“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.”
– Hop-Frog, Edgar Allan Poe
I remember my brother Alex’s description of the above-quoted story – delivered with great relish. Considering his elder brothers’ treatment of him*, this is not surprising. The story is a consummation of the rage exhibited in many of our author’s texts.
Wikipedia again provides a good plot summary and a number of possible inspirations (and, since the story is very short, I’ll leave a link to the full text here.) The only things I want to point out are that Poe was sent to an English boarding school and the history of how attendees treat each other in them.
This concludes my Poe series, a series I’m glad to have written for a good view of the subject’s ability to “look awry at the Real” a-la Žižek.
*The link is to some message board entries; the relevant one is dated October 22nd. I also write about Alex in my “Historical Analysis” series; the most relevant entry of which is here.
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