The Man of the Crowd

In the story, the anonymity that comes along with living in a crowded city is often associated with crime and vice. The narrator’s pursuit of the old man takes him into areas of the city that are home to “the most desperate crime” (Paragraph 19) and where “wretched inebriates” flood the streets (Paragraph 20). The prevalence of crime and vice among the anonymous crowds suggests the darker sides of humanity thrive in an environment where it is easy for individuals to blend in and remain unknown.

This idea is reflected in the narrator’s description of the old man as Mephistophelean, as hinted at by his reference to the German painter Moritz Retzsch (1779-1857), who illustrated Goethe’s Faust (1808). The narrator’s observation that Retzsch “would have greatly preferred [the old man] to his own pictural incarnations of the fiend” (Paragraph 14) is a darkly humorous way of saying the man looked more demonic than a demon. In Faust, Mephistopheles is a demon who tricks Faust into making a deal with the devil. Mephistopheles is known for his cunning and playing upon human weaknesses, such as ego and greed. These are the same characteristics the narrator sees in the crowd of self-important businessmen, pickpockets, gamblers, and sex workers who are either driven by or trying to take advantage of these vices.