The Purloined Letter, The Black Brotherhood, And The One Thousand Dollar Robbery

What Makes A Good Detective

Introduction

For my coursework question I am going to use three stories that we have read in class, which are: The Purloined Letter, The Black Brotherhood, and The One Hundred Thousand Dollar Robbery.

I am going to talk about the characteristics of the three detectives in these stories to find out what makes a good detective.

All of the detectives in these three stories seem to have some typical characteristics in common, such as Dupin in The Purloined Letter, he is quite relaxed and quiet and has a good understanding of what he is doing, which are the same characteristics that Dick Donovan has. The detective in the Purloined Letter shares some of these characteristics

This will have an effect on the reader as they may be able to judge what other detectives characteristics are like. Donovan is also a kind character, and is relaxed in what he does, he always thinks of the unexpected, he is open minded, and really sly.

November Joe in the Hundred-Thousand-Dollar Robbery is quite quiet and assuming, November Joe is not very pushy and he doesn't say an awful lot, and we can tell he is a good detective who is well organised. November Joe is not a detective but says he's a woodsman, he isn't brash or pushy but he uses his common sense.

In the Purloined Letter the detective seems a very confident man, has a good knowledge of working things out which is needed in order to be a great detective, very secretive, he is very good at solving things, he also appears to have a good sense of humour which is a good point but is serious to at the same time.

In all the three stories that I have chose they are all good

A Present reader of the purloined letter would probably respond to as being a kind man, an intelligent character, someone who knows what he's doing and would seem like a modern character that you would find in any modern detective story, as they share the same characteristics. I found Dupin quite a quiet man, who knows how to solve hard crimes easily and being extremely intelligent.

A person who would have read this in the past may have related the character to a person that was of great importance like an inventor as this was a time of great change. Dupin would have probably interested the past reader more than the modern one because he would have been more similar to a person who created detective stories such as Edgar Allan Poe who was a famous man living at the time of great change.

To a present reader Dick Donovan would seem like a high standard man who they could imagine living in either the past or the present as he he's a good thinker and he has some characteristics of a present detective character. A past reader would respond to Donovan as being