"Thou Art the Man", originally titled "Thou Art the Man!", is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...

, first published in

1844 In the Philippines, 1844 had only 365 days, when Tuesday, December 31 was skipped as Monday, December 30 was immediately followed by Wednesday, January 1, 1845, the next day after. The change also applied to Caroline Islands, Guam, Marian ...

. It is an early experiment in

detective fiction Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an criminal investigation, investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around ...

, like Poe's "

The Murders in the Rue Morgue "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe published in ''Graham's Magazine'' in 1841. It has been described as the first modern detective fiction, detective story; Poe referred to it as one of his "tales of wikt:ratio ...

", though it is generally considered an inferior story. The plot involves a man wrongfully accused of murdering his uncle Barnabas Shuttleworthy, whose corpse is missing. An unnamed

narrator Narration is the use of a written or spoken commentary to convey a story to an audience. Narration is conveyed by a narrator: a specific person, or unspecified literary voice, developed by the creator of the story to deliver information to the ...

finds the body, suspects the victim's good friend Charles Goodfellow, and sets up an elaborate plot to expose him. The corpse appears to come back to life and points to the best friend, exclaiming "Thou art the man!" The title and the climactic line refer to the

second Book of Samuel The Book of Samuel () is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings) that constitute a theological h ...

and also echo a line from the "

Great Moon Hoax The "Great Moon Hoax", also known as the "Great Moon Hoax of 1835", was a series of six articles published in ''The Sun (New York City), The Sun'' (a New York newspaper), beginning on August 25, 1835, about the supposed discovery of life and civ ...

Plot summary

In the town of Rattleborough, the wealthy Barnabas Shuttleworthy goes missing. His nephew and heir is accused of murdering him and is arrested. Soon after, Shuttleworthy's good friend Charles Goodfellow receives a letter from a wine firm informing him that shortly before his disappearance, Mr. Shuttleworthy had ordered a case of " Chateau-Margaux of the antelope brand, violet seal," Goodfellow's favorite vintage, to be sent to him. Mr. Goodfellow arranges for a party to break open the new wine. But when the narrator (a denizen of Rattleborough and acquaintance of Shuttleworthy and Goodfellow) pries open the case, there is no wine. Instead there is the decaying corpse of Mr. Shuttleworthy, who looks to Goodfellow and somehow utters, "Thou art the man". The terrified Goodfellow confesses to killing Shuttleworthy, after which he immediately drops dead, with the exonerated nephew set free. It turns out that the narrator had orchestrated this gruesome turn of events. Suspecting Goodfellow all along, the narrator discovered that Goodfellow had framed the nephew. He also managed to find Shuttleworthy's corpse on his own, and knowing that his efforts would not be effective without a confession, he forged the letter from the firm, and sent the "case of wine" himself to Goodfellow. The corpse's voice was provided by the narrator himself, employing his

ventriloquism Ventriloquism or ventriloquy is an act of stagecraft in which a person (a ventriloquist) speaks in such a way that it seems like their voice is coming from a different location, usually through a puppet known as a "dummy". The act of ventrilo ...

skills.

Publication history

"Thou Art the Man" originally appeared as "Thou Art the Man!" and was credited as being written "by Edgar A. Poe" in the November 1844 issue of ''

Godey's Lady's Book ''Godey's Lady's Book'', alternatively known as ''Godey's Magazine and Lady's Book'', was an American women's magazine that was published in Philadelphia from 1830 to 1896. It was the most widely circulated magazine in the period before the Civi ...

''. The editor of ''Godey's'' made at least one editorial change from Poe's manuscript, changing "old cock" to "old fellow," presumably for a more "family-friendly" reading, though it is not believed Poe agreed to the change. The roll manuscript is in the Poe collection of the New York Public Library's Division of Manuscripts and Archives.

Analysis

Like "

", "Thou Art the Man" is an experiment in the

genre which Poe invented and called "tales of ratiocination". This story, however, is narrated by the detective himself, who must mystify the reader by presenting a problem to which he already knows the solution.Hoffman, Daniel. ''Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe''. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972. p. 114 Guilty parties in both stories are shocked into revealing their secrets: the sailor in "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" is shocked into revealing his escaped

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

, and in "Thou Art the Man" the criminal is revealed when seeing his victim come back to life. The story is also presented humorously, satirizing the rural country town and making a

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

of its residents. The story can be considered a

burlesque A burlesque is a literary, dramatic or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the manner or spirit of serious works, or by ludicrous treatment of their subjects.

of Poe's own tales of ratiocination.

Allusions

The title of this story comes from in the Bible, where the prophet

Nathan Nathan or Natan may refer to: People and biblical figures *Nathan (given name), including a list of people and characters with this name * Nathan (surname) *Nathan (prophet), a person in the Hebrew Bible *Nathan (son of David), a biblical figu ...

accused

King David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Damas ...

of arranging for the death of Uriah in order to marry his wife

Bathsheba Bathsheba (; , ) was an Kings of Israel and Judah, Israelite queen consort. According to the Hebrew Bible, she was the wife of Uriah the Hittite and later of David, with whom she had all of her five children. Her status as the mother of Solomon ...

. Nathan had used a parable of a rich man, with a large flock of sheep, who steals the only lamb of a poor man to feed his guest. David determined that such a man deserved to die for his greed, to which Nathan responded "Thou art the man". That climactic line also seems to reference " The Great Moon Hoax" from 1835. Similar to Poe's tale, a pivotal scene involves one of the characters springing from his chair "in an ecstasy of conviction and leaping halfway to the ceiling," exclaiming the same line. Poe certainly knew of the story, having worked alongside one of the supposed writers at the New York ''

Sun The Sun is the star at the centre of the Solar System. It is a massive, nearly perfect sphere of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core, radiating the energy from its surface mainly as visible light a ...

'' newspaper.

Critical response

The story is often compared with Poe's essay on " Maelzel's Chess Player". American poet and author Daniel Hoffman says the story is an "interesting sort of failure" because it does not include the dim-witted narrator to offset the genius detective. The story is also considered lesser than Poe's previous detective stories because the amateur detective's obsession with exposing the murderer eliminates most of the mystery.

Influence

"Thou Art the Man" is also the (sole) content of the telegram Pilot Pirx sends to the culprit in

Stanisław Lem Stanisław Herman Lem (; 12 September 1921 – 27 March 2006) was a Polish writer. He was the author of many novels, short stories, and essays on various subjects, including philosophy, futurology, and literary criticism. Many of his science fi ...

's short story "Ananke", trying to force him to confess.

References

External links

Chronology of printings of "Thou Art the Man"
Edgar Allan Poe Society online * {{DEFAULTSORT:Thou Art The Man 1844 short stories Short stories by Edgar Allan Poe Detective fiction short stories Works originally published in Godey's Lady's Book