Humanity In Edgar Allen Poe's 'Hop Frog'

1080 Words3 Pages

What are humans capable of? The human race has gone through countless war and depressions, destroying people’s perceptions of those around them. Death is something inevitable that humans tend to shy away from. Theories of monsters inside our neighbors’ bodies dwell on the mind. Edgar Allen Poe often portrays these ideas in his well-known short stories. Poe’s story titled, “Hop Frog” is about a dwarf whom lives in a palace as a slave to the king. The king is a fan of practical jokes and often almost kills the dwarfs he has imprisoned for a laugh. The story continues to proceed with one of the dwarfs named Hop Frog. Hop Frog often acts querulous about his pitiful pessimistic petulant life. Where he lives each day only to serve the king, …show more content…

To be in isolation means to be separated from society. Hop Frog and the other captured dwarfs have be ripped from their homes and dropped into a place where there are strict rules and all of their traditions and rights have been stripped from them. When people are isolated they feel trapped, it is similar to being pinned inside of a box. In “Hop Frog” the king is holding down the dwarfs, fastening them to a specific lifestyle: “the king loved his practical jokes, and took pleasure in forcing Hop-Frog to drink and (as the king called it) ‘to be merry’” (Poe 4). This quote proves how unpleasant Hop Frog’s life was while living in the palace. It shows how the king takes advantage of him and how Hop Frog has no say in what he does. He is a prisoner forced to listen to those above him, even if it isn’t for his own good. He is isolated from freedom, the gates are closed and there is no sane way out of the misery. Hop Frog belongs where he originally came from, being stuck in the palace continues to change his state of being: “a young girl…had been forcibly carried off from their respective homes in adjoining provinces, and sent as presents to the king” (Poe 3). There are many people being isolated from those around them. They feel like if they try to speak up, nothing good will come of it. People who are caught in a site of war, those who are depressed, and those imprisoned against their will feel isolated. The dwarfs in “Hop Frog” illustrate the idea of human imprisonment and

Open Document