Comparing the Detective Work in The Adventure of The Speckled Band and The Murders in the Rue Morgue

The two stories which I’ll be comparing are “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” by Arthur Conan Doyle and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe. The short stories that I will be comparing are interesting because the detectives did everything to seek justice for the victims and also even though the females were not treated as highly as men in that era the detectives did not leave the cases and gave justice to the victims.

I believe that the detectives did everything to seek justice for the victims and the society in the short stories “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”. Even though they were threatened not to seek justice and stay out of the powerful people’s business, whether it was murders or not. “Detective fiction is literary genre, either in novel or short story form, dealing with a crime or crimes, usually murder, in which a detective or detectives seek justice for the victim and on behalf of society.” (Meldrum, 2019), The detectives in the short stories did not care about the consequences and still chose to help the victims.

In in the short story “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” the victims were not treated nicely by their stepfather, when he found out that Helen Stoner went to detective Sherlock Holmes to get help about what happened to her twin sister he tracked her and threated Sherlock Holmes and his friend Watson that “Don’t you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here.” (Doyle, 1892, p. 189). Helen’s stepfather also threated that “I am a dangerous man to fall foul of!” (Doyle, 1892, p.189), which shows that the men in the 80s were powerful and did not care about who they were threatening whether it is a common man or not.

In my opinion, the story “The Adventure of the Speckled Band” female characters fates suggest that powerful men can do anything they want and still will be able to get away with the crimes or harm they have done to the females. The females are shown to be weak and are suffering mentally and physically whether it is in their house or outside. They are facing hard times while the men are enjoying without caring about the things around them. Men are treated highly while the females weren’t because men did all the work back then, females had to stay home and work. If any powerful men did anything wrong they still wouldn’t get punished until the detectives would find the evidence without the evidence they weren’t punished even if the crime was committed by them.

In the short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” Madame L’ Espanaye and her daughter Mademoiselle L’ Espanaye were killed harshly by an orangutan, which was brought to Paris by a sailor. Mademoiselle L’Espanaye died due to many bruises all over her body because of the violence “Of Madame L’Espanaye no traces were here seen; but an unusual quantity of soot being observed in the fire-place, a search was made in the chimney, and (horrible to relate!) the corpse of the daughter, head downward, was dragged therefrom; it having been forced up the narrow aperture for a considerable distance.” (Poe, 1841, p.62).

Madame L’Espanaye died due to her throat being cut from the razor and she also had bruises, “After a thorough investigation of every portion of the house, without further discovery, the party made its way into a small paved yard in the rear of the building, where lay the corpse of the old lady, with her throat so entirely cut that, upon an attempt to raise, the head fell off.” (Poe, 1841, p.62). The story “The Murders of the Rue Morgue” by Edgar Allan Poe (1841) is considered to be the first true detective story” (Meldrum, 2019), which means that this story is true about the murder of the L’Espanayes. The story victims from “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” fates suggest that the females were not treated nicely and respectfully as they should be, instead they were treated harshly and like they don’t exist in that era. The females were shown to be weak, who can’t fight anything whether it is against a man or not.