Hop-Frog

by

Edgar Allan Poe

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The King Character Analysis

The king is a sadistic joker who is aided by seven cruel ministers. The king wields significant power in his court and abroad; in the past, his generals conquered foreign lands and sent gifts to earn his favor. When he enlists Hop-Frog’s help in designing a costume for a masquerade ball, the king unknowingly brings about his own demise by cruelly striking the defenseless Trippetta. Despite his frequent abuse of Hop-Frog, he expects only willful compliance from the jester, evidenced by his unhesitating approval of Hop-Frog’s masquerade act. Even moments before his death at Hop-Frog’s hands, he still believes that Hop-Frog is just performing his part in an astonishing act. Though the king’s arrogance and naiveté prevent him from doubting his jester’s intentions, his cruelty is the primary cause of his undoing.

The King Quotes in Hop-Frog

The Hop-Frog quotes below are all either spoken by The King or refer to The King. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cruelty and Comeuppance Theme Icon
).
Hop-Frog Quotes

I NEVER knew anyone so keenly alive to a joke as the king was. He seemed to live only for joking. To tell a good story of the joke kind, and to tell it well, was the surest road to his favor.

Related Characters: The King
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:

About the refinements, or, as he called them, the 'ghost' of wit, the king troubled himself very little. […] Over-niceties wearied him. He would have preferred Rabelais' 'Gargantua' to the 'Zadig' of Voltaire: and, upon the whole, practical jokes suited his taste far better than verbal ones.

Related Characters: The King
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:

It happened to be the poor dwarf's birthday, and the command to drink to his 'absent friends' forced the tears to his eyes. Many large, bitter drops fell into the goblet as he took it, humbly, from the hand of the tyrant.

‘Ah! ha! ha!’ roared the latter, as the dwarf reluctantly drained the beaker. – ‘See what a glass of good wine can do! Why, your eyes are shining already!’

Related Characters: The King (speaker), Hop-Frog
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

Hop-Frog also laughed although feebly and somewhat vacantly. […]

"I am endeavoring to think of something novel," replied the dwarf, abstractedly, for he was quite bewildered by the wine.”

Related Characters: Hop-Frog (speaker), The King
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

Hereupon the dwarf laughed (the king was too confirmed a joker to object to any one's laughing), and displayed a set of large, powerful, and very repulsive teeth. Moreover, he avowed his perfect willingness to swallow as much wine as desired.

Related Characters: Hop-Frog , The King
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:

Soon after this, the king and his seven friends having reeled about the hall in all directions, found themselves, at length, in its centre, and, of course, in immediate contact with the chain. […] The dwarf, who had followed noiselessly at their heels, inciting them to keep up the commotion, took hold of their own chain at the intersection of the two portions which crossed the circle diametrically and at right angles. Here, with the rapidity of thought, he inserted the hook from which the chandelier had been wont to depend[.]

Related Characters: Hop-Frog , The King
Related Symbols: Chains
Page Number: Hop-Frog
Explanation and Analysis:

“I now see distinctly” he said, “what manner of people these maskers are. They are a great king and his seven privy-councillors,--a king who does not scruple to strike a defenceless girl and his seven councillors who abet him in the outrage. As for myself, I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester--and this is my last jest.”

Related Characters: Hop-Frog (speaker), The King
Page Number: 289
Explanation and Analysis:
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Hop-Frog PDF

The King Quotes in Hop-Frog

The Hop-Frog quotes below are all either spoken by The King or refer to The King. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cruelty and Comeuppance Theme Icon
).
Hop-Frog Quotes

I NEVER knew anyone so keenly alive to a joke as the king was. He seemed to live only for joking. To tell a good story of the joke kind, and to tell it well, was the surest road to his favor.

Related Characters: The King
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:

About the refinements, or, as he called them, the 'ghost' of wit, the king troubled himself very little. […] Over-niceties wearied him. He would have preferred Rabelais' 'Gargantua' to the 'Zadig' of Voltaire: and, upon the whole, practical jokes suited his taste far better than verbal ones.

Related Characters: The King
Page Number: 283
Explanation and Analysis:

It happened to be the poor dwarf's birthday, and the command to drink to his 'absent friends' forced the tears to his eyes. Many large, bitter drops fell into the goblet as he took it, humbly, from the hand of the tyrant.

‘Ah! ha! ha!’ roared the latter, as the dwarf reluctantly drained the beaker. – ‘See what a glass of good wine can do! Why, your eyes are shining already!’

Related Characters: The King (speaker), Hop-Frog
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

Hop-Frog also laughed although feebly and somewhat vacantly. […]

"I am endeavoring to think of something novel," replied the dwarf, abstractedly, for he was quite bewildered by the wine.”

Related Characters: Hop-Frog (speaker), The King
Page Number: 285
Explanation and Analysis:

Hereupon the dwarf laughed (the king was too confirmed a joker to object to any one's laughing), and displayed a set of large, powerful, and very repulsive teeth. Moreover, he avowed his perfect willingness to swallow as much wine as desired.

Related Characters: Hop-Frog , The King
Page Number: 286
Explanation and Analysis:

Soon after this, the king and his seven friends having reeled about the hall in all directions, found themselves, at length, in its centre, and, of course, in immediate contact with the chain. […] The dwarf, who had followed noiselessly at their heels, inciting them to keep up the commotion, took hold of their own chain at the intersection of the two portions which crossed the circle diametrically and at right angles. Here, with the rapidity of thought, he inserted the hook from which the chandelier had been wont to depend[.]

Related Characters: Hop-Frog , The King
Related Symbols: Chains
Page Number: Hop-Frog
Explanation and Analysis:

“I now see distinctly” he said, “what manner of people these maskers are. They are a great king and his seven privy-councillors,--a king who does not scruple to strike a defenceless girl and his seven councillors who abet him in the outrage. As for myself, I am simply Hop-Frog, the jester--and this is my last jest.”

Related Characters: Hop-Frog (speaker), The King
Page Number: 289
Explanation and Analysis: