"Thou Art the Man" as a Clue to "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt"

"Thou Art the Man" has long been regarded by critics as Poe's burlesque and repudiation of the detective genre after his failure to solve the Mary Rogers case. This article intends to demonstrate that Poe has planted several clues in "Thou Art the Man" to imply its connection to "The Mystery of Marie Rogêt," and that Poe's reason for doing so is to reinforce that he has succeeded in solving the Mary Rogers mystery. In "Thou Art the Man," the narrator notices that the evidence is artificial and, by creating a scene in which the dead man speaks, successfully extorts the confession from the murderer. By creating the connections of "Thou Art the Man" and "Marie Rogêt," Poe indicates that he has also noticed the artificial evidence in Mary Rogers's case, and, more importantly, he implies that the publication of his story has actually extorted Mrs. Loss's confession, which leads to the solution of the case. For Poe, "Marie Rogêt" is a success not only as a fiction, but also because of its role in solving the real-world crime.