The Murders in the Rue Morgue characters

Appears from the start

A Frenchman from an illustrious family whose fortunes have collapsed. He lives in deliberate seclusion in Paris and takes intense pleasure in solving problems through close observation and disciplined inference. The narrator first meets him while both are searching for the same rare book, and the two soon become housemates.

Appears from the start

An unnamed visitor to Paris who meets Dupin in a library and becomes his friend, housemate, and admiring observer. He relates the investigation and often serves as the audience for Dupin's explanations.

Appears from the start

An elderly woman who lives with her daughter in a secluded house on the Rue Morgue. Neighbors know little about the pair beyond their comfortable circumstances and withdrawn habits. She is found dead in the courtyard after violent sounds draw people to the house.

Appears from the start

Madame L'Espanaye's unmarried daughter and sole companion. She shares her mother's isolated home and is one of the two victims in the baffling locked-room crime that attracts Dupin's attention.

Appears from the start

A bank clerk who carried a large withdrawal of gold to the L'Espanaye house several days before the murders. The police arrest him despite the lack of a clear explanation for how he could have committed the crime, prompting Dupin to take a personal interest in clearing him.

Appears from the start

The head of the Paris police and an acquaintance of Dupin. He gives Dupin permission to inspect the crime scene but remains committed to conventional investigative methods and to the case against Le Bon.

Appears from the start

A French merchant sailor who has recently returned from the East Indies. Dupin draws him to the apartment with a newspaper notice claiming that a valuable escaped animal has been found, reasoning that the sailor can explain the extraordinary evidence from the Rue Morgue.

Also known as Ourang-Outang

Appears from the start

A powerful orangutan brought from Borneo by the sailor. Its unusual strength, agility, hair, and inhuman voice account for clues that the witnesses and police cannot reconcile with any human intruder.