History Headscratchers / EdgarAllanPoe

** There are several adaptations of ''Murders in the Rue Morgue'', including one with Bela Lugosi if I'm not wrong. Problem is, they're not very succesful as not very much people know him. Hollywood currently is obsessed with brand recognition and will hardly risk to use a not well known character. On the other hand the tendency of turning ''everthing'' into an action film is kind of a problem too, it does works with Holmes I grant them that, but it was a failure when using for example Dracula (Untold), Victor Frankenstein and the Frankenstein monster as all those movies flopped, as Van Hellsing and the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen did. So, some literary characters really don't work as action characters, and Hollywood is not risky enough nowadays to do something that is not action packed unless is an OscarBait drama or a romantic comedy.

** OP here, I'll be answering my own question in case anybody else is curious. Apparently, although for the most part marriageable age for girls could be as low as 12 in the Western world, marriageable age ''without her guardians' consent'' was 21 (at least in the 19th century England), and there's evidence to show some members of Virginia's family (namely, her half sister's husband) were opposed to her getting married that young, so if the laws were similar in America, that might be that.
*** Interesting!

** Honestly, I kind of figured he was actually in denial that she could really be alive but the idea of him ''wanting'' her dead starts to make sense.
*** Additionally, the family has never had more than one member of a generation survive and Roderick is specifically noted as buying into his family's superstitions. Maybe he thought that one of them had to die for the other to live. This Reader's interpretation was that he had been poisoning or hurting her somehow (hence how strange her illness appeared to doctors), and burying her was his final attempt to keep anyone from figuring it out. She was able to get out of the coffin because after he left her alone she got some strength and willpower back.

*** [[CaptainObvious Obviously]]. [[TropeMaker You had to start somewhere]]. [[TropeCodifier Holmes was simply a more fleshed-out version of Dupin]]...who wasn't even the focus of the stories he was in anyway. Poe cared more about [[DetectiveStory the mystery itself]] after all. Nowadays, a lot of writers take liberties with Holmes's character anyway, even giving him a LoveInterest or two despite the fact that he was clearly either a CelibateHero or outright [[{{Asexuality}} asexual]]. They could do the same to flesh out Dupin and make him more interesting, while still keeping everything we know about him canon.

** Honestly, I kind of figured he was actually in denial that she could really be alive but the idea of him ''wanting'' her dead starts to make sense.

** True, but they created an entirely new villain and new plot for the [[Film/SherlockHolmes 2009 Holmes film]]. With the right actors, great music, ItWillNeverCatchOn jokes, and nice helpings of Dupin[=/=]NoNameGiven {{sidekick}} HoYay, you could make a really entertaining adaptation of "Murders in the Rue Morgue" (the murderer is [[spoiler:an orangutan]] -- how much better can it get?) and easily add some more action to it. They could make the "murderer" more violent when they catch up to it for a good (if weird, therefore even better) fight scene, and even make him the creative weapon of a particularly devious villain, which would not be far off for an author whose characters could kill with, for example, a poisoned candle. "The Purloined Letter" could be used in the first act to show off Dupin's genius. Not that they would want to skip over Dupin and his Watson meeting and moving in together -- Dupin would provide time for some origin story that there's rarely any room for in Sherlock Holmes adaptations.

** This is why some readers believe that [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation Roderick actually wanted his sister dead for some reason]] and only started regretting his actions when he realised that she'd got out of the coffin.

* If Roderick Usher's senses were as hypersensitive as he claimed they were, why couldn't he tell the difference between [[spoiler: an unconscious woman and a dead one]]? If he could hear a scratching sound through wood, stone, and several dozen yards of walls and corridors, why couldn't he [[spoiler: hear that his own sister's heart was still beating, however slowly, when he was standing right beside her]]?

** Blame it on something else?

** It was the Spanish Inquesition... ''In the 1800s''... [[MontyPythonsFlyingCircus No one expected them]]...