The Best of Edgar A. Poe

Name _______________________________________________________ Date________________________

The Murders in the Rue Morgue

1. What is the purpose of Poe's discussing analytical power and ingenuity as well as chess and card games in the
first four paragraphs of the story?

2. Who is Dupin?

3. How did the narrator meet Dupin, and how did they come to share the same flat?

4. What was their daily life like at the flat?

5. Dupin says, "He is a very little fellow, that's true, and would do better for the Theatre des Varieties." What do
we learn about Dupin from this statement and the explanation which follows?

6. What newspaper article drew the attention of the narrator and Dupin? What was the article about?

7. What was peculiar about the murders?

8. Why was Dupin so interested in the murders?

9. Why did Dupin become involved with the case?

10. What three things confounded the police?

11. What facts that the police missed did Dupin uncover?

12. How did Dupin test his theory and lure the sailor to his apartment?

13. What "reward" did Dupin want from the sailor?

14. What series of events actually took place regarding the murders?

15. What was the reaction of the Prefect of Police to Dupin's solving the murders?

16. Poe leaves out many details by using a dash. Why does he omit the details?

17. What is the narrator's function?

18. At what point is the climax of the story? Explain.

Vocabulary - The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Part I: Using Prior Knowledge and Contextual Clues

Below are the sentences in which the vocabulary words appear in the text. Read the sentence. Use any
clues you can find in the sentence combined with your prior knowledge, and write what you think the
underlined words mean on the lines provided.

1. The higher powers of the reflective intellect are more decidedly and more usefully tasked by the
unostentatious game of draughts than by all the elaborate frivolity of chess.

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2. These are not only manifold, but multiform...

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3. But it is in matters beyond the limits of mere rule that the skill of the analyst is evinced.

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4. ...by a variety of untoward events, [he] had been reduced to such poverty that the energy of his character
succumbed beneath it, and he ceased to bestir himself in the world...

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5. ...there still remained in his possession a small remnant of his patrimony...

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6. It was a freak of fancy in my friend...to be enamored of the night...

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7. Here I paused, to ascertain beyond a doubt whether he really knew of whom I thought.

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8. You stepped upon one of the loose fragments, slipped, slightly strained your ankle appeared vexed or sulky,
muttered a few words, turned to look at the pile, and then proceeded in silence.

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9. You thought of the poor cobbler's immolation.

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10. Upon examining it, my excoriations were perceived.

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Part II. Determining the Meaning -- Match the vocabulary words to their definitions.

___ 1. unostentatious                          A. Scrapes

___ 2. manifold                                   B. Showed or demonstrated clearly

___ 3. evinced                                    C. Gave in

___ 4. succumbed                               D. Unpretentious; not showy

___ 5. patrimony                                 E. Inheritance

___ 6. enamored                                 F. One of many kinds

___ 7. ascertained                               G. To find out

___ 8. vexed                                       H. Inspired; captivated

___ 9. immolation                                I. Bothered

___ 10. excoriations                            J. Death; destruction