explore and explain the various details that Poe uses to create suspense in Hop Frog. Note how dramatic irony contributes to the building of suspense.

-- Anonymous, November 15, 2003

Answers

Well, the dwarf mainly has his own acid commentary on his masters, how stupid and arrogant they were and how blind to his genius. All of that is gradually their undoing once Hop Frog decides to build a plan of escape and revenge around his very name and occupation. It is very heavy handed actually, even more so than Montressor in "The Cask of Amontillado" and less remorseful by far. We can see what harn he means to do. Only the escape at the end carries the act beyond grotesque and humiliating slaughter. Since this itself is a uniquely twisted story, perhaps an angry joke of its own against all the gothic work he had done for the masses and unnappreciative publishers, it is hard to describe it as one of the more famous stories(which are reversed and parodied within Hop Frog in several instances.

References to "The Murders of the Rue Morgue" "The cask of Amontillado" "The Pit and Pendulum" "The Fall of the House of Usher" are detectable and mostly opposite to the originals. For instance in this story the jester is the murder and the clever one who has been insulted. The orangutangs are killed in an escape from a closed room. Etc. try finding some for yourself. This fits in with the obvious and "careless" biographical allegory that twists Poe's life into ultimate victory and escape with his wife(then dead). The whole story is a bitter retrospective and quite possible DESPITE the heavy handed repulsive plot, another intricate Poe trap for the too casual reader or unintelligent critic.

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2003

Describe the Dramatic Irony of "The Raven", and how it pertains to the death of Virgina?

-- Anonymous, November 16, 2003