Hop-Frog

“Our king, as a matter of course, retained his ‘fool.’ The fact is, he required something in the way of folly—if only to counterbalance the heavy wisdom of the seven wise men who were his ministers—not to mention himself.”

The narrator ironically calls the king and seven ministers “wise men” and emphasizes their “heavy wisdom,” though Hop-Frog, someone they look down on, outsmarts the group. Moreover, the narrator does little to distinguish among the individual traits of the king and his ministers, showing that though the king is in power, he’s no better than those he governs.

“Dwarfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools; and many monarchs would have found it difficult to get through their days (days are rather longer at court than elsewhere) without both a jester to laugh with, and a dwarf to laugh at.”

Hop-Frog is a jester, and his role in court is to tell jokes, but to the cruel minds of the king and his ministers, Hop-Frog’s mere presence creates a joke, contributing to his dehumanization throughout the story. Because he’s a little person (or “dwarf”) and a jester (or “fool”), he’s someone to “laugh at,” not to “laugh with.”

“But, as I have already observed, your jesters, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, are fat, round, and unwieldy—so that it was no small source of self-gratulation with our king that, in Hop-Frog (this was the fool’s name), he possessed a triplicate treasure in one person.”

Calling Hop-Frog to “a triplicate treasure” ironically compares him to a prized possession; however, he’s subject to cruelty, and the noblemen mock his appearance. The king views Hop-Frog as a treasure but doesn’t treat him as such.

“Many had made up their minds (as to what roles they should assume) a week, or even a month, in advance; and, in fact, there was not a particle of indecision anywhere—except in the case of the king and his seven ministers. Why they hesitated I never could tell, unless they did it by way of a joke. More probably, they found it difficult, on account of being so fat, to make up their minds.”

In this passage, the narrator equates the king’s girth to his indecision, which—in addition to cruelty—is one of his many negative traits. Comparing the noblemen to the unnamed mass of partygoers shows the king’s abuse of power.

“He knew that Hop-Frog was not fond of wine, for it excited the poor cripple almost to madness; and madness is no comfortable feeling.”

This quote refers to Hop-Frog’s reaction to drinking. In addition, it may allude to Poe’s struggles with alcoholism. He wasn’t fond of alcohol, so he didn’t drink often, but when he did, it often had negative consequences.

“Come, drink! the wine will brighten your wits.”

The king foreshadows Hop-Frog’s revenge plan when he asks the little person (or “dwarf”) to drink. After Hop-Frog drinks the wine, he devises a plot against the king and his men, using his wit to outsmart the group of those deemed “wise.”

“Hop-Frog endeavored, as usual, to get up a jest in reply to these advances from the king; but the effort was too much.”

At this turning point in the narrative, Hop-Frog can’t muster his usual energy to entertain the king. It signals his displeasure with his captivity and foreshadows a change in his circumstances.

“The king grew purple with rage. The courtiers smirked. Trippetta, pale as a corpse, advanced to the monarch’s seat, and, falling on her knees before him, implored him to spare her friend.”

The juxtaposition between the king’s skin, “purple with rage,” and Trippetta’s pallor, “pale as a corpse,” highlights the differences in their positions in society. Purple is the color of royalty, while a corpse-like skin tone often indicates someone starving or close to death. The king uses his power to intimidate those beneath him.

“‘I will equip you as ourang-outangs,’ proceeded the dwarf; ‘leave all that to me. The resemblance shall be so striking, that the company of masqueraders will take you for real beasts—and of course, they will be as much terrified as astonished.’”

By disguising the men in beastly costumes, Hop-Frog is really exposing their true nature. The “striking” resemblance is twofold: Not only are their costumes realistic, but they act as a metaphor for how the king and seven ministers behave—like beasts.

“‘Oh, this is exquisite!’ exclaimed the king. ‘Hop-Frog! I will make a man of you.’”

The king’s dialogue highlights his view of Hop-Frog. By offering Hop-Frog humanity, he’s acknowledging that he doesn’t see the little person (or “dwarf”) as human but merely as a being who exists to serve him.

“The chains are for the purpose of increasing the confusion by their jangling. You are supposed to have escaped, en masse, from your keepers.”

The noblemen’s posing as escaped apes foreshadows Hop-Frog and Trippetta’s escape at the story’s conclusion. The men are to be wrapped in chains, symbolizing enslavement and dehumanization. The men’s pretending to escape their “keepers” highlights how the little persons (or “dwarfs”) flee from the king’s enslavement and dehumanizing treatment.

“They were then saturated with tar. At this stage of the process, some one of the party suggested feathers; but the suggestion was at once overruled by the dwarf, who soon convinced the eight, by ocular demonstration, that the hair of such a brute as the ourang-outang was much more efficiently represented by flax.”

This passage alludes to tarring and feathering, a form of torture and public shaming in 18th-century America. One was stripped of clothing, covered in tar and feathers, and paraded through the street. By comparing the ape costumes to tarring and feathering, Poe foreshadows how the king and his ministers are later shamed at the masquerade.

“At length the flames, suddenly increasing in virulence, forced the jester to climb higher up the chain, to be out of their reach; and, as he made this movement, the crowd again sank, for a brief instant, into silence.”

Hop-Frog climbing up the chain symbolizes his escape from enslavement. This action moves him away from the kingdom and closure to freedom. He physically and metaphorically climbs out of their reach and no longer has to hear their laughter.