Showing results for "Edgar Allan Poe" in Violence in Society

"Hop-Frog" (originally "Hop-Frog; Or, the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs") is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character, a person with dwarfism taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for the king's striking of his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses the king and his cabinet as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all by setting their costumes on fire before escaping with Trippetta.

"Hop-Frog" (originally "Hop-Frog; Or, the Eight Chained Ourang-Outangs") is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1849. The title character, a person with dwarfism taken from his homeland, becomes the jester of a king particularly fond of practical jokes. Taking revenge on the king and his cabinet for the king's striking of his friend and fellow dwarf Trippetta, he dresses the king and his cabinet as orangutans for a masquerade. In front of the king's guests, Hop-Frog murders them all by setting their costumes on fire before escaping with Trippetta.

Edgar Allan Poe's tale of Hop-Frog, the practical-joke-loving king's crippled dwarf servant, draws upon Poe's affinity for tales of vengeance and the horrific. The fat king and his seven ministers treat Hop-Frog and his female friend Trippetta, who is also a dwarf but beautifully proportioned, with disrespect whenever the king loses his temper. As long as the king and the likewise raucous seven are about their merriment and Hop-Frog joins them in their 'play', all is well. But beneath this lightness, the King has a dark and violent nature.