Comparison Of Hop-Frog And Taken: Is Revenge Ever Justified?

“Hop-Frog” and Taken: A Comparison

Is revenge ever justified? There are two stories, one from the romanticism era and one from the modern era, that show this theme. The story “Hop-Frog” by Edgar Allan Poe is about a dwarf who was taken from his home as a gift for the king. The king has the dwarf do many things for him at his castle. The king mistreats Hop- Frog and Hop-Frog gets revenge. The other story, Taken, by Pierre Morel is about a man named Bryan Mills who is a retired CIA agent and has to hunt down people that took his daughter. He has a limited amount of time to get his daughter back before she disappears forever. Both of these stories illustrate that people will do anything to get revenge through showing the character’s treatment, …show more content…
In the story “Hop-Frog”, Hop-Frog’s motivation is being forced to drink the wine by the king. This is his motivation because he hates wine, and then he is forced to drink wine by the king. Since the king makes him drink the wine, Hop-Frog is going to get his revenge on him. This is clear when the narrator says, “Hop-Frog endeavored as usual, to get up a jest in reply to these advances from the king, but the effort was too much. It happened to be the poor dwarfs birthday and the command to drink to his ‘absent friends’ forced the tears to his eyes. Many large, bitter drops fell into the goblet as he took it” (Poe 4). This quote proves how much Hop-Frog hates the wine since he tries to please the king and drinks it, but it makes him cry. This quote also shows Hop-Frog’s motivation since the king forces him to drink the wine and he cries since he hates it so much. Since he is forced to drink the wine, he is going to find a way to get back at the king. This proves that Hop-Frog’s motivation is going to play a big part in the revenge he is seeking on the king. In the story Taken, Bryan’s motivation comes from having his daughter taken from him and being forced to save her in 96 hours. Bryan is going to do anything to save his daughter from being sold into prostitution. This is shown when Bryan says, “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can …show more content…
In the story “Hop-Frog”, the king is the antagonist toward Hop-Frog and plays an influential role in Hop-Frog’s revenge. The king forces Hop-Frog to madness by making him drink the wine. The king still makes Hop-Frog drink the wine even though he knows Hop-Frog hates wine. The narrator says, “ They all seemed highly amused at the success of the kings joke” (Poe 5). This shows that all of the king’s councilors and the king himself think that the whole thing is a joke and they are laughing about it. They are all laughing about it, but in reality Hop-Frog is driven to madness over it. The king knew Hop-Frog hates wine but still makes him drink it so he can have a good laugh at Hop-Frog going insane. This proves that antagonists play a key role in revenge since the king has a good joke on Hop-Frog and drives him insane over it. In the story Taken, the antagonists were the sex slavers that take Bryan’s daughter. They take her so they can sell her into prostitution and Bryan is not happy with the sex slavers so he gets revenge on them. This is shown when the sex slavers tell Brian, “Please understand… It was all business. It wasn’t personal. Bryan- it was all personal to me” (Taken). This shows that the sex slavers are trying to run a business, but they take the wrong girl and provoke the wrong guy. Bryan