Abstract
This paper investigates strategic thinking in the fictional world of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Purloined Letter’. This short story has been rightly celebrated for its explicit analysis of strategic reasoning in which players attempt to outwit one another, which involves accounting for how they are all attempting to outwit one another. I differ from previous analyses by examining how the actors can often be wrong in their explicit analysis and consider the strategic actions they take rather than those they claim to take. Using elementary game theory, I describe the five games (and suggest a sixth) that make up the strategic heart of the story. These include games of signalling, screening, negotiation, revenge and a unique game called the ‘pincer’. I consider how literary sources like ‘The Purloined Letter’ can provide insights into the applicability of strategic analysis in the ‘real world’.
Highlights
This paper investigates strategic thinking in the fictional world of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Purloined Letter’
The interpretation creates from all events a narrative whose purpose is to simplify and model the world in which those events occurred. The consumers of these interpretations – perhaps the reader of a paper like this – themselves carry out further interpretive processes, which can have different goals than those of the initial interpreter. One such goal is to derive some account of the underlying real world that is reflected by that interpretation, another is to determine principles of interpretation, or the motives of the behaviour being described, or to derive aesthetic enjoyment
I begin with a summary of ‘The Purloined Letter’, the story is brief and this would be a good opportunity to read it in its entirety
Summary
This paper investigates strategic thinking in the fictional world of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘The Purloined Letter’. The Minister has since been blackmailing the Queen, and she has hired the Prefect to retrieve the letter.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
