Hop-Frog

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1849

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Summary

Background

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Themes

The Pursuit of Revenge

At its core, “Hop-Frog” is a revenge tale, and the plot structure follows this theme. The first 10 paragraphs of the story are exposition-heavy. The narrator details how the king and his ministers mistreat the jester and his friend. Hop-Frog is forced to live in the kingdom against his will in servitude. His name and identity are stripped from him, and he’s reduced to being known by his painful gait: “Hop-Frog, through the distortion of his legs, could move only with great pain and difficulty along a road or floor” (Paragraph 7). Every step hurts Hop-Frog, but the king finds humor in the small man’s discomfort. Hop-Frog’s pain, both physical and emotional, is what gives the king and the ministers pleasure. The background further characterizes the king and his men as one unit: They typically unleash their brutality as a group. The expositional setup promotes sympathy for Hop-Frog and a negative opinion about the king and his men, which makes the conclusion more satisfying.

The story’s climax completes the revenge arc: The king and his ministers are stripped of their identities, like Hop-Frog, seen by the crowd as eight crazed orangutans instead of a noble group of wise men and leaders. They’re wrapped in chains, symbolizing a role reversal between the king and the people he enslaves. When the chain snatches the men up and suspends them above the party, no one can reach them or help them—the implication, yet unknown to the crowd below, is that they’re meant to feel the same isolation and estrangement that Hop-Frog and Trippetta did after they were forcibly removed from their home and enslaved by the king. In a role reversal, Hop-Frog is in a position of power: “‘Leave them to me!’ now screamed Hop-Frog, his shrill voice making itself easily heard through all the din” (Paragraph 52). The jester is now the loudest person in the room. He climbs atop the men, both physically and metaphorically above them. The most powerful people in the kingdom are at his mercy.

The fire symbolizes punishment—the small man has godlike power, committing the king and his men to a fiery death, akin to burning in hellfire. Hop-Frog exposes the king’s true nature, which questions his power by divine right. The fire rages above the locked room; thus, the king and ministers can’t escape, and neither can the society complicit in his cruelty. They’re forced to watch as the consequences play out. Hop-Frog and Trippetta are rewarded by getting to leave the abuse and chaos behind and go home. Hop-Frog’s revenge is complete.

Embracing “Madness”

Throughout “Hop-Frog,” the title character embraces the “madness” that drives him to vengeance. Hop-Frog has a reaction to wine that drives him to near “insanity.” When the king forces him to drink, the reaction is instantaneous: He “looked round upon the company with a half-insane stare” (Paragraph 16). Through an authorial lens, Poe understands the maddening effects of alcohol and the chaos it can cause, both personally and to those around him.

As the scene continues and the alcohol takes effect, Hop-Frog detaches from the conversation between the king and the seven men. Trippetta’s assault appears to awaken the “madness” within, and he loudly grinds his teeth. Hop-Frog’s teeth further symbolize his “madness.” In this scene, he attempts to hide it: When the king accuses Hop-Frog of making a grating sound, he denies it and allows a courtier to blame the noise on a parrot sitting outdoors. However, during his introspection, he plots revenge. When he flashes his “large, powerful, and very repulsive teeth” (Paragraph 32), he vows to drink as much wine as the king wants him to, no longer denying or dreading the “madness” it incites but embracing it. He enthusiastically pitches the orangutan plan for the masquerade, no longer quiet or vacant as he plants the seeds for his vengeance.

At the story’s climax, Hop-Frog no longer conceals his “madness.” He climbs atop the king and seven ministers as the chain suspends them above the ballroom. When a harsh noise rings through the party, it comes from “the fang-like teeth of the dwarf, who ground them and gnashed them as he foamed at the mouth, and glared, with an expression of maniacal rage” (Paragraph 55). Hop-Frog doesn’t deny or conceal his teeth nor his “madness”—he flashes his fangs to the king and seven ministers before setting them on fire, offering them a look at the “insanity” to which their abuses drove him. His vengeance isn’t merely the king’s humiliation but death at the hands of his enslaved jester.

The fire further demonstrates Hop-Frog’s “insanity”—burning is their punishment. The eight men “burst into a sheet of vivid flame” (Paragraph 56), inciting more chaos at the party, but Hop-Frog is calm enough to deliver a speech and escape the rapidly climbing flame. In his state, he isn’t horrified by his violent actions but satisfied that his revenge is a success.

Dehumanization Through Humiliation

Hop-Frog’s revenge relies on the king and his seven ministers experiencing the same humiliating dehumanization that he and Trippetta endured at their hands. When Hop-Frog arrived at the kingdom, he wasn’t allowed to retain his name, which distinguishes one as a person in society. Even after the events of the narrative, the narrator still isn’t sure of Hop-Frog’s original name.

Calling the jester “Hop-Frog” further dehumanizes him: The king and his ministers named the jester after his disability, which caused him great pain. The narrator participates in this degradation, referring to Hop-Frog’s home as a “barbarous region” (Paragraph 8). He was brought to the kingdom not as a person but as a present for the king, and the king played with him as such. Furthermore, the king retained Hop-Frog as his “fool” only because of his physical differences compared to the men he knew: “His fool, or professional jester, was not only a fool, however. His value was trebled in the eyes of the king, by the fact of his being also a dwarf and a cripple” (Paragraph 5). The court doesn’t see Hop-Frog as a man but as a tool for entertainment.

Although Trippetta (who, like Hop-Frog, is a little person, or “dwarf”) is more highly regarded because of her appearance, the king and his court don’t see her as a person with value either. She falls to her knees and begs the monarch to spare Hop-Frog from having to drink. Even though she takes a submissive stance, the king still sees Trippetta’s actions as too audacious for someone of her class—he doesn’t think her opinion is valid outside of entertainment. When the king feels that she steps out of line, he doesn’t even speak to her; he pushes her away like he would an animal.

Thus, the humiliating dehumanization of the king is a role reversal. He and the seven ministers are chained up and dressed in costumes that had “very rarely been seen in any part of the civilized world” (Paragraph 43). Everyone at the party perceives the noblemen the same way that the noblemen perceived Hop-Frog and Trippetta: as savages. The costumes conceal their identities, stripping the men of their noble titles. The crowd laughs at the king and ministers hanging above the party, just as the men laughed at Hop-Frog’s humiliation. By the end of the masquerade, the apes are regarded not by their titles, names, or status but as eight corpses wrapped in chains.

Related Titles

By Edgar Allan Poe

Study Guide

A Dream Within a Dream

Hop-Frog

Themes

The Pursuit of Revenge

Embracing “Madness”

Dehumanization Through Humiliation

Related Titles

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