26 pages • 52 minutes read
Edgar Allan PoeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“I NEVER knew anyone as keenly alive to a joke as the king was.”
The story's first line contains both irony and foreshadowing. The king lives to joke, but the practical joke he plays—disguising himself and his ministers as apes—leads to his death at the end of the story. “Never” is the only word written in all caps in the entire narrative, alluding to the impact of Hop-Frog’s practical joke on the kingdom after the tale concludes.
“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.
By Edgar Allan Poe
A Dream Within a Dream
A Dream Within a Dream
Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee
Annabel Lee
Edgar Allan Poe
Berenice
Berenice
Edgar Allan Poe
Ligeia
Ligeia
Edgar Allan Poe
Tamerlane
Tamerlane
Edgar Allan Poe
The Black Cat
The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe
The Cask of Amontillado
The Cask of Amontillado
Edgar Allan Poe
The Conqueror Worm
The Conqueror Worm
Edgar Allan Poe
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar
Edgar Allan Poe
The Fall of the House of Usher
The Fall of the House of Usher
Edgar Allan Poe
The Gold Bug
The Gold Bug
Edgar Allan Poe
The Haunted Palace
The Haunted Palace
Edgar Allan Poe
The Imp of the Perverse
The Imp of the Perverse
Edgar Allan Poe
The Lake
The Lake
Edgar Allan Poe
The Man of the Crowd
The Man of the Crowd
Edgar Allan Poe
The Masque of the Red Death
The Masque of the Red Death
Edgar Allan Poe
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
The Murders in the Rue Morgue
Edgar Allan Poe
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket
Edgar Allan Poe
The Oval Portrait
The Oval Portrait
Edgar Allan Poe
The Philosophy of Composition
The Philosophy of Composition
Edgar Allan Poe
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection
View Collection