Edgar Allan Poe's unusually common use of orangutans in his stories is no secret. In The Murders in the Rue Morgue, the orangutan turns out to be the murderer who took the lives of Madame L'Espanaye and her daughter. His actions are described as extremely – and perhaps uncomfortably – human. He shouts in a "shrill voice [like] that of a man", but his speech is obviously not recognised.[1] Assuming that the murder occurred in chronological order, it is suggested that the daughter's body was "firmly wedged in the chimney", while her mother's was "thrown headlong out the window", as if the brute realized that his actions were less than worthy and desired. to hide the bodies of deceased women.[2] Therefore, the orangutan appears to bear striking similarities to our species in that it can communicate, albeit not effectively, and can distinguish between right and wrong. Also in Hop Frog, the orangutan figure appears as a masquerade disguise for the king and his seven ministers. They are "saturated with tar" and covered in "linen" to accurately represent these beasts.[3] The orangutan emerges as an undesirable and fearful creature. However, given that the eight important men remain unidentified, disguised as they were, the figure of the orangutan does not seem to differ too much from that of the human being. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essayIn another of Poe's stories, Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, the reader most certainly does not encounter human beings dressed as orangutans. However, the way the sane asylum workers were treated and the way they were all "tarred, then carefully feathered" by the insane patients, is reminiscent of Hop Frog, where the fool outwitted wiser men and degraded them to figure of the orangutan.[4] Indeed, the narrator thinks of "chimpanzees, orangutans or the great black baboons of the Cape of Good Hope".[5] Even though the keepers are not specifically dressed as orangutans, they still masquerade as a cross between different species of the ape family. The reader may notice a pattern between the human being going through a crisis in which his intelligence and morality are questioned, and his sudden metamorphosis into an orangutan. This happened too often in Poe's stories to be regarded simply as part of the plot without much meaning. How might the destitute human be related to the orangutan? What is the meaning behind this analogy? In his essay "Handling the Perceptual Politics of Identity in Great Expectations," university professor Peter J. Capuano highlights how the Victorians were deeply concerned with "the material characteristics of the body" and what message was evoked through the shape of their bodily features. [6] In Great Expectations, Dickens exaggerates this Victorian anxiety by including characters such as Pip who compares his status in life to that of Estella by studying her hands. According to Capuano, this sudden interest in the body stems from humans losing their 'privileged status' of superiority over animals, when Charles Darwin's theory suggests that humans actually descend from the ape family.[7 ] This revelation brought with it an identity crisis, a deflation of the human ego, and, predictably, a curiosity about how apes “looked and acted” just like humans.[8] It goes without saying that the Victorians feared facing a life in which humans were no longer at the top of the biological spectrum and would have nothing to do with these creatures and avoidedany association with them. They sought to reassert their power over all other animals, and instead used terms related to apes, gorillas, orangutans, and so on to insult races they considered inferior.[9]So how does this discovery relate to Poe and the way which treats human beings like orangutans? In a letter addressed to George W. Eveleth, a medical student from Maine, Poe states that it is the heart that makes man, and without which man would become a "brute or a god".[10] Therefore, Poe seems to believe that if one does not live up to the moral standards of humanity, one lives on par with apes; a statement that would not be very welcome to his contemporary audience. However, his numerous instances of the human being reduced to an orangutan suggest that Poe is deliberately putting his readers on the spot, to show them how close they really are to the brutes. Why is Poe so intent on making this feeling felt? What is the main reason behind the accusation of lack of humanity in your generation? The most likely theory behind this reasoning comes directly from Poe's life. Through his letters, we learn about the hardships he endured after his adoptive father John Allan disowned him and refused to contact him. From the letters that Poe wrote to Allan, we will realize how the latter deprived Poe of the money necessary to continue his studies, which led him to fall into terrible vices such as gambling. Poe was robbed of the love a child should receive from his father. He lived in poverty and was always looking for money. He witnessed the death of his beloved wife Virginia. He endured several feuds with many other writers and critics and towards the end of his life had to experience the bitterness of unrequited love. Could it be that he is trying to reassert his dignity by comparing these people to brutes? Perhaps this comparison to orangutans was inspired by the Victorians' desire to be as different as possible from orangutans and apes in general, and so Poe took this opportunity to express his opinion regarding humanity. Despite being poor, unloved, and even thought to be crazy, Poe worked hard to get revenge by demonstrating through his writings how similar humans actually are to orangutans. This theory seems to be viable because in both The Murders in the Rue Morgue and Hop Frog as well as in The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, the orangutan also serves as a human whose behavior is less than human. In Murders in the Rue Morgue, the orangutan is a murderer who physically deprives others of their lives just as Poe is deprived of his life due to insufficient finances and negligence. In Hop Frog and The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether it is the orangutans who make fun of those considered inferior and perhaps stupid, just as Poe was often not taken seriously due to rumors of his madness and insobriety. Poe likely manipulated the Victorians' insecurity about their very existence and included it in his stories to mock and amplify people's flaws. Perhaps he was trying to transfer the anger and shame mercilessly instigated by other people onto the very individuals who didn't love him so much. The anguish is further strengthened by the very nature of his stories as he deals with delicate topics such as death, murder and horror, in order to increase the vulnerability of his "enemies" and at the same time build a screen of courage for himself and power. Poe managed to fight back and regain some authority through this analogy which not only probably satisfied his anger and indignation towards humanity, but also added depth and mystery to his infamous stories. 1847 2017].