The Gold Bug

William Legrand (Legrand) is from “an ancient Huguenot family, and had once been wealthy; but a series of misfortunes had reduced him to want” (7). Legrand’s desire to restore his family name and status drives him. Legrand is “well educated, with unusual powers of mind, but infected with misanthropy, and subject to perverse moods of alternate enthusiasm and melancholy” (7). We see evidence of Legrand’s mood swings throughout the story, such as when he becomes angry when the narrator criticizes his drawing of the gold bug and when he has furious outbursts directed at Jupiter, regularly insulting him with racially loaded language and threatening to beat him.

The main red herring in the text revolves around Poe leading the narrator and reader to believe that Legrand has lost his mind. At first, Legrand does not confide in the narrator about his discovery of the cryptogram and how he has solved a riddle to locate treasure. Therefore, Legrand’s excited behavior seems unstable and irrational, giving the narrator “no alternative but to conclude him stricken with lunacy” (18). However, the final part of the story is dedicated to Legrand’s explanation of his reasoning and how he solved the cypher. Although Legrand is eccentric, his apparent mental health condition was a ruse all along.

There are parallels between the fictional Legrand and his creator, Poe, who like Legrand lost a fortune when his foster father omitted him from his will. Poe was also seen as eccentric and reclusive and had a proclivity for solving cryptograms.

Jupiter is an emancipated slave who chooses to remain in the employment of Legrand, his former owner. Referred to as “an old negro” (8), Jupiter’s portrayal has evoked considerable critical commentary. Poe intends Jupiter to provide comic relief; he is a bumbling fool with almost unintelligible dialect. However, more modern critics have applied a post-colonial lens to highlight that Jupiter’s presentation is based on negative 19th-century racial stereotypes. Poe had limited contact with African Americans in real life, and Jupiter’s character shares similarities with the presentation of Black people as they were depicted in minstrel shows. Jupiter’s comic character relies on the accepted stereotype of an unintelligent slave that is so content he prefers to continue serving his former owner, rather than seek a life for himself. Poe attempts to generate humor from Jupiter’s stupidity, such as his inability to identify his left eye.

However, Jupiter holds more significance than a simple comedic device. The servant is one of only three main characters and is unusual in 19th-century fiction for being a Black, speaking character. Not only does Jupiter speak, but he also often contradicts his master, bringing the two men into conflict. When Legrand disappears for a day without explanation, Jupiter is waiting with “big stick ready cut for to gib him deuced good beating” (12). Here, the roles of master and servant reverse, and Jupiter is prepared to discipline Legrand, although he ultimately can’t bring himself to flog his master because he looks so ill. This latter point reveals the care he feels towards Legrand, despite his master’s mistreatment of him.

Moreover, it is initially Jupiter who discovers the stray scrap of parchment that leads to the treasure hunt in the first place. Jupiter chooses to support Legrand on his mysterious expedition, even though he believes it to be a fool’s errand. When the treasure is discovered, the group divide it into three to carry home, suggesting at that he will be entitled to a third of the find, although there is some ambiguity around the ending of the story.