Majorly smart dude #1 Jaques Lacan wrote a famous (and famously difficult) essay about this story. That lack of content-the lack at the heart of the letter-has gotten a lot of smart people worked up over the years. What the title does, then, is shift attention from the content of the letter to the method of its purloining. D- has no reason to suspect G- of deceptive behavior. But the second time involves a breach of trust, too. Since he's a minister, that's a definite breach of trust. The first time, sure, D- purloins it from the royal lady. under circumstances which involve a breach of trust." The letter gets purloined twice in the story, and both times involving a definite breach of trust. humorous, and usually referring to petty theft.Ĭheck it out: "esp. under circumstances which involve a breach of trust to pilfer, filch. To make away with, misappropriate to steal, esp. "Purloined," basically means, "stolen." The Oxford English Dictionary's definition for "purloin" is more precise:Ģ. Well, let's see if we can wrestle something a little more interesting from it. Okay, not much to work with here-right? "The Purloined Letter." Can't get much more basic than that: the story is about a letter that's been purloined.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |