The Purloined Letter Summary - Edgar Allan Poe Plot Diagram
Storyboard Text
EXPOSITION
CONFLICT
RISING ACTION
The Prefect of the Paris police goes to see C. August Dupin, a private eye, who recently helped him solve ‘The Murders of Rue Morgue’. His new case is about a stolen letter!
CLIMAX
Plain Sight
A letter was stolen from a powerful lady. The main suspect is Minister D, a man who Dupin has bad blood with.
FALLING ACTION
The prefect searches the minister's apartment and comes up empty. When he returns to see Dupin, the private eye gives the prefect the letter.
RESOLUTION
You're welcome!
Dupin explains how he was able to think like the thief and recover the letter!
Dupin supplanted the letter with an identical, which reads, “So baneful a scheme, if not worthy of Atreus, is worthy of Thyestes.”
Dupin is able to solve the case and get revenge for a wrong committed against him by the Minister.