Poe's Short Stories
what is dupin's attitude toward Monsieur G?
In the purloined letter
In the purloined letter
Dupin doesn't think that the prefect is an idiot or incompetent. He thinks that he, as a policeman, thinks one dimensionally. Dupin suggests that the police cannot think outside their own standard procedures. Dupin says that Monsieur G does all the right procedural actions but fails to think outside the box, so to speak. Dupin demonstrates the rather tired old adage of, "to catch a criminal one has to think like a criminal". Well, I suppose it wasn't tired back in 1844. There is a bit of arrogance to Dupin. He narrates his own genius like the prefect is way out of his league but I suppose he does retrieve the letter when the whole Paris police force could not.