Abstract: Edgar Allan Poe, American short story writer, poet, critic, editor, novelist, and essayist，has achieved great success in literature. Especially in the field of short stories, he is father of the detective story and sets the pattern of western detective stories. One feature of his works is the description of supernatural terror, mystery, cruelty and fatalism. The story’s plot is full of dramatic natures. He lays stress on the description of details and the atmosphere and the effect of the story. When it comes to his detective stories, he is an artist of creating the suspense atmosphere. This paper based on The Murders in the Rue Morgue which is considered as the world first detective story, summarized two main points, regulation and contrast. The paper attempts to analyze the story from the aspects of plot, language and identifies how they were used by Poe to structure the story in the hope that it might conductive to the reading and understanding of Poe’s detective stories for it provides the clue for the readers. Through the analysis, the paper reveals that Poe sets the suspense atmosphere through three points, irregular plot，irregularity of language and the contrast of the main characters. The conclusion part brings the whole thesis to an end and points out how the suspense atmosphere is set and explores that all the elements serve for the creation of suspense atmosphere.
Key Words: Allan Poe; detective story; suspense atmosphere; Dupin
Introduction 1
1. Background and Literature Review of Edgar Allan Poe…………...1
1.1 Edger Allan Poe's detective stories……………………….………….….……….1
1.2 The Literature Review of Edgar Allan Poe…………….………...…...…………1
2. Irregular Points………………………………………………………..3
2.1 Irregular Introduction………….………………...…………………………...…..3
2.2 Grotesque Case…………………..……..…………………………………….….6
2.3 Irregularity of Language ……….……………………………………………..…7
3. The Contrast of the Main Characters ………………..……..…..….10
3.1 Dupin vs Narrator……………………………………………..………...……10 3.2 Dupin vs the Police……………………………………………..……………..11
4.Conclusion….....……………………………………………………....11
Bibliography..…………………………………………………..…...…..18
