The Man of the Crowd

by

Edgar Allan Poe

Need another quote?
Need analysis on another quote?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
Need analysis for a quote we don't cover?
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
A LitCharts expert can help.
Request it
Request it
Request analysis
Request analysis
Request analysis
The Man of the Crowd Quotes

Now and then, alas, the conscience of man takes up a burden so heavy in horror that it can be thrown down only into the grave. And thus the essence of all crime is undivulged.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Old Man
Page Number: 442
Explanation and Analysis:

Others, still a numerous class, were restless in their movements, had flushed faces, and talked and gesticulated to themselves, as if feeling in solitude on account of the very denseness of the company around.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 443
Explanation and Analysis:

They all had slightly bald heads, from which the right ears, long used to pen-holding, had an odd habit of standing off on end. I observed that they always removed or settled their hats with both hands, and wore watches, with short gold chains of a substantial and ancient pattern.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Page Number: 444
Explanation and Analysis:

The wild effects of the light enchained me to an examination of individual faces; and although the rapidity with which the world of light flitted before the window prevented me from casting more than a glance upon each visage, still it seemed that, in my peculiar mental state, I could frequently read, even in that brief interval of a glance, the history of long years.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker)
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 446
Explanation and Analysis:

Any thing even remotely resembling that expression I had never seen before. I well remember that my first thought, upon beholding it, was that Retzch, had he viewed it, would have greatly preferred it to his own pictural incarnations of the fiend.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Old Man
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 446
Explanation and Analysis:

His clothes, generally, were filthy and ragged; but as he came, now and then, within the strong glare of a lamp, I perceived that his linen, although dirty, was of beautiful texture; and my vision deceived me, or, through a rent in a closely-buttoned and evidently second-handed roquelaire which enveloped him, I caught a glimpse of both a diamond and of a dagger.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Old Man
Related Symbols: The Diamond or the Dagger
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number: 446
Explanation and Analysis:

By and by he passed into a cross street, which, although densely filled with people, was not quite so much thronged as the main one he had quitted. Here a change in his demeanor became evident. He walked more slowly and with less object than before —more hesitatingly.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Old Man
Page Number: 447
Explanation and Analysis:

“This old man,” I said at length, “is the type and the genius of deep crime. He refuses to be alone. He is the man of the crowd. It will be in vain to follow, for I shall learn no more of him, nor his deeds.”

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), The Old Man
Page Number: 450
Explanation and Analysis:
No matches.