor and the vivid freshness of his imagination. Seeking in Paris the objects I then sought, I felt that the society of such a man would be to me a treasure beyond price (The Murder in the Rue Morgue 50).

… Then we sallied forth into streets arm in arm, continuing the topics of the day, or roaming far and wide until a late hour, seeking, amid the wild lights and shadows of the populous city, that infinity of mental excitement which quiet observation can afford (The Murder in the Rue Morgue 52)

In the same novel, the relationship between Madame and Mademoiselle L’Espanaye who are victims of the case is simply not the one between friends or family members, but rather homosexual:

The old lady and her daughter seemed on good terms, very affectionate towards each other.

… It was not known whether there were any living connexions of Madame L. and her daughter (The Murder in the Rue Morgue 59-60).

However, in Rampo’s story, the relationship between narrator and Akechi is not very close. Actually, the narrator suspects Akechi:

The strangest thing is when police were investigating; you did not say anything about the Madame who was killed and even she was one of your friends.

… He still dishevels his hair with a straight face. So I changed my indirect speech which indicates respect him into direct speech (The D-slope Murder Case 11).

2. 2. 2. Different plot details

Another different part in both of the stories is details of plot, especially the number of characters who lead the inference, the way to solve the case and the relationship with the police. In Poe’s novel, only one person, Detective Dupin, leads the inference. At first, he guesses the case by the paper, and then goes to the very spot where the murder case happened. And Dupin dose not trust police at all.

However, in the story of Rampo, both of the narrator and detective Akechi make the inference. They originally were in the place that the case happened. They are not very hostile to police but rather close to each other.

In Poe’s novel, Detective Dupin leads and asserts the inference while the narrator is almost passive. When solving the case, the narrator just listens and just agrees with Dupin’s idea. Dupin infers the case through the articles in the newspaper. At first, he just uses the materials that he has and makes an inference. Also, Dupin distrusts the police. Dupin says “The Parisian police, so much extolled for acumen, are cunning, but no more (The Murders in the Rue Morgue 64-65).”

However, in Rampo’s novel, the narrator and detective Akechi argue and think at the same time. In the most part of the text, they have a conversation about the case. The narrator also guesses who the criminal is and tries to find out the motif of the case and the way to commit. Finally, the narrator recognizes that his inference is wrong. In the story, the narrator says that when he was listening Akechi’s demonstration, the narrator became to know his failure. At this point, the interesting thing appears: the things like word association test that related to psychology. Akechi mentions Munsterberg’s Psychology and Crime and asserts that testimony sometimes cannot be trusted. Here is the quotation from The Memory of the Witness which is written by Munsterberg and played an important role in The D-slope Murder Case:

Only four persons, for instance, among forty noticed that the Negro had nothing on his head; the others gave him a derby, or a high hat, and so on. In addition to this, a red suit, a brown one, a striped one, a coffee-coloured jacket, shirt sleeves, and similar costumes were invented for him. He wore in reality white trousers and a black jacket with a large red necktie (The D-slope Murder Case 13).

Therefore, comparing to Dupin’s way, Akechi’s way of thinking is different. Also, Akechi and the narrator solve the case through observation and inferences in the very spot where the accident took place, not the articles in the newspaper. Relatively, both of the two do not ignore the police very much. It is rather to trust them:

One of my friends is journalist of social department, and he is very close to detective Kobayashi. So I could get various pieces of information from him (The D-slope Murder Case 4).

2. 3. Further discussion

Both of Poe and Rampo concentrate on the negative side of human mind such as the stereotype that criminal can only be a human and the matter of homosexuality or sadomasochism. Their similarities or differences also affect to outlook on life, thinking style and writing style. To reveal social problems and appeal their opinions on the issues, both of them create the character Detective Dupin and Detective Akechi. In short, those characters represent the authors’ thoughts.

First of all, Poe tries to approach the psychological field like this in his work:

His own desires to shape his interpretation of physical clues, leading to embarrassing false conclusion… Since Poe makes clear that in a detective story the resolvent and the creative are virtually identical (Walker 123- 128).

…His fiction from the early 1840s reflects this immersion in his own place and time. To be sure, Poe’s artistic techniques and insight into human psychology have given many of his stories the seemingly a historical status of “classic” literature (Walker 77).

In the text from Rampo, Detective Akechi also mentions the article The Memory of the Witness and the term of word association test:

Only four persons, for instance, among forty noticed that the Negro had nothing on his head; the others gave him a derby, or a high hat, and so on. In addition to this, a red suit, a brown one, a striped one, a coffee-coloured jacket, shirt sleeves, and similar costumes were invented for him. He wore in reality white trousers and a black jacket with a large red necktie (The D-slope Murder Case 13).

Related to witness, I guess that two authors want to emphasize and explore the psychological thing that acts on human’s logic of thought. Those values and characteristics that the two writers try to imbed in their stories are related to the social, historical or cultural backgrounds.

Factors that causes similarities and differences

In this chapter, I would like to discuss some of the historical, social and cultural factors that cause the similarities and differences between Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Rampo are The D-slope Murder Case.

3. 1. Why similarities and differences in Poe’s and Rampo’s works

3. 1. 1. Historical, social and cultural factors

The historical, social and cultural backgrounds cause similarities in Poe’s and Rampo’s works. Let’s focus on the external environment in which Poe and Rampo lived as writers. Lois & Francis E. Hyslop illustrated America like this:

The United States is a young and gigantic country, naturally jealous of the old continent. Proud of its material development, abnormal and almost monstrous, this newcomer in history has a naïve faith in the omnipotence of industry (Lois and Francis E. Hyslop 93).

In the early 1800s, American society was tend to agricultural and in slow tempo, however, the immigration was regarded as the power of developing and changing America. Some people resisted the change even using violence. So in the 1840s, there were various movements for expulsion of immigration. Related to immigration, Puritanism also influenced that period of America. The origin of Puritanism is from the early in the 17th century. Some Puritan groups emigrated from England and since that time Puritanism influenced whole American society more than 200 years. In my point of view, Edgar Allan Poe may go against Puritanism, because Puritanism has severe rule and idealism of religion, working and lifestyle. Edgar Allan Poe Society of Baltimore also says that Poe’s only god was Art [8] .

Moreover, Poe is known for pursuing Romanticism in America. During 1820 to 1865, Romanticism was developing in America. Romanticism emphasizes the words such as self-realization, self-expression and self-reliance. Of course, one self became to be important; the psychological field also became to be noticed. Therefore, that period can be seen as the first great summit of American literature, a decade that helped to establish the renaissance in America. That atmosphere had influenced on Edgar Allan Poe’s view of the world in his works, especially in detective stories such as

In chronological point of view, Rampo was born late than Poe. Therefore, Rampo was inevitably influenced by Edgar Allan Poe’s view of the world or literary work. Especially, Rampo experienced war including prewar period and postwar period, so western culture like literature and ideology which easily filters into Asia at that time has an effect on Rampo’s literary work. Rampo receives the influence of western authors like Edgar Allan Poe who write detective stories, so Rampo simultaneously write the stories of related to gender, grotesquerie, and the ridiculous things due to the war.

Japanese society at that certain period of time when Rampo lived also influences on Rampo. During the 1920s, Japan went through a series of recession and a few banking crises. The general mood of country was also affected by depressing of economy. I assume that it also influenced Rampo’s weird and grotesque atmosphere in his works. Also, with the economic mood of Japan, Taisho Democracy which was asking for more democracy and human rights became active such as in the field of women’s liberation, equal rights, and cultural freedom also influenced Rampo’s literature activity.

Rampo’s works are written in the prewar period, during World War â…¡ and postwar. The D-slope Murder Case is written in the prewar period. Although many of his early stories are primarily about the processes used in solving seemingly insolvable crimes, during the 1930s, he begins to turn increasingly to stories including sensibilities of eroticism, grotesquerie and nonsensical things.

During the War, Rampo writes only one story about scientific story called Idainaru Yume (A Great Dream). Due to the fact that society against amusements in that period, he can not write much about detective stories. However, he works on how his fellow writers of detective stories spent the