Aubrey Beardsley’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue is an illustration inspired by and created for Edgar Allan Poe’s collection titled Tales of Mystery and Imagination. Published in 1894 for the Chicago publisher Stone, its main focal point is that of a “South Asian primate” carrying the hunched body of a woman dressed in pantaloons and a corset. It is imperative to note her long black hair shrouding her face and the one slipper she has on. These two elements suggest the limpness and unconsciousness of the woman as she loses all physical and mental function to the madness of the primate. Nathan J. Timpano states that “introducing an animal as a central character, implicates, I believe, the interiority/exteriority of speciesism in both Poe’s writings and Beardsley’s analogous drawings”. Additionally, he praises Beardsley’s ambiguity of the scene by shrouding her face, as she could “easily be sleeping, or unconscious rather than dead”. These elements create a sense of anxiety about the unknown, diminishing the feeling of control over the ulterior motives of other species.
Works Cited
Beardsley, Aubrey Vincent. “The Murders in the Rue Morgue. 1894. Pen, brush and India Ink over graphite on Sheet 25.4 x 16 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/753518
Timpano, Nathan J. “The Curious Case of Aubrey Beardsley’s Poe ‘Illustrations.’” The Edgar Allan Poe Review, vol. 22, no. 1, 2021, pp. 110–41, https://doi.org/10.5325/edgallpoerev.22.1.0110.