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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Billy Bin Feng Huang
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2026.10.001
National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C) Municipal Shilin Vocational High School of Commerce, Taipei, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
This paper focuses on the thematic ambivalence of the urban setting in Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt”. First, both the detective stories were written in 1841 and 1842, when the general American public was pursuing material wealth, and the large American cities kept expanding. However, a close textual examination of the two stories will reveal that the urban setting seems to be distantly connected with the theme, namely, the occurrences of the murders. On the other hand, once the socio-historical perspective is introduced, then the urban setting readily seems thematically related to the stories. Thus, the thematic ambivalence of the urban setting in the two stories is presented. On the other hand, if this thematic ambivalence needs to be perceived, Poe’s stance on the trend of urbanization must be pinpointed. It turns out to be that Poe has taken a rather ambivalent attitude about urbanization of his times. Most of all, he has clearly translated his ambivalence into a descriptive nonchalance in his two stories. It is at this point where the truth about on the thematic ambivalence of the urban setting will manifest itself. That is, now that the author’s judgment of urbanization is lacking, the urban setting can’t be automatically related to the two stories. But if the two stories are examined in a broad socio-historical context, the urban setting may be correlated with the story theme.
(Edgar Allan) Poe, “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”, “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt”, the thematic ambivalence of the urban setting, urbanization
Journal of Literature and Art Studies, October 2026, Vol. 16, No. 10, 795-809
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