“Hop-Frog’s” Gothic Construction of Race
Edgar Allen Poe creates physically and psychologically distorted characters in his short
story “Hop-Frog” to show the inhumanity of his “civilized” world. Poe uses gothic literary
conventions to explicate how the title character’s blackness causes his initial enslavement and
later utilizes it to overthrow the racially constructed hierarchy of the king’s court. By showcasing
Hop-Frog’s social upheaval, Poe constructs an “Africanist” presence that serves as meditative
space for Poe’s white audience to reflect on the racially charged world around them.
The American Romantic movement popularized certain gothic characteristics that cause
readers to reflect on the uncertainty of their own world order. Romantic authors, like Poe, push
readers away from social norms by creating atmospheres of overall spookiness and uncertainty.
Readers never know the true intentions of a character until the sensational reveal at the height of
the story’s suspense, usually arousing either, or both, sympathy and disgust from its readership.
They focus on freakish characters who exhibit qualities that “lean away from typical social
patterns, toward mystery and the unexpected” (Flannery 40) while flipping traditional power
structures on its head. The overarching uncertainty Poe creates in “Hop-Frog” hangs readers in
suspense and surprises them at the story’s final outcome. Poe transforms Hop-Frog from a
stereotypical slave with no agency of his own to a vigilante willing to take justice into his own
hands. By Hop-Frog’s act of vengeance, he strikes against the court’s norms and shocks readers’
expectations.
Through these writing techniques, Romantic writers create a gateway for the American
public to discuss prevailing social issues of the day. Compared to realist works that “prove to be
not great fictional interest” (Flannery 37), the Romantics push “its own limits outward toward
the limits of mystery” (Flannery 41) and force readers to look at the ugly and disgusting aspects
of the society. By facing polarizing issues head on, readers can begin a conversation about the
root causes of inequality and hardship they usually ignore. Hop-Frog’s final act of terror did not
stem from unforeseen actions; it resulted from years of constant abuse from the central authority
figures in the court. Readers see the reasons behind Hop-Frog’s actions and must decide for
themselves the morality of his actions. By doing so, they must question the issues surrounding
slavery— a sensitive political and moral issue of Poe’s time.
Poe structures Hop-Frog’s psychological unravel to show his white readers how internal
struggles of a black character affect the external order of the court. According to author Toni
Morrison, white authors use “Africanist” characters “to order external and internal chaos”
(Morrison 53) within a text. Hop Frog’s original subservient behavior shows the traditional
organization of class stays stable if Hop-Frog remains a beaten down slave. He never speaks out
of turn or confronts the king about his callous behavior— just like African American slaves of
the antebellum period. Once Hop-Frog decides to regain his agency and plot his revenge, readers
see the potentially horrifying implications of a vengeful slave with free will. As Hop-Frog lashes
out and performs his “last jest” (530), the brutal murder of the king and his advisors, readers see
quickly the slave upsets well-defined power structures and questions if real African American
slaves contain the capability of rebellion if given the opportunity. Hop-Frog’s internal madness
foreshadows the reversal of societal structures of the king’s court.
The narrator’s lack of interest in Hop-Frog’s home shows how the European dominated
court gives no respect for enslaved peoples and inclines readers to empathize with the slave. In
describing Hop-Frog’s home, the narrator calls it, “some barbarous region, however, that no
person ever heard of— a vast distance from the court of our king” (521). Hop-Frog’s far away
home suggests a racial difference between the two nations. The narrator calls the king’s court
one of the “great continental ‘powers,’” inferring its origin as a Western European influenced, or
white, society. By association, Hop Frog’s “barbarous” and dark home could lie on the African
continent— a geographic area littered with a history of European encroachment and injustice.
While the African link insinuates the title character’s dark complexion, the court’s disregard for
his home suggests the how his darkness leads to indifference of the lords and ladies of court.
In addition to the court’s apathy for Hop-Frog, Poe’s grimy descriptions of the king and
his advisor’s cruelty towards Hop Frog forces readers to empathize with the slave. When first
meeting the king and his counsel, the narrator sees these men as “large, corpulent, oily men…
[and] practical jokes suited his taste far more than verbal ones.” The king’s oiliness and fatness
draws disgust not only from the bodies on display, but also in the actions of the inhumane king.
By showing the king and his counselors as grotesque figures, Poe moves his audience away from
the traditional idea of a benevolent king willing to help the poor and disenfranchised. Instead,
readers watch the king reduce Hop-Frog to an object without emotional capabilities or agency.
The king tortures Hop-Frog, embarrasses him repeatedly, and even takes away the slave’s
original name, calling him Hop-Frog “by the general consent of this seven ministers” (520) As
king, his inherent power allows him the authority to treat all people with respect and dignity. The
egregious king fixates on making Hop-Frog’s life a living hell and makes readers more inclined
to favor Hop-Frog over traditional powers.
Hop-Frog’s animal-like descriptions precede times of spookiness in the text and
foreshadow Hop-Frog’s accelerated psychological breakdown. After pouring wine onto
Trippetta’s face, the whole court falls into a dead silence only to a “low but harsh and
pronounced grating sound which seemed to come at once from every corner of the room” (524).
The silence breaks after the king’s advisors attributes the sound to a parrot in a “cage-wire”
(524), which later proves false as Hop-Frog again grates his teeth just before setting the king and
his advisors aflame. The silence preceding the noise represents “the tension between speech and
speechlessness” (Morrison 52) of an Africanist presence. Hop-Frog’s inability to speak hangs
readers in suspense and makes them feel squeamish because of the king’s inhumane reprimand
of Trippetta. Instead of voicing his outrage like a human, Hop-Frog reverts to a voicing a primal
sound to indicate his rage. Hop-Frog makes the animalistic noise when he reaches his
psychological breaking point, foreshadowing his barbaric response later in the text.
The king’s inability to see Hop-Frog as a being with his own agenda leads to his ultimate
downfall and gives readers a possible outcome of a slave rebellion in the American plantation
system. Like the caged parrot, the king enslaves Hop-Frog to act as his personal pet and
entertainment and refuses acknowledge Hop-Frog’s ability to voice his rage. In fact, the king
sees the parrot more capable of displaying dissention than the human being in front of him. This
shows how the king, or the readers, cannot conceive the notion of Hop-Frog planning and
executing his vengeance and shocks all parties when his plan takes full effect. Similarly, white
American readers cannot foresee a world where slaves take up resistance against the abusive
slavery system. White readers can foresee slaves can either living out their days in bondage or
escaping to Northern territories for freedom, but cannot fathom slaves scheming for societal
upheaval. By Poe planting the idea of rebellion in the minds of his white readership, he gives
slaves an inkling of free will and acknowledges their primal desire for freedom.
Hop-Frog’s final vengeful act shows him as the prototypical gothic freak that refuses to
play by society’s rules. From the king’s point of view, Hop-Frog does not look like an individual
teetering on the brink of madness; instead, he sees a slave working to make his masquerade party
memorable. Only readers with knowledge of the story’s end see Hop-Frog’s inner dissent into
madness. Poe leaves hints of Hop-Frog’s “inner coherence… [that] lean away from typical social
patterns” (Flannery 40) and shows that Hop-Frog planned out every action against his oppressors
that lead to their demises. Hop-Frog’s freakish madness shows the court and readers the
consequences of allowing a freakish character to act on hos own free will.
Hop-Frog uses his seemingly subservient attitude to lead to the courtiers’ dramatic
downfall. While he grunts animal-like sounds to show his primal hate of the king, he speaks
eloquently to trick the ruler into falling into his perfectly laid out plot for revenge. Hop-Frog
cunningly convinces the king and his advisors to dress up as “ourang-outangs,” costumes that
prove “effective enough for his purposes” (526). Hop-Frog tells the king and his advisors that
their costume will terrify and astound all the masqueraders at the party, foreshadowing their
disastrous fate. The king and his advisors trust everything Hop-Frog tell them about the
“beastlike and more than sufficiently hideous” animals because of his black and, according to
them, innate inferiority. They see Hop-Frog giving them another “novel” (523) costume while in
reality, he transforms the eight men into the savages become blind with their joking zeal and
outrageous costumes that they Hop-Frog plotting their inevitable deaths.
Hop-Frog’s dominance over the party shows how an Africanist presence can potentially
take control of anarchy and use it for his own purposes. As the king and his advisors “take HopFrog’s advice” (527) and act according to “the dwarf’s suggestion” (528), they unintentionally
give Hop-Frog all their authority and lead the court into chaos. With Hop-Frog’s newfound
power, the slave locks the doors of the ballroom and forces the masqueraders to watch their
sovereign’s murder. Hop-Frog’s control of the ball shows how the Africanist presence “control
projections of anarchy with the disciplinary apparatus of punishment and largess” (Morrison 52).
As Hop-Frog literally holds the chains of his former oppressors in his hands, he also holds them
accountable for past misdeeds, including “strik[ing] a defenseless girl and his seven councilors
who abet him in the outrage” (530). Hop-Frog acts as the sole authority figure in the scene and
chooses to punish the eight men, burning them alive as he makes his escape with Trippetta. Poe
forces readers to acknowledge the possibility that African American slaves will either punish or
forgive their white slave masters, if ever presented with the opportunity. It makes readers think
back to past experience with black individuals, reflect on their treatment of these people, and
hold them accountable for previous maltreatment. White readers can either learn from the
mistakes of the king and his court or too face their possible trial held by Africanist people.
“Hop-Frog” uses gothic constructions and an Africanist presence to transform HopFrog’s blackness from cause of his enslavement slave to the controlling force of anarchy in the
abusive court. Hop-Frog’s dip into madness allows his white readers time to reflect on the
rapidly changing antebellum world. Readers face two choices based on the outcome of this tale:
one, they can try to see African American slaves as being with their own agency and capabilities
for thought or two, ignore humanity and one day face the possibility of rebellion amongst the
most oppressed members of society.