HOP-FROG

The Three Tales of Horror is broken down into three separate tales written by three different authors. The first tale of the three is “Hop-Frog”, by Edgar Allen Poe. Poe is a great writer. Most of his work is about things that are dark and evil. So he being in this book makes perfect sense. Poe is a considered part of the Romantic Movement. He usually writes about mysteries and spooky things. This book as the title says is about horror tales. The tale “Hop-Frog” should not be considered a horror tale. It is not like it is not scary, but it is more about revenge. The revenge that happens is not scary either. Maybe back when this was written this would be scary. But to a modern day reader this is not the type of story that will scare somebody. The king in this tale is a stuck up guy. He finds humor in the way his jester looks and acts. He makes Hop-Frog drink wine when he knows that he dislikes it. The king finds humor in his pain. So he makes Hop-Frog drink more wine so he will be in pain drinking the wine and so the king can get amusement out of the pain he suffers.  Hop-Frog is a dwarf. But he is not your typical dwarf because Hop-Frog is crippled. He got his name by the way he walks. The way that Hop-Frog moved along was something between a leap and a wriggle. So just by the way he walks the king finds amusement. Hop- Frog and Tripeta(also a jester) are always called to as a last resource at parties. They were to help awaken the party when it was going dull. But anyways after the drinking incident Hop-Frog wanted revenge. So he told the king he had a plan for the masquerade and got them all in on the plan. Really the plan was revenge on the king for what he had done to Hop-Frog.  Hop-Frog was able to embarrass the king, which is what he wanted all along.  The first of the three tales was about the revenge on a stubborn and ignorant king. He was revenged by a crippled dwarf because of how the king treated him. The first tale was good and hopefully the next one is just as good as this one.