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Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
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Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
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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…
against his will. Hop Frog eventually seeks revenge and pulls a prank that leads to him murdering the King. In “Hop Frog,” Poe describes how easy it is for man to lose sight of humanity through discrimination, isolationism, and showing how anyone is capable of murder. There is discrimination in the minds of every narrow-minded person in the world. These parochial thinkers are what Poe is trying to represent in “Hop Frog.” During the story it is repeated how terrible the king treats those surrounding him. The king believes he has a right to their lives and that his views are above theirs. The dwarfs do not feel the same towards the king. Hop Frog, in particular believes that the way he is being treated is not moral. After being restricted for so long Hop Frog feels the urge to remonstrate the king: “a king who does not scruple to strike a defenseless girl and his seven councilor who abet him in the outrage” (Poe 12). The king is continuously, throughout the story, setting off some short of practical joke to the dwarfs; it is ironic that his end is a scheme set up to be a harmless joke. The king was a comic, telling jokes, preparing pranks, he was always finding someone else’s suffering as a way to bring himself joy: “dwarfs were as common at court, in those days, as fools…both a jester to laugh with, and a dwarf to laugh at” (Poe 2). Every time Poe describes the king, Poe points out how oblivious the king is to the feelings of the dwarfs and how the dwarfs know of the problem but realize there is no way around it. People today are too often being discriminated, whether it is because of gender, religion, or ethnicity the one being discriminated is the one who sees a problem and everyone else thinks of it as a “joke.” Poe represents this through the king and through Hop Frog. Hop Frog is the group being discriminated and the king represents those who discriminate. Through inequity people lose sight of their humanity and basic kindergarten ways of thinking. Being alone is something the human race has to deal with, but often times being alone doesn’t mean being stuck.
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
isolation. The idea that all humans are capable of evil isn’t something far from one’s perception. Poe uses his characters to portray such thoughts. Hop Frog was once a normal being until being discriminated and isolated leads him to become drivel: “the eight corpses swung in their chains, a fetid, blackened, hideous, and indistinguishable mass” (Poe 12). Every time the king made him do a task that was inhumane or unwanted Hop Frog became less and less aware that the king was a person. The king was sleazy but nonetheless human. Hop Frog didn’t see the humanity in the king, all he saw was revenge, and the thought consumed his mind. When Hop Frog completed the inscrutable deed he felt free, he felt as if a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Having been treated as he was, he felt hopeless, he honestly believed there was no other way around his troubles. Poe used Hop Frog to typify how easy it is to get caught up in something: “I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester and this is my last jest” (Poe 12). How easy it is to obliterate reason and to think using only emotions. Anyone is capable of murder in dire circumstances. Edgar Allen Poe uses themes and characters to illustrate how humanity loses its meaning whether it is by discrimination, isolationism, or by showing the dark side of the human race. Poe creates perceptions on reality by changing the way people think. He expresses his thoughts on how the world runs by revealing hidden meaning inside his stories. To live be not all sugar plumbs and gumdrops, there is pain and there are secrets. Although humanity is something to be born with, there are a untold number of ways it can be snatched away.
Isolation can be a somber subject. Whether it be self-inflicted or from the hands of others, isolation can be the make or break for anyone. In simpler terms, isolation could range anywhere from not fitting into being a complete outcast due to personal, physical, or environmental factors. It is not only introverted personalities or depression that can bring upon isolation. Extroverts and active individuals can develop it, but they tend to hide it around crowds of other people. In “Richard Cory,” “Miniver Cheevy,” The Minister’s Black Veil,” and “Not Waving but Drowning,” E.A. Robinson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Stevie Smith illustrate the diverse themes of isolation.
Kurt Vonnegut thoroughly analyzes negative aspects of human nature. Through his constant satire and cynicism, Vonnegut points out how each individual represents various elements of human frailty. A prominent author of the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, Bill Watterson, pertinently comments on the topic of the psychology of mankind, “The problem with people is that they're only human”.
Isolation fills each excerpt ,but with a different meaning in each one. In the poem, “The Hollow Men,” the men are falling apart. Conversation does not exist nor does understanding. Isolation is taking a toll on the men. In the passage, “The Story of an Hour,” the woman experiences both sides of isolation.
The theme of Dark Romanticism is greatly portrayed throughout Edgar Allen Poe’s one of many famous short stories “Hop Frog”. This literary genre is founded on the idea of looking at a society from a dark perspective. It is based on the idea that the evil of this world lies only in the hands of man himself. The movement accentuates the notion that courage, determination, and ratiocination reach its heights when the thirst of revenge is at bay. This short story narrates a tale about Hop Frog’s schemed revenge against the myriad of taunts from the king and his seven ministers. The characters of the story “Hop Frog” highlight key elements of the Dark Romantic Movement by displaying the baleful and unforgivable nature of man.
human condition, such as the need to possess, fear of the unknowing and stagnation. However,
Isolation is being separated or separating your self from others. Marry Shelley’s Frankenstein and Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, both show the two types of isolation. Loneliness, unfriendly, and separation for ones peace can also mean the same as isolation. No matter what way you look at it, they all mean the same thing. Great examples of these are in Frankenstein and A Christmas Carol; the characters show it very well, which sets the tone and mood of the stories. In A Christmas Carol and Frankenstein, Victor choses to be isolated and separates himself from society to work on the unknown, which is to recreate life. Victor’s teacher was the reason he was isolated, “he took [him] into his laboratory and explained to [him] the uses of his
Isolation is a state of being separation between persons or group, or a feeling being alone. There are different factors that contribute to someone feeling alone and isolated. An example of this would be when celebrities go into deep depression because they feel isolated from the whole world. They have all the material things they could ever want, but the one thing they want the most, they do not have. , which is happiness, which comes from satisfaction within oneself and being satisfied with what one has done in one's life. Feeling isolated does not necessarily mean a person is bad. Evidence in Shakespeare play Macbeth , demonstrates this quite clearly that MacBeth's isolation comes from guilt , over-ambition and greed.
Isolation is a forced or voluntary physical or mental separation from our surroundings. It is often used as a main theme in stories that are involved with tragic endings. Juliet's growing sense of isolation plays an important role in the development of the plot in William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Throughout the story, Juliet separates herself from her friends and family physically as well as psychologically as a result of her newfound love, her own actions, and betrayal of the people she trusts.
The nature of isolation starts when an individual starts to separate him/herself from others, socially and emotionally, and is also used as a defense from dangerous people. One example is where Crooks tells that “The white kids come to play…… My ol’ man didn’t like that” (70). He’s been taught from his childhood to be by himself so that he would not get in trouble. Candy demonstrates this concept too when he talks about his fate after having to witness the shooting of his only companion, his old dog. “When they can me here I wisht somebody’d shoot me. But they won’t do nothing like that. I won't have no place to go, an’ I can’t get no more jobs”. This quote argues that men with disabilities and color in this book are treated as bad as dogs or even worse. Humans are evil by nature and by birth. It is how the world was made. To love and to hate, although, the latter wins. People in the higher caste tend to blame everything small thing that they get in trouble for on people under them. Therefore, when individuals intend to protect themselves, they isolate themselves from the world, emotionally and
The human condition, a concept prevalent in several pieces of literature, encompasses the emotional, moral, questioning, and observant nature of humans. This concept is often used by authors to emphasize the characteristics that set humans apart from other living creature. Edgar Allan Poe’s dark fantasy piece “The Fall of the House of Usher” perfectly depicts the human condition as it conveys how fear and over-thinking can control one’s actions and life.
Throughout the life of Edgar Allan Poe, he suffered many unfortunate events and endured several difficult situations. Some speculate that it was these experiences that helped to formulate the famous writing style of Edgar Allan Poe. His dark tales such as "The Masque of the Red Death" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" are horrific, and his poems such as "Alone" and "The Raven" show evidence that his life experiences influenced their dreariness. Poe's story plots and his own life are undeniably related and this relationship is intricately defined in many of his works.
The life of Edgar Allan Poe, was stuffed with tragedies that all affected his art. From the very start of his writing career, he adored writing poems for the ladies in his life. When he reached adulthood and came to the realization of how harsh life could be, his writing grew to be darker and more disturbing, possibly as a result of his intense experimenting with opium and alcohol. His stories continue to be some of the most frightening stories ever composed, because of this, some have considered this to be the reason behind these themes. Many historians and literature enthusiasts have presumed his volatile love life as the source while others have credited it to his substance abuse. The influence of his one-of-a-kind writing is more than likely a combination of both theories; but the main factor is the death of many of his loved ones and the abuse which he endured. This, not surprisingly, darkened his perspective considerably.
Edgar Allan Poe was not your typical poet. He had a very depressing life, and that has influenced the majority of his works. He was in the military, had his wife die prematurely, and had the constant struggles of life crashing down on him. Edgar Allan Poe was a great writer who used mystery and lost love as popular themes to intrigue many readers to pose questions regarding death and romance. His parents supported him, allowing him to be educated, but that would eventually lead to failure.
In Shakespeare's famous play Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote Macbeth's character to undergo a series of downward spirals into isolation. There are many factors that contribute to someone feeling alone or isolated. Isolation is often a state of being separated from others, or the feeling of being alone. Isolation is created by a person's actions or wrong doings, which is progressive in Macbeth's character. Macbeth demonstrates an increase of isolation throughout the play when he isolates his own thoughts, as he beings to make his own decisions, and when an entire nation, Scotland, turns against him.
Do you ever feel trapped when you are in a place that you have never been before? Isolation criticizes society since it does not let everyone be equal or have the same rights. Isolation can completely change a person, and it is usually for the worst. Society “acts” like they try to prevent isolation, but in reality they isolate people for certain reasons, then those people get judged for being “different.” Upon closer inspection it is human nature to deny equal rights because people that do not act, dress, or look the same are labeled as strange, and unfortunately, many times are not accepted by the majority of society. This gives authors a way to shine a light on society’s flaws.