The Man of the Crowd

[joan carles]

The man of the Crowd is the title of a very disturbing tale by Edgar Poe. In it there is a man, a strange man, an old man, who walks and walks non-stop. And there is another man who, paying attention to the man who walks, decides to follow him. One, the first man, walks among the crowd of the city of London, during the day, during the afternoon, during the night. He walks and walks non-stop. And he carries with him both a diamond and a dagger.

Who is this man? What is the subject which Poe was trying to explain to us in this tale?

Maybe all of us are the Man of the Crowd.

[nps_marina]

I read your small post this morning and just now read the story, in order to be able to reply to your post.
I must admit that I read it a bit biased, since I was already thinking about your 'maybe we all are the Man of the Crowd'...

Poe just tells us a story to makes us feel like the character in the story: he begins with his bait, which is that line about everybody hiding deep secrets... and then all of a sudden there appears this man with such a hideous countenance which can only make him either a) the bearer of secrets as the one Poe refers to or b) the perpetrator of some horrible crime which will turn the narrator (Poe) the bearer of one of these secrets.
So we are caught in the story, just as the narrator was caught in following the man... until... just as it began, it ends- it's pointless.
Poe's explanation, I like: here is a man too troubled by his own thoughts as to be able to be left alone, troubling thoughts that would nonetheless be interesting, if we base our assumptions on what he hides under his cloak.

Your explanation I like even better, though I can't say that it was what Poe was endorsing (I don't know): maybe we are all like that- people too troubled with our own thoughts to stop and acknowledge them.

Btw, personal question- are you Catalan?

[joan carles]

Hi, Marina!

Thank you for reply.

I don’t really think that this tale of Poe means to explain something about real life, or something about real adventures or, in short, something about real things. I don’t think that Poe wanted to explain us only a story of someone who runs. I don’t think so. What I think is that Poe wanted to create a certain mood of thinking both in the mind and the soul of the reader. Maybe he wanted to raise in us a mood of melancholy; or maybe of sadness, roused from the sad human condition.

Ah, Marina, what is the condition of the human being? We are always fleeing from the past; always fleeing from our ghosts; always looking for another people in order to share the noises and the space and the time of our lives; always afraid to be alone. Because when human being, you and me and all of us, are alone is when the fears come. And they come because of the old age, which is coming unstoppably to us; because of the fleeing of time; because of death.

I think that this tale is speaking about the deepest human condition. It is speaking about the flight of everything which terrifies us. It is speaking about Death and the fear which he, or she, raises in our heart and in our soul.

As the best poems do.


Ah, by the way, yes I'm catalan. From Barcelona. And you?

[nps_marina]

Well, I certainly like your interpretation of The Man of the Crowd!

:brow: be it the true one or not :brow:

I agree with all that you say- people are constantly looking for companionship... perhaps not only afraid of our own past, but afraid of our own future- because if we live our lives alone, who will validate it as a life? Something in the lines of the tree falling in the forest, I suppose.
I don't know, perhaps that is taking your thoughts a bit further than you would. I am actually writing a bit out of the top of my head, but I guess I am not hitting any controversial matter, anyway- I mean, I believe we all think in more or less the same terms of not wanting to be alone.
Unless we have some pesonality disorder.

Human beings are social beings.

So, I agree with your view of the interpretation of the story (note that I don't say with your view of the story, but that's just to tease you ;)), but do you suggest it just as the stating of a fact, or as in something to be criticised? Should we all learn to validate ourselves without the help of others??? Of course we should but, is it possible? Hmmmm...

Yeah, also from Barcelona! (your name gave you away, what can I say?)

[joan carles]

Hello again, Marina from Barcelona!

Of course, what I'm saying about the tale of Poe can be criticised. I'm not believe that what I suggest is the absolute and the best interpretation of the tale! I was only truing to explain the feelings that the tale wake up in me. But I supose that a more literary interpretation of it it would be able to say a lot of more profound things.


And, Marina, which is your interpretation of the tale? (or, if you want, which is your view of the tale?). I'm asking you this question because you say me that you like my interpretation and so and so but, alas!, I don't know yet what do you think about it...

By the way, is very, very strange that two people from Barcelona with both catalan names are writting in english in a a forum about, mainly, english literature. Don't you think my friend? By the way, again, I have to say that I'm trying to begin and maintain a blog of my own. I would be very, very honoured if you could say me your opinion of it or, of course, if you could give me some ideas in order to improve it.

Best wishes from (jajajaja) Barcelona.

jc

[Noisms]

This is my favourite Poe story - the others are a bit over-the-top for me. I remember my English Lit. professor (this must be seven years ago now...God, I'm getting old) telling the class that The Man in the Crowd is reference to an old legend called "The Wandering Jew", in which it is said that a man refused to let Jesus rest outside his house on the road to Calvary, and was thus doomed to walk the earth for eternity without ever finding rest again. There's also the fact that Satan, according to Jewish legend, is said to "go to and fro in the earth" without ever resting.

My professor said that Poe was alluding to both these legends in the story, although what Poe might have been getting at is another question.