Edgar Allen Poe

October 9, 2001

Edgar Allen Poe's lifelong chain of tragedies apparently had a strong effect on the nature of his writings. He led a haunted and disaster filled life, always in poverty despite his eventual notoriety. When Poe wrote "Hop-Frog" and "The Cask of Amontillado," he was writing within two styles of mental and physical terror, arabesque and grotesque. The atmosphere of these stories was much like the way he lived his life. Arabesque and grotesque are combined to create tales of revenge that are quite possibly a window into Poe's own life.

"Hop-Frog" and "The Cask of Amontillado" have both arabesque and grotesque qualities. The mental torture for the Fortunado in "The Cask of Amontillado" is an illustration that has more of an arabesque tone than the more grotesque revenge in "Hop-Frog". In these stories the grotesque adds to the larger arabesque effect. An example of this can be seen in "Hop-Frog". "the eight corpses swung in their chains, a fetid, blackened, hideous, an indistinguishable mass." The grotesque created the finale or conclusion to the preceding arabesque tone.

The two stories have to do with the revenge of men pushed too far, to their limits. The victims did not so much offend, but chose the one thing that their antagonist's dignity would not tolerate. This can be seen in "Hop-Frog" as he explains his actions to the king. "...a king who does not scruple to strike a defenseless girl..." The king had insulted and harmed him many times before, but he could not control himself when it came to Trippetta.

Poe's own self-persecution could have been reflected in these tales of suffering. Poe is also now seen as a romantic eccentric which could have been the cause for the dark imagination used in his work. For instance, in "The Cask of Amontillado," the dark room where Montressor left Fortunado could have been a representation of the way he viewed his own life. "...the depths of the recess..." Separate from the world, doomed to die alone in his own dark room, much like Fortunado.

Both "Hop-Frog" and "The Cask of Amontillado" use elements of both arabesque and grotesque forms, both are tales of revenge, and quite possibly reflect Poe's own tortured existence. We typically react with horror and revulsion, without looking into the underlying themes. Our mindset cannot as easily conceive these themes, since now we are not normally subjected to conditions similar to Poe's life. From these two tales, we can see how people can be affected by what seems to be the most insignificant thing for others. Even if it does not come back to affect us, our carelessness can deeply effect another in a way we could never imagine.