The Man of the Crowd
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| "The Man of the Crowd" | |
| Author | Edgar Allan Poe |
|---|---|
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Short story |
| Publisher | Burton's Gentleman's Magazine and Atkinson's Casket (simultaneously released) |
| Media type | Print (periodical) |
| Publication date | December, 1840 |
"The Man of the Crowd" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe about a nameless narrator following a man through a crowded London, first published in 1840.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Beginning with the epigraph, "Ce grand malheur, de ne pouvoir être seul" is a quote taken from The Characters of Man by Jean de la Bruyère. It translates to Such a great misfortune, not to be able to be alone. This same quote is used in Poe's earliest tale, "Metzengerstein."[1]
After an unnamed illness, the unnamed narrator sits in an unnamed coffee shop in London. Fascinated by the crowd outside the window, he considers how isolated people think they are, despite "the very denseness of the company around." He takes time to categorize the different types of people he sees. As evening falls, the narrator focuses on "a decrepit old man, some sixty-five or seventy years of age," whose face has a peculiar idiosyncrasy, and whose body "was short in stature, very thin, and apparently very feeble" wearing filthy, ragged clothes. The narrator dashes out of the coffee shop to follow the man from afar. The man leads the narrator through bazaars and shops, buying nothing, and into a poorer part of the city, then back into "the heart of the mighty London." This chase lasts through the evening and into the next day. Finally, exhausted, the narrator stands in front of the man, who still does not notice him. The narrator concludes the man is guilty of some terrible unnamed crime.
[edit] Analysis
According to the text of the tale, the reason for the narrator's monomaniacal obsession with the man stems from"the absolute idiosyncrasy of [the man's] expression." Why the narrator is so haunted by him is not entirely clear, though it is implied that the two men are two sides of the same person, with the old man representing a secret side of the narrator,[2] though the narrator is unable to see this.[3]The old man may be wandering through the crowd in search of a lost friend or to escape the memory of a crime.[4] The possible evil nature of the man is implied by the dagger that is possibly seen under his cloak[3] - whatever crime he has committed condemns him to wander.[1] This lack of disclosure has been compared to similar vague motivations in "The Cask of Amontillado."[5] Poe purposely presents the story as a sort of mystification, inviting readers to surmise the old man's secret themselves.[3]
At the beginning of the tale, the narrator surveys and categorizes the people around him in a similar way as Walt Whitman in "Song of Myself." Poe's narrator, however, lacks Whitman's celebratory spirit.[6]
The setting of London, one of the few details revealed in the tale, is important. By 1840, London was the largest city in the world with a population of 750,000.[7] Poe would have known London from the time he spent there as a boy with his foster family, the Allans.[1] In this story and others, Poe associates modern cities with the growth of impersonal crime.[8]
[edit] Publication history
The story was first published simultaneously in the December 1840 issues of Atkinson's Casket and Burton's Gentleman's Magazine. The latter was the final issue of that periodical.[1] It was later included in Wily & Putnam's collection simply titled Tales by Edgar A. Poe.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York City: Checkmark Books, 2001. p. 147
- ^ Sova, Dawn B. Edgar Allan Poe: A to Z. New York City: Checkmark Books, 2001. p. 148
- ^ a b c Kennedy, J. Gerald. Poe, Death, and the Life of Writing. Yale University Press, 1987. p. 118. ISBN 0300037732
- ^ Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. p. 310. ISBN 0801857309
- ^ Hoffman, Daniel. Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe Poe. Louisiana State University Press, 1972. p. 245. ISBN 0807123218
- ^ Person, Leland S. "Poe and Nineteenth-Century Gender Constructions," collected in A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe, edited by J. Gerald Kennedy. Oxford University Press, 2001. p. 158. ISBN 0195121503
- ^ Meyers, Jeffrey: "Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy," p. 115. Cooper Square Press, 2000
- ^ Kennedy, J. Gerald. "Introduction: Poe in Our Time" collected in A Historical Guide to Edgar Allan Poe. Oxford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0195121503 p. 9
- ^ Quinn, Arthur Hobson. Edgar Allan Poe: A Critical Biography. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998. pp. 464-6. ISBN 0801857309
[edit] Further reading
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