THE MAN OF THE
CROWD
Edgar Allan Poe
Critical
Summary
It is a mysterious and detective
story in which the narrator talks about a German book that “does not permit
itself to be read”. He believes that the same thing is true to certain characters
in real that they do not open themselves before anyone. They live a secret-life
that nobody can get any clue about their real self. The narrator himself met
such a fellow. So the narrator followed the fellow for almost 24 hours together
but could neither make head nor tail of the odd character. He was “a man of the
crowd”. He knew the art of hiding his own real self from the people.
The narrator after recovering from a
serious disease, passing through his convalescence. He was feeling a new joy in
every activity, “merely to breathe was enjoyment!” He was sitting near the
window of D….Coffee House, enjoying himself in different ways. It was situated
on one of the main thoroughfares of the city and a large number of persons were
walking on the road outside. The narrator soon absorbed in looking at them.
The crowd contained different sorts
of persons in it. Some of the faces showed contentment and satisfaction while
some showed discontentment and dissatisfaction. There were senior and junior
clerks. Each group was well-recognized through their dresses, face-cuts and
expressions. Pick-pockets and gamblers were easily recognizable by their dress.
Some men of the wits, dandies and soldiers were also moving in the crowd.
Then the narrator noticed Jew
peddlers, street beggars and feeble and ghastly invalids “upon whom death had
placed a sure hand.” There were modest young girls and well-painted ladies. The
narrator noticed innumerable drunkards and indescribable fellows, porters,
coal-heavers, sweepers, organ-grinders, monkey exhibitors, ballad-mongers,
ragged artisans and exhausted labourers moving along the road.
As the nigh darkened the narrator
became more deeply interested in his observation of different faces in the
thoroughfare. Soon his eyes fixed at “a countenance a decrepit old man, some
sixty five or seventy years of age”. It was such a strange face which at once
arrested the narrator’s whole attention, “on account of the absolute
idiosyncrasy of its expression”. His face resembled a horrible fiend. The
narrator noticed different traits at his face: vast mental power, caution,
avarice, coolness, malice, blood-thirstiness, excessive terror, intense
despair! The narrator was both startled and fascinated. He wanted to know more
about him. He stood up and cut after him. The man, by then, had disappeared in
the crowd but the narrator was soon able to find him.
The strange decrepit old man was
short in stature and apparently very feeble. His clothes were rather fitting
and ragged. He also noticed a diamond and a dagger attached with his dress.
Now it was night. A thick fog
descended upon the area and soon it began to rain heavily opened instantly. The
narrator simply tied a handkerchief about his mouth and kept following the
fellow. The old man did not change his behaviour and walked in rain. He crossed
and recrossed the thoroughfare, apparently for no reason. He turned into a
cross-street and walked in the street for nearly an hour, a second turn brought
him into a square. He repeatedly walked in a circular way in the square. He
didn’t seem to care for the rain at all by now the air had grown rather cool!
He turned into a by-street. Here he paced on with rather quicker steps. The
street seemed busy at this late hour of night. He went into shops and coming out
of them, pricing and buying nothing at all. The narrator was utterly amazed at
such a behaviour of the old man. It was 11.00 and people started closing their
shops. The old man arrived at the thoroughfare of the D-Coffee House from where
the narrator had started his follow-up, the street was a little deserted now.
He turned into the direction of a river. He crossed many ways and, at last,
came to the lane of theatres of the city. The theatres were closing down for
the day, people were coming out, the old man mixed up with them and went to the
direction where the crowd went.
The crowd now became rather thinner
and he felt uneasy. He changed the route and soon came to a suburban area, on
the verge of the city. It was “a world of poverty and crime----- an unhealthy world”.
The whole atmosphere teemed with desolation. After loitering there for sometimes,
he came to a square that was full of blazing light. Then he come to a bar. It
was almost daybreak now but some people were still coming in and out of the
place. The old man became a part of the crowd. But soon the place was going to
be closed and the old man moved to different lanes and reached near the
D----coffee House once again. The place had the same hustle and bustle, he
moved about as usual through out the day.
At last, in the evening of the
second day the narrator surrendered and left the useless chase, deciding that
the old man was “the man of the crowd”. He was like a book that did not permit
itself to be read. He was better left alone, unchased and unfollowed.
Characters, The Narrator
The narrator in the story had been a
sick man. But now he is passing through his convalescent time. He is feeling
rather fresh. He starts talking interest in every thing and derives pleasure
from every activity, even “merely to breathe was enjoyment”. He plays a
strange, yet exciting part in the story. He follows the old, decrepit fellow
for almost twenty four hours at a stretch. No doubt, it is due to his inquisitive
nature. He may be chasing himself in the form of old man. The old man may be an
alter ego or alter self of the narrator.
The
Old man
The Old man is a decrepit, miserable
old man of 65 to 70 years. We do not know his name, still he occupies the
central place in the story. The story revolves around his character. He walks
through the thorough-fares, lanes and by-lanes of London
He walks for 24 hours, even in the
heavy fog or rain. He changes the speed while moving in different areas of the
city but he does not takes rest and is continuously on the move. Whenever he
enters into a new lane, his facial expressions change so much that the writer
at once notices the vital change. Sometimes he starts walking briskly,
sometimes he becomes more active.
The narrator follows him for almost
twenty four hours at a stretch, still he is unable to know any thing of his
character. The old man would have been anybody! Or he may be the alter ego or
alter self of the narrator. In this way, the narrator may be chasing his own
shadow out of some quit.
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