Final - Analysis of Hop Frog

In the old-time tale, “Hop-Frog” by Edgar Allen Poe, a person acquainted with the royal court narrates a murderous account of a crippled professional joker, or jest, who devises a cunning plan to avenge the men that mock him and the dwarf-woman he loves. Poe employs the appearance of an animal, an orangutan, as the theme for the jest’s plan and ultimate peril of the men he kills.

Hop-Frog obtained the nickname due to the crippling disfigurement in his legs that forced him to hobble in great pain when he attempted to walk or, otherwise, use his arms to get around. What the jest lacked in lower extremities, he made up for in his massive upper body strength. A professional jest by trade, his job is to make quick-witted jokes or perform comical acts for the king’s amusement upon command. Hop-Frog was considered a “triplicate treasure,” meaning he was a dwarf, a cripple, and a fool all in one. This made him considerably more important to the king than a mere jest. The king, a large, fat man, was, in fact, also quite the jokester himself. Hop-Frog’s humiliation was, most often, the target of his mean-spirited charades. It was through this connection, however, that the king valued the jest’s company and counsel. (900)

One afternoon, the king calls on Hop-Frog and a young female dwarf counterpart, Trippeta, to organize a last minute masquerade and fashion costumes for his seven ministers and himself in time for the occasion. Hop-Frog and Trippeta share a common affection for one another. They are quite gifted at planning for and executing elaborate events, and possess a skill for designing creative costumes.

Making sport of his detestation for drink, the king demanded Hop-Frog finish a goblet of wine before continuing with plans. Hop-Frog reluctantly obliges. The king demands he drink another both in sport and to make him more merry. But, when Hop-Frog pauses, the king becomes irate throwing the wine in Trippeta’s face. Hop-Frog grinds his teeth in anger. He gains composure and drinks the wine to appease the king. He even joins the king and his seven ministers in a hardy laugh to conceal his anger.

Hop-Frog ponders for a moment on ideas for their costumes. He at once entices the fat men with a grand vision of entering the masquerade dressed as “ourang-outang”- their outfits having to be fashioned with tar and flax to be entirely believable. (904)

The time for their entrance arrives. The eight invented orangutans enter the battened-down masquerade room soundly chained together for excitement. After a ring-master like performance by Hop-Frog, the king and his ministers are attached to the huge chandelier pulley chain and hoisted up straight up into the air.

Illustration by Photobucket.com

Topped only by an open window in the roof of the room, they dangle there ignorantly, thrashing and laughing excitedly with the crowd, unaware of the fiery death that awaits them in their exceptionally combustible adornments.

Hop-Frog climbs up the dangling chains effortlessly with his powerful arms. Now above the men for one last act, he grinds his teeth, sets the eight trapped men ablaze, and escapes out the open hatch, presumably to his old country with his mistress, Trippeta.

. . .

Hop-Frog convinces his victims to dress as “ourang-outangs” for very specific reasons beyond the obvious incendiary nature of its components. Orangutans were a fairly new discovery during the 19th century; much was still unknown about the animal and, unlike its cute chimpanzee cousin, people considered orangutans to be huge, menacing beasts of great brute strength, lacking entirely of intelligence.

Through Hop-Frog, Poe projects the same sentiment of transcendence that is reflected in other works such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” With the king and seven ministers donned in convincing orangutan costumes, Hop-Frog effectively hampers any feeling of remorse onlookers may have for the king and his men and re-associates them to a primordial fear of the beasts – similar to flight or fight. With this accomplishment, he is able to burn the helpless victims and escape unscathed.

The mention of an animal in “Hop-Frog” draws a parallel to Poe’s story, “The Black Cat.” As the narrator’s downward spiral is prefaced by mention of the first black cat, the mere mention of the orangutan costumes signal the inevitable demise of the king and his seven ministers.

References

Poe, Edgar A. Poe: Poetry, Tales & Selected Essays - Library of America College Edition. Library of America, 1 Oct. 1996.