The Devolution of Detectives in the Mystery Genre. As I thought about which part of the class and material I found the most important. I came to the conclusion that the key player in every mystery story is the detective. As stated by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, “the world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes”. When reviewing all the material covered in class English 239, this statement is obviously true. In this essay I will be discussing the devolution of the detective’s role. The most amazing detectives can be found in the earlier pieces of literature. In traditional mysteries there are a few notable authors which were covered in
English 239. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe are these two authors. When the mystery genre was created by Edgar Allen Poe, the detectives were made out to be amazing. Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” begins with a scene that should engrave faith into the detective. The reader is introduced to detective Monsieur C. Augueste Dupin as an unimaginable genius. Dupin was so intelligent it was almost like Dupin could read your mind. As the narrator stated “how was it possible you should know I was thinking of ___?” Another example of detective
Monsieur C. Augueste Dupin talent is towards the end of the story. When they find the finger prints Dupin automatically knows it was not a murder conjured by a human rather a monkey and he even knows the breed of this monkey. These statements show my point that Edgar Allen Poe created a detective who was amazing and could do more than anyone else. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle followed the same scheme as Edgar Allan Poe. Sir Arthur
Conan Doyle created a detective, probably the most famous one yet. Sherlock Holmes, was smarter than everyone, he could place together crimes that were unsolvable to
anyone