Plot Structure in Tie Novels of Mark Tnain

Net

PLOT STRUCTURE IN TIE NOVELS OF MARK TNAIN

THESIS

Presented to the Graduate Council of the North

Texas State College in Partial Ful- fillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

iSTER OF ARTS

Zelma Ruth Odle, B. A.

Gordonville, Texas

August, 1949 TABIE OF CONTENTS

Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTIU CTION...... Purposes of the Study Mark Twain's Literary Beginnings Mark Twain's Statements of His Limitations in Plot Structure Mark Twain's Method in Plot Structure Criticisms of Mark Twain's Methods

II. A COMPArJSCN OF TIE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAI2ER AND TM ADVETTJRES 07 HU=TBTRRY7IN . . . 8

Structure of Tom Sawyer Structure of uckler Finn

III. THRED NOVELS OF HISTORICAL INTEEST: TIE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER, A CONNICTICUT YAhKtE f7IING ARTHUR' S~COURT, AND PERSONAL17ECTL ACTIONS OF JOAN OF ARC . . . 20

Structure of The Prince and the Pauper Structure of A~onne ticut~Ya~-nkee nfj Arthurts Court Structure ofPersonal Recollections of Joan of Arc

IV. A COMPARISON OF PUDD'NHEAD WILSON AND THOSE EXTRACODINAH T iSINS...... 42 Structure of PuddInhead Wilson Structure of Those E traordinary Twins

V. A COMPAISON OF THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER AND THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBRUG...... 56

Structure of The Mysterious Stranger Structure of M'E3 Mttan tVt orrupte Hadleybur

VI *CONCLUSION ...... * . * 72

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 81

iii CHAPTER I

IN TRODUCTITK

Mark Twain was not only a wit but a literary man. He

could paint a scene and he could make a character live, but

could he plot a novel? It is the purpose of this study

to anaylze his methods and his products, with emphasis upon

the building of plots.

Mark Twain came up into literature from the popular ranks, deriving very little from the bookish tradition.

The origins of his art lie in humor, "in short sketches, more or less inventive, and. studies of life in which he let his imagination play freely." 1 hen Mark Twain began to go beyond casual anecdotes to the production of sustained fiction, he encountered many perplexing problems, plot structure easily chief among them.

For these reasons it is well to refer first to Mark Twaints own statements for an examination of the structural phase of his literary technique. In his famous introduction to rnose Extraordinarv Twins he says:

A man who is not born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He

1.,D. Howells, i yMark Twain, p. 173.

1 2

has no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality. He knows these people, Ie Imows the selected locality, and he trusts that he can plunge these people into tnose incidents with interesting results. So he goes to work. To trite a novel? No--that is a thought which comes later; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale; a six-page tale. But as it is a tale which he is not acquainted with, and can only find out what it is by listening as it goes along telling itself, it is more than apt to go on and on and on till it spreads itself into a book. I Imow about this, because it has happened to me so many times. 2

then Mark Twain said, "I do not claim that I can tell a story as it ought to be told,3 he was speaking of plat- form performance and not literary composition. But he does speak of himself as a "jack-leg" as compared with the

"born-and-trained novelist.tt4

Powerful in character portrayal and weak in the structural sense, hark Twain often depended upon his characters to write the narrative for him. 7hen they really came to life, they did just that, "passing from incident to incident with a grace their creator could never achieve in manipu- lating an artificial plot." 5

Mark Tain, The Works of Mark Tain, definitive edition, XVI, 207. TAll references to lark Twain's writings will be made to this edition, unless otherwise stated. Here- after only the title of the work and the volume and page number will be mentioned). 5 The 30,000 Bequest, XIV, 263.

4Pudd Inhe ad Iils on, XVI, 207. literary History of the United States, edited by Robert E. Spiller and others, II, 928. 3

Mark TWain loved a story which could tell itself. In

his opinion, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc was his

greatest work.6 "'It is a Aale that writes itself,' he

said in a letter to H. H Rogers, speaking of Joan of Arc;

'I merely have to hold tne pen.'" 7 This work, however, was fourteen years growing, with twelve years of prepara-

tion and two of writing.

In 1906 hark Twain wrote:. Thaen a tale tells itself there is no trouble about it, there are no hesitancies, no delays, no cogitations, no attempts at invention, there is nothing to do but hold the pen and let the story talk through it and say after its own fashion, what it desires to say.

Again in the same year he said:

As long as a book would write itself I was a faithful and interested amanuensis and my industry did not flag, but the minute that the book tried to shift to ng head the labor of contriving its situations, inventing its adventures and conducting its conversations, I put it away and dropped it out of my mind. 1 0

11ark Twain was a talker and a shoniman all his life.

It may be that his love of informal speaking may account in

6Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, XVII, in A. B. Paine'sintrocuction, xx. A. B. Paiie, Mark Tvain: A Bioraph, fCII, 989.

8 Joan of Arc, XTII, xx, in A. B. Paine's introduction.

9 Mark Twain, ILrtk Twain in EuLon, edited by Bernard DeVoto, p. 243. 1 0Ibid., p. 19G. 4

part for the disproportion of his plots. "He wrote as he talked, for the ear more than for the eye. His cadence is the cadence of speech." 1 l Howells says that "he wrote as he thought, and as all men think, without sequence, without an eye to what went before or should come after.t12

The writings of 'Mark Twain show that carrying out the detail of a narrative was much easier for him when the framework did not have to be invented.

Except within a short scene or anecdote, he knew no laws of narrative writing that he thought worth repeating. This is obvious from the haphazard sequences and reckless disproportion of most of his novels. He believed that the writer who was untraimelled by rule or precedent was likely to excel in spontaneity and naturalness: in his books, as in his life, he enjoyed "rough- ing it." He had as little faith as skill in invention*13

Another weakness of Mark Taain is seen in his inability to sustain a strong and realistically motivated plot throughout a story.

In plotting a book his structural sense was always weak; intoxicated by a hunch, he seldom saw far ahead, and too many of his stories peter out from the authors fatigue or surfeit.1 4

lStanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, editors, American Authors: 1600-1900, p. 161.

1 2 Howells, . cit., p. 17.

13Alexander Cowie, The Rise of the American Novel, p. 648.

1 4 iterary History of the United States, II, 928. Seldom building a plot carefully before he began to write, he lacked also the artist's faculty for thinking a novel through until it had found its own best form.

Closely allied to his failure to maintain a strong plot consistently is Mark Twaints habit of changing the tone and form of his narrative. In Huckleberry Finn he passes with apparent ease from the depths of social satire to the shallows of burlesque and extravaganza. He brings the romantic Tom Sawyer, with his fantastic and useless plot for the salvation of Jim, and places him against his arch-realist, Huckleberry Finn. Thus he ends his masterpiece in a sprawling farce. Although Mark Twaints gift was for episodic treatment, he devoted much space to trifling incidents. He was a master in combining exciting incident with a maximum of suspense. The effect, however, he often ruined by putting in little tail-pieces not necessary to or even well connected with the incident. A case in point is the saving of

Jim from capture by Huck's clever intimation that Jim had small-pox, followed by the would-be captorst giving Huck two twenty-dollar gold pieces to salve their own consciences.15

That Mark Twain was not averse to changing his plan after he was well started in a novel is illustrated by what he said of his problem in the writing of

1 5 The Adventures of Huckleber Finn, UII, 127. 6

PuddInhead Wilson and Those Extraordinar Twins. It really was meant to be a farce about Siamese twins, said Mark

Twain, but two tales - a farce and a tragedy - got tangled together and he was forced to separate them, for him a most embarrassing circumstance.16 When one understands

Mark Twaints haphazard methods of composition, it is not difficult for him to see how a well-developed symmetrically designed plot like that of PuddInhead Wilson could become almost swallowed up in a raw burlesque such as Those

Extraordinary Twins.

Van gyck Brooks, Twaints most adverse critic, maintains that Mark Twain can best be described as an "improvisator, a spirit with none of the self-determination of the artist, who composed extempore, as it were, and mainly at the solicitation of outside influences. 1 7 It is true, in the writers opinion, that Mark Twain was greater at transcription and portrayal than at invention and that his greatest works are reminiscent, descriptive, autobiographical, and historical, but this does not argue that he had no control, no artistic perception. Mark Twain has the art of interesting his reader from the first word, and his novels, though without great structural concepts, reveal their author as a man of broad understanding and vital, if un- even, achievement. I believe that a careful examination of

1 6 PuddInhead Wilson, XVI., 208-212.

17Van Wyck Brooks, The Ordeal of Mark Twain, p. 204. 7

several of his stories will show that Mark TWain did not meet his literary Waterloo in the matter of structure, weak point though it may have been. In this study Mark Tvain's two boy masterpieces, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

and The Adventures of Huckleberr Finn; his three historical romances - The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurts Court, and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc; his tragedy and his burlesque, PuddInhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins; and his philosophical treatises, The as te rious Stra r and The Man that Corrted Hadleyburg, will be treated. Treatment may vary from novel to novel, but in general an attempt will be made to discuss each work by showing the building up of action to the climax and final culmination, at the same time emphasizing minor crises and lesser devices of structure. C CHAPTER II

A COPARISN OF TIM ADVENTURES OF TVI SAWYi2R AND

THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN

"You don I't 1ow about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that aint no matter."1 Thus wisely and truthfully speaks Huckleberry

Finn. A imowledge of Tom Awyer is certainly not necessary to an understanding and appreciation of the idyll of Huck and Jim on the Mississippi. Huckleberry Finn should no longer be considered a sequel to Tom SaWyer; it is a new tale, in no way dependent upon its predecessor. A dis- cussion of the two novels, however, may reveal interesting facts about Mark Twaint s literary craftmanship. The two may well be studied together, since they have in common some characters and essentially the same point of view - the American West of the mid-nineteenth century viewed by boy eyes.

Structure of Tom Sawyer

Structurally, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a series of episodes loosely connected by a murder which does not dominate the whole very thoroughly. The plot of this novel seems to have meant considerably less than the characters and their environs to Mark Twain.

IThe Adventures of Huckle Finn, XIII, 1.

8 9

Tom Sawyer, upon close scrutiny, does reveal a rather large, effective unity. In his study of the American novel, Carl Van Doren says of it:

The story moves forward in something of the same manner as did the plays of the seventies, with exits and entrances not always motivated. And yet a taste so delicate as to resent these defects in structure would probably not appreciate the flexibility of the narrative, its easy, casual gait, its broad sweep, its variety of substance. Mark Twain drives with careless, sagging reins, but he holds the general direction.2

John Erskine's criticism emphasizes the anecdotal arrangement of Tom Sawyer:

No doubt Tom Sawyer would be enjoyed by young people even if Huckleberry Finn did not lend it fame and keep i alive, buttaen by itself it now seems a rather poorly constructed book. The story is built up with anecdotes, each one complete in itself and none developed beyond the point of the joke.t

William Dean Howells asserts that Tom Sawyer marks the real beginnings of his friend's career as a novelist. 4

He also points out that both Hucklebe Finn and Tom Sawyer wander in episodes loosely related to the main story, but that they are of a closer and more logical advance than any of Twain's fiction which preceded them.5

The point of view, as has already been stated, is that of a frontier boy. Everything is reported from Tom's

2 Carl Van Doren, The American Novel, p. 169.

3John Erskine, ThDelight _of Great Books, p. 264.

4W. D. Howells, a Mark Twain, p. 173. 5 lbid.

WIM - 9 - P .7 , -- l- - , -1, '. - - I -." , " - -Nw, 10

standpoint, although the book is written in the third person. However, in a letter to Howells written at Hartford on July

5, 1875, Mark Twain remarks, "I perhaps made a mistake in not writing it in the first person." 6

The first eight chapters of Tom Sawyer provide the background for the ain story and acquaint the reader with

the principal characters and the influences motivating them to action. The whitewashing episode is here outstanding, placing Tom Sawyer among literature's immortals. Tom's fall-

ing in love with Becky Thatcher leads him to show off at school and in Sunday School, and her repudiation of their

"engagement" causes him to determine to run away from home to become a bold pirate. Also in this section Huckleberry Finn

joins the immortals, towing a dead cat, a sure cure for warts

if correctly used in the graveyard at midnight.

Their implicit belief in superstitions of this kind brings the boys to the weed-grown village cemetery at midnight, where and when the main story begins. Fascinated,

they watch the half-breed In jun Joe and the town drunkard,

Muff Potter, as they exhume the newly-buried body of Hoss Williams for young Doctor Robinson. Huck and Tom listen breathlessly as an argument ensues, in which Injun Joe demands more money from the doctor. As Doctor Robinson fells Muff

Potter with the head-board of the grave, the wily Indian stabs the young physician through the breast, instantly killing him. Then Injun Joe places the incriminating Imife

Letters of Mark Twain, XXXTV, 258. 11

in Muff's hand, and when that poor fellow regains conscious-

ness, he convinces him that he has inadvertently committed a

murder. The boys leave the scene of the crime as soon as

they safely can do so, tormented with their desire to free

Muff of guilt and a corresponding terror of the vengeance of

Injun Joe. This dilemma becomes a strong unifying force in

the narrative.

The pages immediately following the account of the

murder tell of Injun Joe's betrayal of the innocent Potter

to the authorities and his subsequent imprisonment. Suspense

is artfully contrived by the development of the possibility

that Tom may reveal all by his strange behavior and his talk-

ing in his sleep. He manages to keep his secret, however, and

salves his conscience by visiting Muff Potter at his cell.

The next important incident is the pirating venture upon Jackson's Island. Tomts stealthy visit home is one of the out-

standing episodes of the book. He abandons his plan for re-

vealing the safety and whereabouts of himself and Huck and

Joe when he learns that their funeral is set for the following

Sunday, On this memorable day the three freebooters walk

up the aisle at their own funeral - a magnificent triumph, which makes them village heroes. This episode does not contribute to the main story except indirectly, in that it is a prelude to more exciting adventures - seeking buried treasure and tracing bandits. 12

The next three chapters contribute nothing to the furtherance of the plot. They contain accounts of Tom's taking Becky's punishment in school, the highly exaggerated school

commencement exercises, and Tom's siege of the measles, after

which he finds his friends all with new-found religion as a result of a revival meeting.

The town comes out of its lethargy with the occasion of

Muff Potter's trial. This emergency causes Huck and Tom

again to swear not to tell their awful secret, while Tom's

humanity is engaging in a fierce battle with his honor.

A favorite plot element with Mark Twain is the dramatic

courtroom scene. In Tom Sawyer this device is used with good

effect. Suspense is built to a high point by the failure of

Potter's lawyer to cross-question the witnesses against poor

Muff and is greatly heightened by the wholly unexpected call-

ing of Tom Sawyer to the stand. The frightened boy unburdens

himself of his hateful secret, and Injun Joe makes his escape

through an open window. This is the climaxing incident of the

story, as all the action from this time points to a resolution of all the conflicting forces of the plot.

The next chapter reveals how Tom broke his oath by re-

vealing his secret to luff's lawyer, placing himself and Huck

in an unusual position - village heroes by day and suffering, terrified little boys by night.

The failure of the search for Injun Joe relieves the minds of the boys to some extent, and they turn to the 13

romantic possibilities of treasure-hunting. This new project leads them to an old haunted house, where from a vantage

point in the upper story, they see Injun Joe, disguised as

a deaf and dumb Spaniard, and his accomplice unearth a real

treasure chest. They hear the renegades plan to bury this

prize in a mysterious place called Number Two, situated under

a cross. The boys have barely recovered from their narrow

escape from discovery when they hear Injun Joe declare

immediate revenge upon someone. They make up their minds to find the treasure and to save themselves from the half-breed's wrathful designs upon them.

The picnicking episode is admirably executed. The loss

of Tom and Becky is not iimediately discovered because it

was previously arranged for both of them to spend the night away from home.

Mark Twain leaves Tom and Becky in the cave and follows

the adventures of Huck as he tracks Injun Joe and his partner to the home of the Widow Douglas. Learning that it is the

widow upon whom Joe is planning revenge, Huck runs to a

neighbor for help. The widow is saved, but Injun Joe escapes once more. Huck has won the widow's undying gratitude, a

force which is to exert quite an influence upon his future life.

The author now returns to the lost children in the cave.

This incident adds much suspense and drama to the narrative. Tom rises to an unusual height for a small boy when he sees

1 I 14

Injun Joe in the recesses of the cave and does not betray this knowledge to Becy.

Two weeks after the rescue, when Tom hears of the bar-

ring of the cave door, he iwmediately tells about his seeing Injun Joe, thus leading to a discovery of the half-breed's remains, together with a sizable fortune for Tom and Huck, vnich is found buried 'where Tom saw the murderer.

The last chapter is an epilogue tacked on to emphasize

the fame of Tom and Huck and to show its effect upon the

conunity. Ill with a fever, Huck is taken into the home of

the grateful Widow Douglas, where he is nursed back to

health and svmmarily introduced to the nightmare of civili-

Zation and polite society. No longer able to bear the re-

quirements and impositions of his new life, he joins Tom in a plan for forming a band of robbers, a trade much higher

than pirating. He promises, however, to remain in the widow's home in order to give dignity to his new calling.

lark Twain adds a word of conclusion in Which he explains he must needs stop somewhere, since he is writing a boy's book and is unable to continue to the logical conclusion of stories of adulthood - a marriage.

Tom Savyer marked a new era in juvenile fiction. Tom had the adventures a boy would like to have, and he remained just a boy throughout the story. Essentially a childrents book and assuredly enjoyed by them, it yet has strains of poetry and satire that delight the adult reader, as Mark

ARNW4 . E , II -, - kw-mum - Twain intended that it should. The splendid characterization

and the gentle satire clearly outrank the narrative. Tom

Sawyer is weakly constructed, but the story is not wholly lacking in system.

Structure of Huckle Finn

Tom Sawyer sinks into nothingness as literary expression

when it is placed beside its marvelous companion, The

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. A great American epic, its

structure is closely akin to that of the great Mississippi

River, with its majestic sweep and flow and its cargo of humanity.

A strong connecting link between Tom S2e and Huckle- b Finn is found in the last part of the first book. Huck

and Tom are desultorily discussing what they will do when

they become rich from their treasure-hunting ventures. Huck

is unimpressed by the possibility of great wealth, but in a

speech to Tom he foreshadows an important incident in the later book. He says, "'Pap would come back to thish yer town some day and get his claws on it if I didn't hurry up, and I tell you held clean it out pretty quick.t" 7

t Huck s real story begins in the home of the Widow Douglas when he spills some salt at the breakfast table and is frustrated by Miss Watson in his attempt to ward off evil

7 The Adventures of Tom Sawyqr, VIII, 203. 16

spirits by throwing some of it over his shoulder. He knows

he is in for a streak of bad luck. It comes in the form of

old man Finn, a clay-eating river rat, who demands his right

to his son's person and property. Huck's adventures get underway.

When Huck makes his dramatic escape from his father and

then discovers the runaway slave, NIigger Jim, in the woods, he paves the way for the greatest American Odyssey. His

fortunes and Jim's become inseparably linked when he

determines to help the Negro escape to the free territory of

Illinois. One of the most moving themes of the book is Huckts

feeling about helping a "nigger" to escape from slavery. In fact, the book owes much of its fame to Jim's story. In Huckleberry Finn, the plot, the characters, the author, and the delighted reader go voyaging. The journey device is

a common one in fiction, especially the picaresque type, but the progress of Huck and Jim down the Mississippi has no

counterpart in literature. The river and the plot are in-

separable, since the river provides the medium for the main

story, provokes the action, and binds the threads of the narrative in a most inimitable way.

The point of view is Huck's own, and he tells his own story. The autobiographical form gives the book another adv ntage over Tovm Sawyer, tending naturally to make Hucks epic adventures a consistent whole. "Once he had decided 17

to tell the story through Huckts mouth he could proceed at his most effortless pace," says Van Doren.A

The story does move smoothly; Huck and Jim seem to

float magically on their raft through the heart of the conti-

nent. The great Father of Waters carries them to the scenes

of their adventures, helps to make excitement for them, and

gives them leisure to comment upon the whole w orld as it

passes down the stream. This happy circumstance gives a

structural unity not found in Tom S er, wherein the incidents

are confined, in the main, to a sleepy river town. The im-

portance of the river in the story is noted by Van Doren:

Five short chapters and Huck leaves his native village for the ampler world of the picaresque. An interval of captivity with his father . . . and then the boy slips out upon the river which is the home of his soul. There he realizes every dream he has ever had. . . . At the same time, this life is not too safe. Jim may be caught and taken from his benefactor. With all his craft, Huck is actually, as a boy, very much at the mercy of the rough men who infest the river. Adventure complicates and enhances his freedom. And what adventure I It never ceases, but flows on as naturally as the river which furthers the plot by conveying the characters from point to point.

The river carries Huck into intrigues of great variety,

into close company with the principals of a Kentucky feud.

It introduces him to the "duke" and the "king",' who in turn

Van Doren, op. cit., p. 171.

Ibid., pp. 172-173. 18

acquaint him with roguery in the extreme - fake Shakespearean drama and frauds of huge proportions.

The journey gets its serious beginning when Huck, dis-

guised as a girl, visits hrs. Judith Loftus and learns from

her that a search for the fugitive Jim is underway. Somehow

the river carries Huck and Jim beyond Cairo, the port where

Jim was to leave the river for the free territory of Illinois.

It is reasonable to suppose that this happens in the fog

which is described in the fifteenth chapter. Jim's original purpose is conveniently forgotten as the raft goes deeper

and deeper into slave territory.

In the events of the last two-thirds of the book, Huckts

experience, like the river, begins to widen so as to embrace

more of life on the banks. The feuding episode, the murder of

old Boggs, and the attempted fraud of the king and duke upon

the Wilks family are examples of this aspect of the work.

Such scenes as the pretended conversion of the king at the

camp meeting seem to run contrary to the main current of the novel. This particular one is not convincing, since it is too highly exaggerated.

When Huck loses Jim after the Wilks episode, he finds

that the fraudulent king and duke have made their escape.

Free of their hold upon him, Huck sets out to find Jim and discovers that his Negro friend is being held as a runaway slave on the nearby farm of Silas Phelps. By an unusual quirk of circumstance, Silas Phelps is the uncle of Tom Sawyer, 19

and in the guise of this nephew, Huck gains entrance to the

household. The coming of the real Tom complicates matters

and provides many comic situations. Mark Twain's greatest

work now comes to a sprawling completion which is unworthy of

the book as a whole. The two boys, upon the insistence of the romantic Tom Sawyer, embark upon a fantastic scheme for

freeing Jim, who has been freed already, as Tom knows. This

travesty on romantic fiction takes up the last quarter of

the book and generally weakens the whole structure. However,

the work is saved from anti-climax by the superior comic worth of this section.

Mark Twain warned readers against looking for a plot in

Huckleberry Finn on pain of death. But it does have a plot, if somewhat sketchy, that is vastly superior to that of its companion-piece, Tom Sawyer.lThe freedom of its arrangement lends greatness to the story - a masterful combination of exciting incident and satiric point. It is true that the prolonged episodes of the Grangerford-Shepherdson feud and the antics of the "royal" rogues detract from the central theme, the fortunes of Huck and Jim. The story as a whole is a delightful, original narrative with a powerful force tugging at its wandering plot sequences - the noble Mississippi, which iark Twain was so thoroughly qualified to use by reason of his love and knowledge of its life and lore. Huckleberr Finn, more definitely than any other of Mark Twain's novels, reveals his artistry in dealing with native materials in a convincing native way.

llWwMW*WJW4WWAMW CHAP TER III

THIME NOVELS 0F HISTORIC CAL INTEREST: TED PRINCE AND TE PAUPER, A CONNECTICUT YANO EIN KIG ARTHUR S

COURT, AND PERSONAL ICPLLECTINS OF JOAN OF ARC

Mark Twain believed that fiction based on fact is

superior to purely imaginative writing.1 He has three outstanding novels in the field of historical fiction, each with entirely different purposes and points of view. The structure

of these novels, of course, owes much to events and situations

already created, but the evidences of Mark Twain's clever invention and fertile imagination are present in them. The Prince and. the Paur, a pure romance, is backed by exacting historical research but owes its life to the devices of Mark Twain. The rollicking burlesque, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, owes more to the mind of the story-teller than to its sixth-century English background. His Personal Recol- lections of Joan of Are, the lyrical account of a maid in silver armor, enjoys its literary prestige by virtue of Mark Twain's tender treatment of the beautiful martyr's life, rather than by its historical setting. Mark Twain used history to

L. T. Dickinson, "The Sources of the Prince and Pauper," the Modern Lana otes, LIV (February, 1949), 104.

20 21 suit his own purposes, making it serve as a background for the story he wanted to tell and the things he felt compelled to say.

Structure of The Prince and the. Pupe~r

A. B. Paine described the plot of The Prince and the

uper as one typical of Mark Taints workmnanship. 2 The underlying pattern of the story is the exchanging of places

in the world by two boys of widely divergent stations so that each may learn the burdens of the other's life and thereby be moved to a broader tolerance and understanding.

The development of this tale presented many problems, chief among them the selection of a youthful English monarch who should somehow trade places with a beggar boy. Mark Twain finally chose the little son of Henry VIII, who reigned briefly as Edward VI and whose time was marked by a singularly mild rule. The tolerance of Edward VI he proposed to explain by the king's having gone to school to his own laws.

The next perplexing problem was how to effect the change in station between a pauper and a prince. The old device of changelings in the cradle, which he used later in PuddInhead

Wilsoa, occurred to him, but it could not provide the situation in the playful interchange of raiment, with its startling

2 A. B. Paine, "The Prince and the Pauper," Mentor, XVI (December, 1928), 8. 22

results. From this point, Mark Twain worked out a detailed synopsis of the plot before he began to write. 3

Mark Twain's debt in the construction of The Prince and the Pauper may be traced to at least two sources. Charlotte

M. Yongets Tlbe Prince and the P , a story of the submerged personality of Richard de Montfort of England, first gave him the idea for his novel.

It was a story of a sort and with a setting that Mark Twain loved, and as he read there came a correlative idea: not only would he disguise a prince as a beggar, but a beggar as a prince. He would have them change places in the world, and each learn the burdens of the other's life. It is proper to say here that there is no further point of resemblance between The Prince and the Pauper and the tale that inspi'c iT.V4

The other source is _aeEn , a seventeenth

century English book by Richard T ead and Francis Kirkman. 5

Mark Twain begins his work with a preface designed,

apparently, to give credence to his story and gain a respect-

ful hearing for it.

I will set down a tale as it was told to me by one who had it of his father, which latter had it of his father, this last having in like manner had it of his father - and so on, back and still back, three hundred years and more, the fathers transmitting it to the sons and so preserving it. It may be history, it may be only a legend, a tradition. It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it could have happened. It may be

3rbid., p. 9.

4The Prince and the Pauper, fI, in introduction by A. B. Paine, XVII. 5Dickinson, _ cit., p. 104. 23

that the wise and learned believed it in the old days; it may be that only the unlearned and the simple loved it and credited it. 6

This preface is followed by a letter of Hugh Latimer,

Bishop of Vorster,, to Lord Cromwell on the birth of the

Prince of Wales, afterward Edward VI. This is a national manuscript preserved by the British government, and it ex-

presses the rejoicing of the people at the birth of the long-

awaited heir, extolling the goodness of God in dealing with his English subjects. This letter must have been employed for the same purpose as the preface, to give credit to the narrative that f ollows.

Chapter I quickly tells of two births on the same day

in London of the second quarter of the sixteenth century -

that of Tom Canty, prince of poverty of Offal Court, and

Edward Tudor, PrInce of Wales and darling of all England.

About fourteen years elapse between the first and second chapters. Tom Canty, despite his unsavory environment and inhm an treatment at the hands of his thieving father and his cruel grandmother, is pictured growing up with dreams of grandeur. A foreshadowing of events to come is shown in

Tom's neighborhood leadership and in his clever imitations of royalty.

Dreams quickly become reality when Tom ventures far from home, and, crowding close to the palace gate for a

e.Prince and the Pauper, XI, Mark Twain t s preface, xxiii.

Rzolm- 24

glimpse of a real prince, is mistreated by the guards and

championed by the Prince of Wales himself. The two boys are soon telling each other about themselves, the idea of the ex- change of clothing occurring to them as a novel experiment.

At first overcome by their identical appearance, the boys

exclaim that no change seems to have been made. A chance

remark sends the prince away, still clad in the pauper's

rags, to punish the guard who so ill-used his new friend. On his way out he places the Great Seal of England in a safe place in the chamber. Seized as the beggar intruder, the prince is then thrown without the gate, and the story begins in earnest.

If the prince or Tom Canty had either told the whole story of the playful interchange of raiment in a logical, straightforward way, the whole situation might have been righted in short order. This does not happen, the incoherent claims of both being taken for madness and dealt with accordingly.

Mark Twain follows first the troubles of the little prince as he is cuffed and derided for his pretensions, at last falling into the hands of Tom t s father and grandmother, who beat him soundly. The chance remark of how John Canty applies the cudgel to an indistinguishable form in the dark- ened court is important, as the victim is later revealed to be the good Father Andrew, well beloved priest and friend and teacher of Tom Canty. When Father Andrew dies the next

* QRR 4 - , , . , , - - "'. - - - f, 25

moMring, John Canty and his family flee for their lives.

This episode gives the little prince an opportunity to escape.

This he does and finds a loyal friend and protector in the

gallant Miles Hendon, who determines to take him home to Hendon Hall with him.

Tom Canty's position is unusual in the extreme, as he

is readily accepted by the court as the true prince gone mad.

A decree of the king prevents his further protests against his royal estate. Suspense is created by the doubt expressed by the Lord St. John, who is inclined to believe Tomts claims.

Fear of condemnation for treason soon closes his mouth, however. Tom's poor mother, with a mother's instinct, doubts

that the boy who claims to be the prince is really her son.

She devises a test, but failing in it, she writhes in be-. wilderment, unable to do anything about a strange, unexplain- able situation. The change is complete.

In the meantime, the king dies, and Tom is proclaimed king, to be crowned at a later date. The true king hears of this, but he is powerless to exert his will, becoming lost from Miles Hendon and falling into intrigues of beggars and thieves, into the captivity of a mad hermit, and finally in- to prison. Tom, meanwhile, takes up his duties at first reluctantly, but he gradually begins to enjoy his new position, accupying himself in issuing decrees of tolerance and mercy and proving to himself that a commoner can be a king. His reign, however, is hampered by one rather embarrassing 26

circumstance - the Great Seal of England seems to be hopelessly lost.

Careful handling of many adventures brings Miles and the king together again, and the good Miles sets out with his

little friend to his ancestral home, where he fondly expects

a prodigal's welcome, and where he plans to cure his dear

little beggar friend of his delusions of grandeur. He finds

to his sorrow that his father and elder brother have died and that the estate has passed into the hands of his rascal

brother, Sir Hugh, who has passed Miles off as dead and has

married his intended bride. Miles and the king return to

London just in time for the coronation.

The greatest scene of the book is the famous recognition

procession, which provides its most stirring crisis. The

spurious king drives through the streets of London in his

coronation finery bowing and smiling to the people, when he

suddenly recognizes his own mother in the throngs of humanity.

Taken completely by surprise, he makes a startled, involuntary

gesture which is familiar to his mother. She falls at his

feet, but he spurns her, and the guards drag her away. The

great occasion is changed for poor Tom; he no longer wants to be king.

The true king arrives just as the crown is about to be placed upon Tom's unwilling head. He quickly proves his identity by giving the location of the Great Seal. Then it is imown that Tomhas been using the Great Seal of England to crack nuts with, there is no longer any doubt of his enforced

MWAIKORNWAVOWARgomm 27

duplicity. This incident is the climax of the story; it

brings the action to its highest point. There is a moment

of suspense when the real king does not readily find the

Great Seal, but when it is discovered, all doubt vanishes

from the minds of the courtiers. The coronation of the child king, Edward VI, immediately follows.

From this point begins the denouement, the resolving of the action of the story to a satisfactory romantic conclusion.

Edward, practicing the lessons learned in his valuable exile,

begins to reward his faithful friends and to make needed re-

f ormations in his kingdom. Ile makes Tom Canty King's Ward,

providing him a distinctive uniform, insuring him prestige

and honor by this public symbol of the king's favor. He pro-

vides for Tom's longsuffering mother and twin sisters; Mark

Twain states simply that Tomts father was never heard of

again. His grandmother is not mentioned; it is reasonable to suppose that she had already gone to her reward. The story

ends well for Miles Hendon; the Knight of the Kingdom of

Dreams and Shadows is made a real belted earl. He learns that his sweetheart only repudiated him to save his life, and with

the convenient death of his villain brother, he makes her his bride and takes possession of his ancestral estate.

The Prince and the ?auper has a conventional plot pattern, aptly fitted to the material of a historical romance. The

execution of Mark Twain's idea simply required a pauper upon the throne and a prince upon the highways. When he had suc- cessfully accomplished this interchange, his two little

If - -W-4" ,,, ,- - I 4"T0~11 m:, -'- , -- , -,.- -,j,-, , J6, -,- 28

heroes were able to work out their problems in an atmosphere

of actuality. Mark Twain follows their fortunes alternately,

giving first the experiences of the prince and then returning

to the pauper at the court. He shows the difficulties of each

in adjusting to unfamiliar situations, presenting graphic

pictures of their struggles to regain their former ways of

life and their protestations against the systems imposed upon

them. Tom finally succumbs because he is powerless to do

otherwise, but Edward maintains his claims to royalty, never

letting go of his royal demeanor and his demands for kingly

privilege. It is easy to see that he is the stronger charac-

ter of the two and to foresee his final victory.

Structurally, The Prince and the Pauper is stronger than Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Although it is similar to

Tom SaWyer in its short chapters, each containing a separate

episode, it is more closely knit; and the central interest, that of lessons learned by both the pauper and the prince,

clearly dominates the whole. There are not so many digressions as in Huckleberry Finn, but there are incidents which do little, if anything, to advance the plot. The burning of the

two Baptist women in the presence of Miles and the boy king fits the theme of the story, but it does not motivate the action. A fairly compact structural unit which adheres to orthodox literary standards, The Prince and the Pauper is more highly developed than any of Mark Twain's preceding novels. 29

Structure of A Connecticut Yankee in Xing Arthur- Court

Referring to Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in K

Arthur's Court, William Dean Howells says:

It is a great fancy, transcending in aesthetic beauty the invention in The Prince and the Pauper, with all the delightful nT affe ting Implications of that charming fable, and excelling the heart- rending story in which Joan of Arc lives and prophesies and triumphs and suffers.7

Basically, the Yankee is a serious social satire buried beneath a burlesque of English life and traditions. To expose the glorified days of knight errantry as a form of childish barbarism, Mark Twain conceived an elaborate scheme for his novel. He would transport a nineteenth century mechanic through the mazes of time to the mythical court of

King Arthur. This romantic device is a common one, but the genius of Mark Twain is revealed in the realistic handling of it.

The book is a series of episodes, but there is definite system in their arrangement. An outstanding connecting link throughout the story is the promise of a trial of strengh between Hank Morgan, the hero, and Sir Sagramor, his rival.

The secret progress of the inventions, the gradual modern innovations of the Yankee Boss, and the rivalry existing between him and Merlin also advance the plot. The romantic

N. D. Howells, Ma Mark Twain, pp. 174-175.

9, , ,. , , , - ,- -'s, -, " - 41 - . 4,909,* 30

element is not forgotten, being supplied by Sandy, faithful companion of his enforced wandering, and devoted wife and mother later.

From the time that Hank mistakes Camelot for Bridgeport

until he electrocutes the chivalric hordes and proclaims the Republic of Britain, he promotes independence and dis- loyalty to the established order in government, religion, and society. It is vastly fascinating that he does this without the knowledge of the pets of privilege and remains in their confidence so long. But Mark Twain never fails to emphasize

that Hank works with thirteen centuries at his back, which easily outweighs all other considerations.

The ease with which this story launches into the movement of fiction is one of its distinguishing features. Having been struck on the head during a quarrel in a New England arms factory, Hank Morgan awakes to find himself in Arthur's England of the sixth century. He is immediately thrown into a dungeon to await burning at the stake of the twenty-first of June. The resourceful Yankee remembers that there was a total eclipse of the sun on June 21, 528, and saves himself by pretending to darken the sun and destroy the kingdom. Thus he becomes the Boss, a greater than Merlin, who becomes his deadly rival.

The lack of mechanical devices in Arthur's realm and the illiteracy of the people cause the Boss to set about a multi- tude of inventions and reforms. All this he does cautiously 31

and with as much secrecy as possible, for he fears the Church.

When Sir Sagramor challenges the Boss to a duel, the court decides that he must have some worthy adventures to prepare himself for the conflict. Accordingly, he gets himself appropriately armored and sets off, somewhat reluctantly,

with the beautiful, guileless Alisande to rescue forty-five young princesses, hopelessly languishing in a gloomy castle as captives of three stupendous brothers. A fire-belching

dragon by virtue of his pistol, he easily defends himself and Sandy on their journey. After sundry adventures, in- cluding an encounter with the cruel and shallow Morgan LeFay, the Boss and Sandy come to the ogres' castle, which turns out to be a pigsty with a wattled fence around it and hogs in it. Hank ransoms the enchanted princesses, really just pigs, from the swineherds and drives them home, being careful not to treat them in any way unbecoming to their rank. This episode is important to the story in that it introduces Sandy, it gives Hank a better view of the task before him by acquainting him further with the superstitions and unjust practices in society, and it shows the Yankee's willingness to combine ancient and modern aspects of civilization as he works toward his ultimate goal of the democratization and modernization of Old England.

An interesting minor thread of plot is the rivalry between Hank, the mechanic, and Merlin, the magician. Their 32

encounters advance the main plot by continually adding to the

popularity of the Yankee and the discredit of Merlin. The

triumph of Merlin comes only after .Hank has demonstrated

modern tactics to the limit of his powers. The victory of

Merlin allows him to put the Boss to sleep for thirteen

centuries so that he may awake to tell his story to the modern world.

The third outstanding episode of the story is the journey

through the realm made by Hank and King Arthur. Anxious that the king be convinced of the suffering of his people, Hank

persuades him to disguise himself as a humble peasant, and

their adventure begins. The king proves courageous and kind, learning much from his experience with the people. A crisis

of pathos mingled with suspense ensues when Hank and the king are captured and sold as slaves, then sentenced to the gallows when they try to escape. Hank ingeniously sends a message to his knights by one of his secret telephones, and they arrive in the nick of time, riding on bicycles I

Hank returns to Camelot in glory to f ight Sir Sagramor.

He easily wins, as he is unhampered by armor and uses his two marvelous weapons, the lasso and the pistol. In this encounter, he deals the killing blow to knight-errantry and paves the way for the march of civilization. This is the climax of the story, the high point in Hankts achievements# When Hank openly proceeds to his plan for overthrowing the established church and of establishing a republican 33

government with universal suffrage, his reverses begin. On the advice of doctors, servants of the Church which wants

him out of the way, Hank takes his wife and child on a

cruise, only to return to find an interdict placed upon the kingdom to destroy his work. Hank makes one last heroic

effort by declaring a republic. Soon the chivalry of

England is marching against him and into the jaws of death

by electrocution. He operates this stratagem from Merlin's

cave with the help of his loyal lieutenant Clarence and

fif ty-two "West Pointers." At the height of this success the

Boss is wounded, and no one suspects that the old woman who

comes to nurse him is Merlin in disguise. A postscript by Clarence tells how Merlin pronounces the curse of thirteen

centuriest sleep upon the helpless Boss. Perhaps the most

exquisite part of the book is the return of the Yankee to his

own century, a vision of his beloved sixth century wife and child before his eyes.

A symmetrically developed romance, Mark Twain's Yankee

has an elastic scheme which allows it to play back and forth

between the sixth and the nin teenth centuries, bringing out

the salient features of both. The dream-like quality of the

narrative frees the author of making explanations of its prodigies.

The purposes of the book - to expose the evils of a perpetuated monarchy, the cru lty of human exploitation by king and church, and the vileness of religious bigotry -

.6 34

determine the structure to a great extent. Hank has to use

any means at hand to accomplish his aims. Accordingly, he

soon brings upon himself the displeasure of Merlin, arch re-

presentative of ignorance and superstition. This fact

accounts for many of the episodes, such as the fire-works

display and the dynamiting of the holy well. Hank's determi-

nation to show King Arthur the true condition of his subjects

results in the slave march and their condemnation to death, from which they are dramatically rescued by Launcelot and his

bicycle-riding knights. The ridiculous tournament, with his encounter with Sir Sagramor and finally with all the knights

of the Round Table, is at once Hank's concession to chivalry

and his opportunity to pour ridicule upon this barbaric

custom. It is a crisis that builds his popularity to such a high point that the church manages to get him out of the way

on a cruise so that the effect of his accomplishments may be

effectively destroyed by the interdict. Catastrophe comes;

the book ends in futility, for civilization must perish when greed and corruption are backed by ignorance and superstition.

The structure, a series of picaresque episodes, is well-

adapted to the theme. It allows the practical-minded Yankee mechanic to carry out his master's purposes. Howells seems to have the last word.

Of all the fanciful schemes of fiction, it pleases me most, and I give myself with absolute delight to its notion of a keen East Hartford Yankee 35

finding himself, by a reactionary spell, at the court of King Arthur of Britain, and becoming part of the sixth century with all the customs and ideas of the nineteenth in him and about him.

Structure of Personal Recollections of Joan ofA r

Mark Twain considered Joan of Arc his greatest work. 9 It

was a labor of love, the culmination of a lifelong interest in the life of the Maid of Orleans.

The story is wrought with loving care upon a device

which seems to have been original with Mark Twain.

It professes to be a personal memoir of the peasant girl of Domremy who became the Deliverer of France, written by one Louis de Conte, who was the playmate of her childhood and afterward her secretary and the companion of her brief, glorious career up to the day of her fiery martyrdom.1 0

This simple device allowed Mark Twain great freedom in the

treatment of Joants history. It was easy to write; in fact,

he confided to H. H. Rogers that he merely held the pen, the story writing itself. 1 1

Mark Twain used another literary artifice in this work.

He published it as a translation from the French by Jean

Francois Alden, a ruse possibly designed to give the book a respectful hearing before its authorship could become known.

SHowells, op. cit., p. 174.

9 According to A. B. Paine in his introduction to Joan of Arc., XII, xv. 10 From foreward of Henry Van Dyke to Joan of Arc, xi-xii.

A. B. Paine, Mark Twain - A Biogaraph, XXXI, 989. 36

The work is composed of three books: "In Domremy,t" "In Court and Camp,t" and. "Trial and. Martyrdom." The venerable

Sieur Louis de Conte begins his tale in 1492. His purpose, he says, is to give his great-great-grand nephews and nieces an eye-witness account of that "most noble life that was ever born into this world save only One.l2

Mark Twain is at his best as he describes the Fairy

Tree of Domremy and tells its meaning for the children of that peasant village. He makes the place of the tree, where Joan later sees her visions and hears her voices, a holy place for all the children, showing that others also of her number may have had mystic experiences. Thus he gives the saintly Joan a proper background.

A dramatic foreshadowing of Joants heroic demeanor in the trial at Rouen is found at the outset of the story as she defends the banished fairies before the parish priest. She argues, 'Its a sin a sin, anyway, even if one did not intend to coimmit it?t,1l3

Many other instances prove her to be no ordinary child.

Her kindness and complete unselfishaness are demonstrated by her gracious reception of the poor, wandering outcast; and her intense patriotism is evidenced by her ecstasy over her bravery in the face of danger is shown by her courageous handling of the village maniac.

12 Joan of Arc, XVII, xxviii.

.13Ibid.,p. 17. It is extremely interesting to note the only harsh speech which vark Twain attributes to Joan of Arc. A

Burgundian priest has come to Domremy to inform the people

of the hopelessness of the French cause and the expediency

of swearing allegiance to the English regime. Looking coolly and soberly into his face, the little Joan says that she wishes his traitor's head were struck from his body, if it might be

the will of God. This strikes Twain's keynote for his inter-

pretation of Joan. For all her tender compassion and her normally peaceful disposition, she is intensely patriotic,

ready to fight and die for France, as God wills it.

The skillful handling of Joan's voices is superb. She

is represented as sober, weighted down with the burden of her

beloved France as she first hears the divine counsel and sees

her mystic visions. Then, when she receives the divine com-

mand, when she realizes what she must do, her old-time energy

and fire come back; her heart is light, and her spirits are

high. Her companion, the Sieur de Conte, testifies to see-

ing the shadow of the Archangel Michael; but he does not see his face or hear his voice, as does Joan. This is a device

which makes the scene credible, it in no way lessens the superiority of the Maid or desecrates her peculiar experience with divinity.

From this point, the story moves with astonishing rapidity. Joan goes to Vaucoufeurs, is scorned by the gover- nor, and then wins the confidence of the villagers and her family by repudiating the claims of the Paladin, village 38

braggart, for her hand in marriage. This is the only

romantic allusion made to Joan, and it is evidently an in"

vention of Mark Twain to gain favor for her. This episode ends Book I.

Joan's singular gift of prophecy is another element

which advances the plot. She is the sooner sent to Orleans

by Baudricourt for her tuncanny knowledge of the French cause in that area so far removed from Vaucouleurs.

The brothers of Joan, the bragging Paladin, and other

villagers join Joan's ranks, each in the manner and at the time that she has already predicted. The great military

leaders, the Bastard of Orleans and La Hire, accept her after

her audience with the Dauphin. She rides to glory, lifting

the siege of Orleans and crowning the Dauphin at Rheims, as

commanded by her voices. Here Mark Twain wanted to stop.

However, Henry Miles Alden of Harper's Magazine urged him to t continue Joan s story to its tragic end, saying that to

abandon it at the high point of triumph would be the same as

if the Savior's career had ended with His entry into Jeru- salem.1 4

At about this point an interesting minor thread of plot enters the story. It is the hopeless love of the Sieur de Conte for Joan's friend and confidante, Catherine Boucher, and undeniable invention of Mark Twain's fertile mind. This

14 Ibid., p. xviii. 39

element is advantageous to the main story, as Catherine

furnishes the womanly association needed by Joan and gives her an outlet for the expression of her deepest emotions.

It is to Catherine that Joan first foretells her doom. 'Ihe home of the Boucher family in Orleans serves as a headquarters for Joan and her loyal retinue. It is notable that De Conte does not fall in love with Joan, but succumbs easily to

Catherine, who he himself asserts was not so beautiful or noble as the Maid. Indeed, he cannot seem to think of Joan as an ordinary mortal, except when he is relating her enjoyment of some of the trivial incidents of the camp.

When Joan has made good her divine commission, her fortunes take an abrupt downward direction and culminate in martyrdom, highlighted by her imprisonment and the dramatic trial at Rouen ,

Never defeated by the enemy, Joan is defeated by her own k1ig#, when he refuses to permit her to storm Paris and make

France truly free. Retreating,Joan engages in battle with a combined force of English and Burgundians and is taken captive at Compiegne.

Mark Twain represents the English as willing to pay the ransom for Joan's release in order to place her fate in the hands of the Church, which could not only take her life but destroy her influence by proclaiming her a heretic.

Rouen is chosen for the trial, and Joan begins her progress to the stake. Betrayed into signing a paper denying 40

her voices and declaring herself a heretic, Joan soon realizes her mistake and gives the fatal answer - that she believes

her voices came from God. Pronounced a relapsed heretic, Joan dies the awful death of fire, clinging to a wooden cross

and praying to God and the saints.

Mark Twain, not content with the dramatic sacrifice of

his beautiful heroine as a fitting conclusion for his work,

adds postscripts in which he disposes satisfactorily of

Joan's family, f 'iends, and followers. He returns, however, to pay another high tribute to the incomparable Joan of Arc, the embodiment of patriotism for all time.

The writing of biography should be comparatively free from plot building, since its structure already exists.

Mark Twaints Joan of Arc is in part romantic fiction, however, and may be discussed as such. Mark Twain had difficulty in following the discipline of set form for his material, and the demands of tragedy he found exacting in the extreme.

These facts may account for his departures from the set routine of the biography of Joan into improvisations such as the adventures of the Paladin and the unfortunate love of the Sieur de Conte.

The action of Joan of Arc begins slowly, moves steadily through the first of Joan's military career, and suddenly speeds her to glory, only to be completely halted with her capture. The narrative does not resume its lively pace until the climaxing trial at Rouen. From the time that Joan enters

-gwm -, 4XMF, -- m 41

the military prison at this scene of her trial, her fate is evident. The reluctance of the author to reach the inevitable tragic conclusion of the story is felt in the last pages. Joan's being allowed at the last moment to receive extreme unction and her heroic approach to her death make a typical romantic ending for her glorious, but tragic, career.

"MICA - , -viW.,- CHAPTER IV

A COMPARISON OF PTUD'NHEAD "WILSON AD TH1cSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS

In 1892 at Nauheim, Germany, Mark Twain thought he would write a little story, a "howling farce," about a youthful Italian freak consisting of two heads and four arms joined to a single body with a single pair of legs. The story soon took over and began to write itself. Mark Twain found it out of all proportion and loaded with characters unnecessary to what pur- ported to be the main narrative. He stepped in and drowned these offenders, but he soon found his well scarcely large enough to hold them all comfortably. Taking a fresh start on the problem, he discovered the structural flaw. There were two stories, a farce and a tragedy, battling each other for prominence. He immediately divorced them, but he left the characters much the same in both. Ostensibly, however, he performed an operation upon his Siamese twins, making them separate individuals for his Pudd.nhead Nilson tragedy.

Structure of PuddInhead Wilson

Pudd.nhead Wilson, a tragedy of the Old South with its vanishing chivalry and peculiar system of human bondage, has for its setting Dawson's Landing, Missouri, easily recogni- zable as the Hannibal of Mark Twain's boyhood. The initiating events transpire in 1830. After six short descriptive

42 43

paragraphs, the reader finds himself being introduced to some

of the principals in the drama - York Driscoll, Pembroke Howard,

Colonel Cecil Burleigh Essex, Percy Driscoll, Roxana, and David Wilson.

The first incident is the birth of two boy babies on

February 1, 1830, in the home of Percy Driscoll; one to him, and his wife and one to his unmarried white Negro slave girl, Roxana. This is followed closely by the death of Mirs.

Driscoll, a convenient circumstance for the development of Roxanats later purposes. Roxana is left in complete charge of the babies, who are almost identical in appearance, another advantage for the scheming Roxana.

At this same time M1r. David Wilson, fresh from college and law school, arrives to set up his practice in Dawson's

Landing. A chance remark brands him a fool, a ttpuddtnhead,t and his career is finished before he can begin it. He remains in town, contenting himself with odd jobs and a peculiar hobby, fingerprinting. Iilson religiously keeps his "records," fingerprints of every man, woman, and child in Dawson's Landing. These are to serve him in good stead when he bursts forth from social ostracism to become the village hero.

The story really begins when Roxana, terrified with the thought that her son may grow up and be sold down the river, changes her charges in the cradle, thus protecting her own darling and insuring him, she thinks, a glorious future, while consigning the rightful heir to the oblivion of a Negro 44

household slave, or worse. Mark Twain carefully explains how

this change is made possible, and it is credible. Driscoll

rarely ever sees the children; and when he does, he admits that

he cannot tell them apart except by their dress. Valet de

Chambre becomes the pet of the household easily enough, and Thomas a Becket Driscoll becomes merely a little "nigger."

Artful fIoreshadowings of the new Tomt s adult career in

crime are shown by his capriciousness in his growing up, his cruel treatment of "Chambers" and Roxana.

When the boys are fifteen, Percy Driscoll dies, leaving

Roxana her freedom and delivering his ostensible son into the

hands of his childless brother, Judge York Driscoll, and his

wife. Roxana is triumphant. She goes off chambermaiding on the Mississippi, and her son eventually goes to Yale, like any young gentleman.

At this point Mark Twain introduces his wonderful twin

creation, the auspicious young Counts Luigi and Angelo Capello

of Italy and the world. These two arrive in Dawson's Landing

to take up their residence with Aunt Patsy Cooper. The

brothers create such a sensation that one wonders if Mark Twain

did not give them something besides a title of nobility to

recommend them. They are his Siamese twins of that farcical extravaganza, Those Extraordinary Twins, but somehow they are supposed to have become just ordinary twins. 2

2 1n his preface to Those Extraordinary Twins, Mark says, Twain "I took those twins apart and made two separate men of them." This seems highly unlikely, as the brothers are never parted for one moment in Pudd'nhead Wilson. 45

The advent of the young Italians follows immediately the return of the native, Tom Driscoll, from Yale. On the same day that Puddfnhead Wilson is expecting a visit from the twins, he sees a strange girl in Tom Driscoll's bedroom. Mark Twain lets the reader know that this is Tom in disguise, preparing some neighborhood burglaries to pay off his gambling debts, kept secret from his uncle.

At this point Mark Twain hunts up Roxy and returns her to Dawsonts Landing, where she learns from the other Negroes that her son's dissipation has been discovered by Judge

Driscoll, who has disinherited him. Cut off thus from an anticipated source of easy revenue, Roxana goes in anger to Tom and reveals his true parentage and rightful station in life to the thunder-struck profligate. It is small comfort to Tom to be the son of Colonel Cecil Burleigh Essex when he has one thirty-second part of Negro blood and salable as a slave, if revealed. Roxana cleverly blackanails him, forcing him to pay her to keep quiet. Tom confesses his gambling and his petty burglaries to Roxana.

Tom next drops in at Pudd'nhead Wilson's home, where he, Wilson, and the twins discuss palmistry and fingerprinting.

Puddtnhead, reading Luigits palm, makes the startling discovery of Luigi's having killed someone, and the twins quickly corroborate his finding. Without hesitation or embarrassment, they tell how Luigi, in order to save Angelo, killed a man with a costly Oriental dirk, now in their possession. This 46

revelation gives Tom an idea for a real haul and provides him something to hold against the twins, if it should be necessary.

The twins next attend a rousing meeting of the village

rum party, where Tom makes the mistake of referring to the

twins as a "human philopena.t tLuigi accordingly gives him

a titanic kick that lands him in the audience, who in turn

throw him over their heads to the back of the auditorium.

This is an important crisis, for it starts the twins upon a determined course to establish themselves in the community,

and it speeds Tom upon his downward way to tragedy. It is

the prelude to the duel and election episodes.

Tom's failure to challenge Luigi to a duel fires the

rage of old Judge Driscoll so that he destroys the will,

again disinheriting Tom. The Judge himself issues a challenge

to Luigi, who readily accepts it. This leaves Tom, unaware that his uncle has remade the will in preparation for the duel, to meditate upon how he may restore himself to his uncle's good graces.

Roxana advises Tom to sell his stolen articles and pay

his gambling debts. At Puddtnhead Wilson's house Tom learns that the twins have notified pawnbrokers and police far and wide of the loss of their prize, the costly Indian dagger.

Tom stares ruin in the face, Imowing that he dare not offer the stolen knife for sale. PuddInhead discomfits him further by announcing that he will name the thief, if the dagger is found. 47

At this time Wilson receives his first honor from the town, an invitation of the Democratic party to run for mayor.

Luigi, candidate of the rum party, is ostensibly his opponent;

but the town seems to regard both twins as nominated for the post.

The duel is fought, and no one is injured except the

seconds. Tom, learning of the remaking: of the will, regrets that the Judge has survived, as he still has no way of paying his creditors. Roxy here comes to his aid, suggesting that he take his loot to St. Lomis and sell it so that he can pay

interest on his obligations for at least six months. She exacts his promise to circumspect behavior. Feeling self- righteous, Tom first tells his uncle that he refused to fight Luigi, since he is a confessed assassin. Then he plants suspicion in the minds of the townspeople by implying that the twins, if they ever possessed a marvelous knife, did not lose it. Victoriously he sets out for St. Louis, only to be robbed by a brother thief.

This crisis in Tomts affairs causes him to return to Roxana, who, in the greatest scene of the book, offers herself for sale into slavery to save him. They plan so that

Tom may repurchase her in a year, but the wily Tom sells her unconditionally down the river.

Judge Driscoll, on the eve of election, defeats the twins by initimating that Luigi is an assassin. This thrust elects PuddInhead Wilson and sends the brothers from society in humiliation. 48

Tom goes to St. Louis jubilant in his revenge and the turn of his fortunes. At this high point in his career Roxana escapes from slavery and returns to threaten him with exposure

if he does not procure money from his uncle to buy her back and sell her to herself again. Unvilling to ask his uncle for money, Tom returns to steal it, killing Judge Driscoll with the stolen dagger as he makes his escape. The twins are the first to arrive at the murder scene, and their presence, with their bloody knife, quickly condemns them. Tom, now rich and independent, repurchases Roxyts freedom and returns to Dawson's Landing to find Luigi charged with homicide, with

Angelo accessory to it. Tom is once more jubilant, he thinks he occupies an impregnable position.

This time it is Puddt nhead Wilson who fetches Tom down. Wilson, agreeing to defend Luigi, makes a startling discovery. His fingerprint records reveal the duplicity of

Roxana in changing the babies in the cradle. How Wilson failed to detect this in all his years of careful study of his records Mark Twain fails to explain. Be that as it may,

Wilson now sees the whole picture; he also discovers that

Tom's prints match those on the knife handle. In a speech which is a masterpiece in logic, Wilson exposes Tom as the murderer, telling in detail his story from seven months up- ward, not sparing Roxana. Tom is convicted, sentenced to prison, and later sold down the river as a part of his uncle's estate. 49

PuddInhead Wilson cannot be said to be episodic or

anecdotal in arrangement. The story moves forward without

waste of words or any unrelated incidents. The principle of

unity is strictly observed in that everything included in the story is necessary to the furtherance of the plot. When Mark

Tvain separated this story from Those Extraordinary Twins, he

automatically gave it the balance he was seeking. The

fortunes of the rascally Tom, his successes and his despair-

ings, with his crowning huniliation, form the focal points of

the story. The development of the long-suffering wilson from

puddInhead to village hero is only a side interest, but it

carried the action forward, linking the fortunes of the other

characters by their association with him. The twins and the glorious Roxana are indispensable props to the story.

Structure of Those Extraordinary Twins

This extravaganza is what is left of the original story

of the same name upon which 1ark Twain performed a literary

Caesarean operation, drawing out the tragedy already discussed, Pudd'nhead Wilson. This story, unlike PuddInhead Wils on, is

poorly plotted, if at all. It is a burlesque, pure and simple, from beginning to end and so needs no complicated plan to develop its ludicrous situations, which come up quite naturally out of one invention - the ridiculous physical make-up of the miraculous twins. There is, however, a rather large structural unity which is evidenced by the way in which all events contribute to the discomfort of the twins and add to the consternation of the villagers regarding them. 50

The story begins with Aunt Patsy Cooper of Dawson's

Landing as she tries to read a letter to her excited young daughter, Rowena. The two are about to receive lodgers,

twins who insist in the letter that they will not make any

more trouble than one roomer. In fact, they emphasize that

they have always slept in one bed and prefer it to all other

arrangements. The overwrought Rowena, filled with romantic

delusions, plies her mother with so many foolish questions

that Mark Twain tires of her and drops the matter until a boat arrives two days later with the extraordinary twins.

Throughout the story are interspersed notes by the

author in which he summarizes action, sets the stage for future events, and correlates this story with the events in

Pudd'nhead Wilson.

In the middle of the night a double-headed human creature with two pairs of arms on each shoulder, one trunk, and one pair of legs enters Aunt Patsyts humble abode and momentarily paralyzes the inmates. They, or it, introduce themselves as

Counts Angelo and Luigi Capello of Italy. They get to bed straightway, but Aunt Patsy and Rowena note that they are identical except for coloring and demeanor. Angelo is blonde and gentle, Luigi is brunette and quick-tempered. Another point of difference is suggested to the women when they hear singing emanating from their lodgers' room - the rough, loud voice of Luigi raised in a rousing barroom ballad against the sweet strains of Angelo's missionary hymn, "From Greenland's

Icy Mountains.'t 51

As a consequence of the time of their arrival, the twins are sprung the next morning upon the unsuspecting

populace of Dawson's Landing and create a great sensation,

not only because of their physical appearance, but because

they represent real nobility. One wonders if Mark Twain

was not using this device to satirize the privileged classes, as he was prone to do.

After Aunt Patsy's reception, Judge Driscoll claims the

twins for a drive and shows them off to the village, while

proudly showing off his village to them. On this occasion

it develops that Angelo is a devout Methodist and teetotaler, whereas Luigi is a Free Thinker and tippler. This wide divergence of the interests of the twins is the focal point of the story. The conflict is magnified by their possession of the same body. The struggle between the wills of Angelo and Luigi realistically motivates the story and culminates in their final destruction.

Angelo carefully explains to Aunt Patsy the peculiar operation of the mutual body. One has command of the truck and legs at a time, each for exactly one week. On the stroke of twelve midnight each Saturday, the body reverts to the other owner.

A slight complication enters the story at this point, when Aunt Patsy begins to believe that Rowena has fallen in love with Angelo. This, however, is added only to heighten 52

the ridiculous effect, as nothing ever comes of Rowenats affection for the gentle twin.

Luigi, being in control of the body during the first

week at Dawsonts Landing, takes Angelo with him to the Free

Thinkers' meeting and stays for the Baptist Bible class so

that these worthy people may see Angelo in the company of the

agnostics. From this, he takes Angelo to a meeting of an

anti-temperance society, the Sons of Liberty. Here Luigi

answers an insult of Tom Driscoll by kicking him over the

heads of this body. There follows a ridiculous trial scene

in which justice is frustrated because no one can determine

which twin is guilty. This, however, brings Puddfnhead

Wilson to the front and establishes him in a law practice.

As a result of this episode, a deputation comes to ask Wilson to run for mayor.

When Judge Driscoll hears of the shameful kicking in-

cident, he demands that Tom challenge Luigi to a duel, but

the cowardly Tom skulks out of doing so. The Judge then

challenges Luigi himself, and an equally ridiculous duel

takes place, in which no one is hurt except the seconds.

Angelo, receiving command of the body at twelve sharp, runs away from the field of honor to prevent being in a fight on the Sabbath day. The town now divides on an important question. Which is greater - the physical courage of Luigi, or the moral courage of Angelo in refusing to fight on the Sabbath? 53

Angelo has received a slight wound in the encounter,

and Luigi has to be subjected with his brother to the barbarous medical methods of the day. A seeker of truth,

Angelo has embraced the Baptist communion and announces his intention to be immersed in spite of the doctor's orders and

Luigits objections.

Angelo rises to a great height in popularity when he is baptized, thereby providing a show for the curious of the region. Luigi still retains his popularity with the rum

party. This division of the citizens brings about the

climax of the farce - the election of Luigi to the board of

aldermen in a race against Angelo.

There now arises the difficulty of swearing Luigi into

office. He poses a real problem. He cannot sit in the board of aldermen without his brother, and Angelo may not sit be-

cause he is not a member. The city government comes to a

standstill. hen the case is finally carried to court, Luigi

is judged guilty of upsetting the towns affairs and is

summarily hanged for it. Needless to say, this marks the demise of the innocent Angelo.

Mark 2 ain adds his final remarks in which he says that this tale had no purpose except to show the monstrous freak in all sorts of grotesque lights. He reiterates his story of how he discovered that this narrative and Pudd'- nhead Wilson were two separate tales and how he parted them, thinking it not practicable or rational to try to tell two 54

stories at the same time. Here he places his story-making

methods against what he calls those of the expert.

While actually two separate stories, PuddInhead Uilson

and Those Extraordinary Twins do have points of interdepen-

dence. When Mark Twain divided his original narrative, he

placed the tragic history of Roxana and her son in PuddInhead

Wilson, retaining the twins as minor characters. In this

story the twins figure in the downfall of Tom Driscoll; in Those Extraordinary Twins, of course, the action of the

entire narrative is carried forward by them. In PuddInhead

Wilson it is their implication in the kicking, the duel, and

the murder that brings them to the foreground; in Those

Extraordinar Twins their peculiar physical structure makes

them heroes. Tom Driscoll plays a major role in Puddinhead

Wilson and a minor part in the burlesque. Wilson's prominence is observable in both narratives, but particularly in

the tragedy. There are many repetitions of incidents and episodes, notable among them the kicking scene, the farce of a duel, and the final emergence of PuddInhead WJilson as a respected citizen. Mark Twaint s casual conception of the

Siamese twin farce has one value in that it projected the idea for the greater work, the tragedy of PuddInhead Wilson, a work unique in that it is constructed upon the theme of slavery.

These two stories are valuable as source materials for the investigation of Mark Twaints conceptions of structure, 55 mainly because he so frankly puts in many notes about his difficulties in writing them and how he quite arbitrarily solved the problem of their construction. In Pu dd t nhead Uilson MIvark Twain evolved a worth-while and well-constructed story from what comes nearest of all his books to being a literary nothing, Those Extraordinar 'i1S. CHAPTER V

A COMPARISCH OF THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER ANDT H'E

MAN JTHIAT CORRUP TD HADLEYBURG

When Mark Twain, in his old age, wrote The Mysterious

Stranger and. The Man that Corrted Hadleyburg, 1 he had developed his propensities as a plot architect far beyond his earlier manifestations. A. B. Paine, in his introduction to the volume of which The Man thatCor ed Hadleybur is the title story, ventures the opinion that this powerful arraignment of the human race is the greatest of all Mark

Twain's short stories, if not the greatest of all short stories. 2The Mysterious Stranger is Mark TWain's most baffling work philosophically, and it does not admit of an extended structural analysis. It has not the closely knit, logically arranged sequences of The Man that Corrupted

Hadleyburg. This lack of complexity causes its crises to come as surprises to the reader, for he cannot predict what an immortal being will do so easily as he can detect the logical arrangement of steps in the moral collapse of a

1 Both stories were written in 1897-98 in Vienna, Austria. See The Mysterioustrger, II, ix, and The Man That u XXIII, x, in introducftTi 7.B.Paine.

2 The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, XII, ix-x.

56 57

human community. Herein lies the chief difference in the internal structures of these two notable short works. Although The Man that Corrted adleyburg was written

first, I have chosen to discuss it after The &,iterious Stranger, as its highly complicated plot structure indicates

the extent of Mark Twain's growth as a builder of plots.

Structure of The rious Stranger

For this story, the high-water mark in Mark Twain's bitter denunciation of the human race with its attendant frailties and moral cowardice, he chose to place his charac-

ters and action in a bygone day and a foreign land. His

first idea was to lay the scene in Hannibal, instead of a

medieval Austrian village.3 In effect, the Scene is really Hannibal, and the boys around whom the story revolves are Tom Sawyer's gang. The use of the medieval setting was a

convenient device for getting into the narrative the horrors of witch-harrying and other such cruelties and indignities of tha Middle Ages which always fascinated Mark Twain and gave spirit to his work. Mark Twain could never completely project himself into the past, however; the present was too much with him. In The Mysterious Strane, as in The Connecticut Yankee, loan of Arc, and The Prince and the Pauer,

3 DeLancey Ferguson, Mark Twain: Man and pp. 279- 280. 58

he satirized sham and vice by constantly juxtaposing two periods and peoples.

A. B. Paine explains in his introduction to _The

Mysterious Stranger Mark Twain's conception of the central figure in its plot:

The idea of a wonder-working visitant from some remote realm always appealed to Mark Twaint s fancy, and he began a number of stories with this as his central idea. A friendly interest in the character of Satan, the angel fallen from his high estate, prompted him to select a member of that lineage for his hero, a beautiful youth, not wicked, but ,only indifferent to good and evil and suffering, having no personal knowledge of these things. 4

In Mark Twain: The Man and His Work Edward Wagenknecht says of Mark Twain's interest in Satan:

. of all the figures in the Christian mythology, Satan was the one that interested him most. His interest began as a boy - he was disappointed when he found that his Sunday School teacher did not encourage him in it - and it grew apace with the years. Satan is, after all, the principle of rebellion, the champion of the outcast, and not even Milton could quite resist his fascination. How then could Mark Twain ?5

The point of view in The Mysterious Stranaer is that of a boy with free run of his little home village, Eseldorf, Austria, in 1590.

Again he used boys as protagonists. His vision of life, destiny, the world and time is conveyed to us through the eyes of boys. One is Nikolaus Bauman,

4Th %e Mysterious Stranger., XVII, ix.

5 Edward Wagenknecht, Mark Tain: The Man and His Work p. 207.

, lw -.- - , I - , , -l jjj;lmkjjjjjjjr, 59

son of the principal judge, one Seppi Wohlmeyer, son of the principal inn-keeEer, and Theodor Fischer, who tells the tale.

As he invented circumstances to give background to the mystical experiences of Joan of Arc, so in The Mysterious

Stranger, Mark Twain sets the stage for his ethereal visitor.

Theodor tells how he and his friends have been encouraged by

Felix Brandt, oldest servingman in the nearby castle and

loving confidante of the boys, to accept angels and other

strange manifestations as part of daily life. Therefore, when

a young man of transcendent loveliness comes to them one day at their play, performs miracles for their amusement, in-

structs them in the utter depravity of the human race, and

informs them that his name is Satan, nephew of the king of the devils, they accept him as one of their number. They do not fear him, but like to be with him, for his presence brings exhilaration, a feeling of power and confidence. Never- theless, the boys are often hurt by Satan's indifference to humanity, and the working out of his ideas before the boys in the lives of the people of Eseldorf becomes the framework of the story.

Taking the name of Philip Traum, the dream-like Satan prevents his little friends' revealing his true identity by sealing their tongues in all matters referring to this secret. He instigates the action by causing Father Peter,

6 Edgar Lee IMasters, Mark Twain: A Portrait, p. 222. 60

beloved but impoverished village priest, to be accused of the

theft of over eleven hundred ducats, which he himself placed

in the good priest's lost wallet. Satan thereby brings

Market, Father Peter's beautiful niece, into disgrace and

causes her false friends to forsake her. The boys and

Wilhelm Meidling, young village lawyer, stand by her, the

boys because they know about Satants part in the affair, and

Wilhelm for love of Marget. The false accusation of Father

Peter is brought by a vicious astrologer, enemy of virtue,

and is seconded by Father Adolph, religious rival of Father

Peter. The plot is built upon Father Peterts misfortune,

and woven about this conflict are the ignorance of medieval

superstition with its attendant ills, the narrowness of literal religious concepts, man's gross inhumanity to his

fellow man, the instability of man's highly exalted moral

sense, and the general futility of earthly life.

Satants mastery of time and space greatly facilitates

the action of the story. He enables Marget to visit her poor

uncle in his dungeon without loss of time and with no risk of discovery by the prison guards. He provides Marget and old Ursula, her servant, with a lucky cat, which in turn abundantly provides the needs of their household. When

Theodor wishes he might see Marget or help her, he immediately finds himself in her presence.

All these circumstances build the good fortunes of

Marget to a saturation point, and a crisis ensues. The 61

superstitious villagers, urged on by the astrologer and Father Adolph, begin to suspect witchcraft in Margetts house.

Their suspicions are further advanced by Ursula's employment of a helper, young Gottfried Narr, grandson of a recently burned witch.

Matters come to a head when Marget gives a banquet for the entire village. Here the astrologer discovers witchery in the everlasting supply of wine. In a scene comparable to some of the apocryphal miracles of Christ, he fills a four- quart bowl from a two-pint bottle without diminishing the contents of the bottle. When Father Adolph then rises to de- nounce the wicked household, he is stricken dumb. The astrologer rushes from the house, convinced that he can per-

form yet other miracles. The boys see the hand of Satan in

these happenings, but he is conveniently invisible to the

rest of the company.

Immediately after this high point in the narrative there

is interposed an incident which has little value in the furtherance of the plot; it is the miraculous trip of Satan and Theodor to China. Satan's mastery of time and space is again emphasized., but the chief value of this episode lies

in the opportunity for Satants expression of Mark Twain's

ideas of God's indifference to man, one of the motivating themes of the story. Satan says to Theodor::

"Men have nothing in common with me - there is no point of contact; they have foolish little feel- ings and foolish little vanities and impertinences 62

and ambitions; their foolish little life is but a laugh, a sigh, and extinction; and they have no sense. Only the Moral Sense. . . . Man is to me as the red spider is to the elephant. The elephant has nothing against the spider - he cannot get down to that remote level; I have nothing against man. The elephant is indifferent; I am indifferent." 7

Also in this episode Satan gives voice to Twain's ideas

of the fatality of consequences, one thing leading to

another to fix man's destiny.8 He now announces that he will

break the sequence of events in the life of Nikolaus

Bauman, beloved playmate of Theodor and Seppi. One small

change of circumstance in the life pattern of Nikolaus, says

Satan, will change his appointed life span so that he will

drown in a futile attempt to save little Lisa Brandt from

drowning. Satan points out to the horrified Theodor that

the early deaths thus arranged for these two are fortunate,

Nikolaus being thereby saved from lifelong paralysis and

Lisa from a life of sham ending in execution. He gives them

twelve happy days to live, twelve days of dread and sorrow for Theodor and Seppi, who would try to prevent the workings

of the higher law to save their friends.

All works out as Satan has predicted and arranged. Frau

Brandt, mother of Lisa, is burned at the stake for cursing the

God who took her daughter away. A change in the boys'

7 The MysXterious Strange 4,=VII, 78-79.

Masters, 2 ,cit,p. 224. 63

attitude toward Satan's intervention in the affairs of the

village is here evidenced. Frau Brandt's death comes as a result of the boys' well-meant intercession in her behalf

that Satan change her life pattern. Satan explains to them

that quick death is the most merciful plan for her, and Theodor says of it:

We went away then, and did not see the fires consume her, but we heard the shrieks, although we put our fingers in our ears. When they ceased we knew she was in heaven, notwithstanding the ex- communication, and we were glad of her death and not sorry that we had brought it about. 9

In the next episode Mark Twain manifests his Biblical preoccupation10 by depicting for the boys the fall of man in

Eden; the murder of Abel, the flood; the Hebraic, Egyptian,

Greek, and Roman wars; and the birth of Christianity, followed by the European wars of later periods. He ironically represents the greatest contribution of Christianity to be in- creased efficiency in the destruction of human life.

Largest's interest in Satan, Philip Traum to her, now advances the plot. Unable to understand his indifference to her, she returns to Wilhelm Meidling, her first love, and asks him to defend her uncle in his forthcoming trial for theft. Wilhelm, aided by the miraculous expedient of Satants melting into him, saves the day when all seems lost by proving the money to be of a later coinage than that described

9 The Mysterious Stranger, XXVII, 107.

Masters, cit., p. 225.

4p4TAWMMM , -. 1 , , , ,. t" , V, . jk- ,, "W ; 64

by the wicked astrologer. Amid the rejoicing of Marget

and her friends for the restoration of Father Peter's good name and his imminent release from prison, Satan slips away

to the dungeon and tells Father Peter that he stands con-

victed of a felony, a surprise which unseats the poor man's

reason but makes him happy to the end of his days. Says

Satan, "No sane man can be happy, for to him life is real, and he sees what a fearful thing it is. Only the mad can be happy, and not many of those.'t"Il

This episode ends the story, but it does not contain

Satants final climaxing pronouncement upon the human race.

He continues his visits to the boys for a year, showing them the world and its wonders, the weaknesses and the triviali- ties of the human race. The conclusion of the book is power- fully executed. There are none of the usual Mark Twain postscripts and epilogues. Satan comes to say good-bye, inform- ing the boys that they shall not see him in another world, there being no other. He makes the shocking revelation that life is only a vision, a dream; and he shows that the inanities of mants life and his conception of God are truly the stuff that dreams are made of, since they are impossible except in dreams. Satan's final words to Theodor appal the boy, but he realizes their truth:

e Mysterious StranpeXr, xVII, 130. 65

"'It is true, that which I have revealed to you; there is no God, no universe, no human race, no earthly life, no hreaven, no hell. It is all a dream - a grotesque and foolish dream. Nothing exists but you. And you are but a thought - a vagrant thought, a useless thought, a homeless thought, wandering for- lorn among the empty eternities. " 1 2

Structure of The an that Corp Hadleyburg

Another notable short work of Mark Twain's Vienna

writings of 1898 expresses his bitterness about the "damned human race." Edgar Hemminghaus calls it "a profound parable

with a grimly ironic conclusion. 11 3De Lancey Ferguson refers

to this story, The Ilan that Cor Hadleyburg, as a

tragedy trap." 1 4 Its unusual design so works itself out

that the characters are all trapped in the tragic realization

of their moral instability; it traps the reader, too.1 5

Although NIark Twain vas a master in the handling of

short anecdotes and episodes in the humorous vein, the

American short story, with its symmetrical plot and its one

central impression, was little explored by him before he wrote The Man that Corrupted."Iadle burg. Of this fact, De

Lancey Ferguson says, "The short story, as an art form, was

not Mark's metier, but in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg he came near to perfection.16

"lgbid.,p. 140.

1 3dgar H. Hemminghaus, Mark Twain in Germany, p. 73. 1 4Ferguson, p. cit., p. 278.

15IJbid. 16Ibid. 66

A. B. Paine places it in the same category with such short

story classics as "The Fall of the House of Usher," by Poe;

"The Luck of Roaring Camp," by Bret Harte; "The Man Who

Would be King," by Kipling; and "The Man without a Country,"

by Hale. As has already been noted, he rates it as Twaints greatest short story and suggests that it may be the great-

est short story ever written. Edgar Lee Masters does not speak quite so highly of it:

The Man that Corrupted Haeburg (1898) deserves the passing notice that Twain here exercised his inventive genius to show what the desire for money will do to every kind of a man. . .*.*The tale is ingenious, full of buffoonery; it is burlesque again. 8

The theme of The Man that Cor Hadleyburg is that

every man is strong until his price is named, especially if

he has been shielded from temptation. The basis of the plot

is an ingenious scheme for teaching the futility of the

prayer not to be led into temptation by the corruption of a

whole self-righteous, never-tempted town. Hadleyburg is

the world in microcosm, and its false pride in its honesty

is descriptive of self-righteousness in human nature.

The story aptly begins with an exaltation of the honor-

able supremacy of Hadleyburg, developed as it was by keeping the young people out of temptation, "so that their honesty

17 A. B. Paine in his introduction to The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, XXIII, x.

iMasters, . cit., p. 182. 67

could have every chance to harden and solidify."1 9 An un.

witting offense to a stranger by one of the citizens of the

town is next mentioned, and the strangerts conception of an

ingenious plan f or making the whole town suffer for this affront sets the stage for the action.

The corruption of Hadleyburg begins when a stranger

arrives at the home of Edward Richards, bank cashier, and

leaves a bag which he says contains more than one hundred

and sixty pounds of gold that he desires to be delivered to

a mysterious benefactor according to the specifications of an

attached paper. He leaves abruptly, and the trembling Mrs.

Richards reads the paper. Learning that some man of Hadley-

burg once befriended this stranger, a gambler, by giving him

twenty dollars and a piece of sage advice and that the un-

known benefactor is not to receive a large reward for his

kindness, Mrs. Richards begins to fall into temptation. She

first wishes that her husband might be the recipient; and

later, feeling that this is not to be, she entertains the

idea of destroying the note and keeping the fortune for her-

self and her husband.

When Mr. Richards arrives, he too begins to succumb to the overwhelming temptation. The Richardses study the in- structions carefully and learn that the stranger has given

two alternatives in the disposition of the money - Mr. Richards

19 The Ian that Corrup qddleyburg, ',III, 1.

- I...,"-, ".4- -1- - -A --- , I 1 1" - - ip 68

may make private inquiry for the man who made the kind remark and gave the twenty dollars to a stranger, or he may publish the letter, thus allowing the strangers unknown benefactor to submit his name and the remark in writing to

the Reverend Mr. Burgess, with the presentation of the money to be made in public assembly thirty days hence. 1r. Richards concedes that Barclay Goodson, a cynic now dead, must have been the man. Desiring to make a show, however, he dashes off to the newspaper office and orders the letter printed. After he returns to his home, he repents of this hasty action, desiring to devise a way to keep the money for himself. Making his way once more to the office to retrieve the paper, he meets Cox, the editor, bent upon the same errand. To their dismay, they find it is too late. Three citizens of Hadleyburg are now corrupted.

The natural consequence of the publication of the notice is to make Hadleyburg more famous for its moral integrity than ever before. It sets all the citizens of Hadleyburg to trying to guess out the test remark, for they are determined to obtain what they all believe to be the rightful inheritance of the deceased Goodson. Soon Richards receives a letter revealing the test remark to him. Overjoyed and unaware that the eighteen other leading citizens of the town have received letters identical with theirs, the Richardses begin to plan for the spending of their anticipated wealth. Mr. Burgess begins to receive sealed envelopes and finally has nineteen, 69

representing the leading society of the town, incorruptibles of the incorruptibles.

'he next scene is the grand public assembly for the re- warding of Hadleyburg virtue and honor. Imagine the surprise

when, one by one, the leading citizens of Hadleyburg claim

the distinction of having given the following advice to the stranger, "'You are far from being a bad man: go, and reform. 2O

The dramatic reading of the test-remark to ascertain

the correctness of this offering is the next surprise. The mysterious stranger scores again. The test remark reads,

"'You are far from being a bad man. Go, and reform - or, mark my words - some day, for your sins, you will die and go to hell or Hadleyburg - try and make it the former." 21

r. Burgess, out of friendship and regard for the Richardses, does not read their letter. When the excited assemblage begins to laud their integrity, the grateful, but conscience-stricken, pair are speechless with emotion. Some- one has the brilliant idea of dividing the fortune among the eighteen fallen souls.

Mr. Burgess now reads the stranger's final document, the greatest surprise of all. The delighted onlookers learn that there never was any pauper stranger, any test-remark, any

2 0 Ibid., p. 36. 2 1 1bid., p. 39.

I.-Mm. IN - - t'- t". 70

twenty-dollar contribution - only an offended visitors desire for revenge upon the self-righteous people who wronged him.

The climax of the riot comes when the bag is finally opened and found to contain only gilded disks of lead. The action moves to a fever pitch, as someone begins to auction the worthless sack of coins to make up a purse for Hadleyburg's remaining incorruptible, Edward Richards. Suspense is achieved by Richards t attempts to reveal his own duplicity, in which he fails by reason of moral cowardice. The presence of the stranger, the instigator of all this excitement, is here revealed. He rises to bid for the sack at forty thousand ddllars, the sum which he says he can make it worth in numismatics by stamping the names of the eighteen "incorruptibles" upon each coin. He proposes to give ten thousand dollars to Richards as a reward for his virtue. He, of course, buys the sack, but Dr. Harkness, one of the eighteen, buys it from him for political purposes. When the stranger then turns the full sum over to Mr. and Mrs. Richards, they can no longer endure their shame. They confess all and quickly sicken and die. Hadleyburg is left without a single incorruptible, but its citizens have learned a valuable lesson.

They change the name of their town and their motto, which now reads, Lead us into temptation," instead of, "Lead us not into temptation. 71

The complications of this narrative are such that

careful reading and re-reading are needed to discover all the machinations of its plot. It is a tale so convincingly and

so logically arranged that the reader, When he reaches the

conclusion, examines his own moral strength and thinks, "But

for the grace of God, there go I." This feeling, evidently,

is what Mark Twain intended to engender, and his plot pattern

is admirably suited to the attainment of this purpose. CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION

The great quantities of unfinished Mark Twain manu-

scripts testify to his difficulties in novel construction.

He wasted energy with many false starts, and he turned out many inferior pieces. At the same time, Mark Twain produced

much that is good and lasting in literature. His life and his works were in part conditioned by the American frontier,

and the sense of the past was strong with him. It is not

surprising, then, that his best-known narratives should be the tales of life along the Mississippi and his much-discussed

historical romances. The dark pessimism of his sorrow-filled

last years accounts for the baffling Myteriou Straner and the condemnatory Man that Corr d Hadleyburg4

It has been stated that the composition of Tom Sawyer

marked the beginning of his career as a novelist. In spite

of the story, T Sawyer has a remarkable unity of tone which

is made possible by the authors sincere artistic aim of

achieving a realistic picture of American boyhood. With a firm foundation in actuality, the account of Tom Sawyer's adventures has a large, effective unity which is vastly superior to his prior efforts.

Mark Twain's capabilities as a builder of plots reached a new high in The Adventures off Huckleberry Finn. As the

72 73

title indicates, it is a picaresque novel, but it is an im- provement over the typical novel of this class. Having for its backbone the familiar journey motif and working to good advantage the romantic possibilities of the river and its picturesque inhabitants, Hucklebr Finn is the masterpiece of its kind and easily Mark Twaints greatest work.

The sense of the epic sweep and movement of the river in Huckleberry Finn is the greatest plot-unifying force that

Mark Twain ever appropriated for his use in writing a novel.

The plot in this story, like the river, starts slowly, gathers momentum, slows, widens, eddies, and ends in a great sprawl.

This is unlike the conventional plot, which has an initiating incident followed by a fast building up of action to a culmination point, falling action, and a resolution of all the factors of the novel into a satisfactory conclusion, either happy or tragic for the principal characters.

The story of Huck begins with his quiet life in the home of the widow; and following the dramatic visit of his ignorant, superstitious, clay-eating father, he takes up a life of fairly complacent river existence, punctuated only by his father's drunken escapades. One of these episodes causes

Huck to make his famous escape and his subsequent discovery of Jim. The narrative here slows down to the leisurely tempo of life on a river raft, the visit to Mrs. Judith Loftus being the spur that sets Huck and Jim upoh their determined flight. 74

The tempo quickens with the coming of the king and the

duke and the subsequent adventures with them, although this

portion contributes very little to the story as a whole.

The sweep of the main narrative comes almost to a stand-

still as Huck leaves the river to watch the developments of Grangerford - Shepherdson feud.

A sparkling bypath in the stream of the narrative is the

murder of old Boggs and the contemptuous speech of Sherburn to the lynching mob. Another episode of the same character

is the fraud attempted by the royal rogues upon the Wilks family.

The down-river voyage ends in the long, drawn-out

episode of the saving of Jim who is already free. The end

of the journey has been reached, and so the tale must close,

because there is nothing more to write. A masterful treatise on life is the story of Huck Finn, and in it lies Mark

Twain's chief claim to greatness - that he is the artist of the American frontier.

The Prince and theF auer is conventional in plot structure. For this reason it was more readily accepted than

some of Mark Twain's greater works. The importance of the form of this novel lies in the fact that Mark Twain was

fully capable of producing and executing a story pattern which could meet orthodox literary standards. It does away with the supposition that he could only write as he talked, and that he never made any extended formal preparation for his work.

MOM a -- , - -. ,, ., ., % , 75

It is true that some of the incidents in The Prince and

the Pau2 er are hardly credible, but this story is a romance,

and in all romances, the reader must take the possibility of

its plot sequences for granted. Once Mark Twain had success

fully exchanged his dual heroes and had set events in

motion, the characters could come and go in an atmosphere of perfect reality. The Prince and the F ner is an achievement in the refined execution of a simple plot. It begins well, it carries through well, and it ends well.

A Connecticut Yankee in Arthur's Court is in form more like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberr Finn than any other of

the Mark Twain novels. Its theme is the same as that of The

Prince and the Pauper, but its narrative scheme, a loosely- linked chain of picaresque episodes, is more characteristic of his usual literary output. The impudent skylarkings of the Yankee in Arthur's realm are compressed in an honest, straight-forward narrative, and the contrast of the two centuries it portrays is scrupulously maintained. As a burlesque of Arthurian legends, a travesty on purely romantic fiction, and an attempt to laugh kingly privilege, human exploitation, and religious bigotry off the face of the earth, it is structurally satisfactory.

Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc which he considered his masterpiece, he wrote with the loving care and preciseness of detail of a good biographer devoted to his subject. Biography is its own structure; the careful 76

biographer should therefore find little difficulty in the management of the life story of a historical character.

But Twain's Joan of Arc is a romance, as well; therefore the

many inventions of a fecund pen are to be expected in it.

It is when lark Twain departs from fact and begins to

relate the unhistorical escapades and tall tales of the Paladin and other invented characters that the structural

framework of Joan of Arc begins to weaken. Missouri and

Missourians slip into fifteenth century France on these occasions.

The telling of Joan's story as a personal memoir of a friend. and close associate of Joan afforded Mark Twain a

considerable latitude, a freedom that he needed for effective

construction; but it is often the means of easy departure

from the main story. The book is a paradox in that it is at once a factual biography and a highly imaginative piece of

romantic fiction. It may be that the popularity of Twain's

version of the Maid's story derives from this two-fold nature of its construction.

PuddInhead Wilson is to be remembered for Mark Twain's

artful handling of two subjects that were practically literary

taboos of his day - the realistic portrayal of slavery and

the theme of miscegenation. Roxana is the epitome of Negro characterizations in American literature.

The structure of PuddInhead Wilson is well-fitted to the material. The initiating incident, the changing of the 77

infants in the cradle, is not unlike the device which sets The Prince and t1e Pauper in motion. As in HucklebrFinn,

the river plays an important role in PuddInhead Wilson, conveying Roxy and Tom to and from Dawsonts Landing and St. Louis.

The final fate of Valet de Chambre, alias Tom Driscoll, is a

concession to the requirements of the conventional plot pattern - poetic justice for the villain must prevail in the end. PuddInhead wilson has a symmetrically developed plot, but it is lacking in the originality of Huckleberr Finn and others.

As has already been mentioned, Mark TwainIs preface to the Siamese twins burlesque is an admirable commentary upon his chaotic methods of composition. The story itself, Those

Extraordinary Twins, is chaotic in the extreme. Yet Twaints mad notion for this farce produced PuddInhead Wilson, at least a creditable effort.

The plot of Those Extraordinary Twins falls neither into the conventional nor the picaresque pattern. The one complication of the story, the freakish nature of the physical make- up of Luigi and Angelo combined with the disparity of their interests, furnishes the motivation for all the action. The ridiculous arguments of the villagers concerning their habits and whether they are made in the image of God hit a new low in burlesque, which is preserved to the very end of the book, even to the final destruction of the unhappy twins. It is possible that Mark Twain thought only of the humorous

M -- ' - fPlMW,- - 78

possibilities of this freak device and that he meant only to write a farce - not a treatise on the dual nature of mans personality.

Mark Twain made several rather futile formal attempts

to depict the utter depravity of the human race with its

many bigoted religious concepts, but he nowhere succeeded

so well as when he inculcated these ideas into fiction in

The Mysterious Straner. The melancholy message is infused

into a delightful fable which is episodic in construction

but firmly held together by the central theme of divine intervention in a quite common human conflict. The philosophical

development of the minds of the Eseldorf playmates of Satan

runs parallel to the basic story of the fortunes of Father

Peter, his niece Marget, and lesser village characters. The

story has two conclusions - one the satisfactory resolution

of Father Peterts case and the other the final announcement of

Satan to Theodor that life, after all, is but a dream.

This story has importance in a study of the workmanship

of Mark Twain in that it proves that, improvisator though he

often was, he could expound philosophical theories more con-

vincingly in the framework of a story than in the toils of a

formal argument, such as "Jhat is Man?" He was more story-

teller than essayist.

Since Mark Tvain was gifted in the management of incident and so many of his books are anecdotal in structure, it would seem that he should have excelled in the composition of

a 79

the short story. His bent for rambling, however, prevented his development to the status of a short story writer of note. His tendency to digress from the main narrative by introducing minor threads of plot was not conducive to the production of the typical American short story. In spite of these very obvious limitations upon him in this field of his literary endeavor, Mark Twain prod-aced a short story of unusual merit, Tie Man that Corrupted Hadlebur Told with artistic economy and satiric point, this story belongs in the ranks of the classics in the short story field. The theme is the inherent moral weakness of the human race, and the plot is well-fitted to this idea. The downfall of un- tried virtue begins with Mrs. ichards and spreads quickly to the chief citizens of a whole morally "incorruptible" town. The introduction and management of small structural devices to complicate the plot are superb. The use of the Reverend Mr. Burgess and the deceased Barclay Goodson is illustrative of this aspect of the work. Just as Mark Twain's genius is demonstrated by his leaving the history of Huck Finn's mother a blank, so it is also apparent in his making the influence of Goodson one of the strongest motivating forces in The an that Corrup ted Hadlyur The conclusion is in the romantic tradition, with its come-back of virtue tested in the fire and the poetic justice of the deaths of the Richardses, chief offenders against the supposed moral impregnability of Hadleyburg. 'Written in his old age, this 80

story may well serve as an example of Mark T ainI s continual development in the story-telling technique.

In the matter of plot structure we have seen Mark Twain as a versatile artist who composed novels of three types of construction: the episodic, of which The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the prime example, the conventional, which is

represented by The Prince and the. Pauper; and the picaresque, of which class The Adventures of Hucklebr Finn and A

Connecticut Yankee in K Arthurts Court are notable examples.

Wie have observed that his powers of invention were not with-

out limits and that he often depended upon historical and

autobiographical material from which to build his stories.

We have found, however, that Mark Twain was capable of plot

development from within, without the s timulus of outside

influence, as in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg. In the

light of this knowledge, it is unjust to the one whom Howells

called "the Lincoln of our literature" to say that he was merely a raconteur, an improvisator who began without plan and rambled on and on. His outstanding fictional works possess a structural unity which is enhanced by his free, easy methods, and which will help to keep his books alive.

I BI3LIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources DeVoto, Bernard, editor, ark Twain in Eruption, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1740.

Twain, Mark, The Works of Mark Twain, definitive edition, 37 voIS.T, New Yok, Gabriel ells, 1922-1925.

Vol. VIII, _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, copyright, 1875.

Vol. XI, The Prince and the Pauper, Copyright 1881.

Vol. XII, The Adventures of Huckleberry Copyright 1884.

Vol. XIV, A Connecticut Yankee inKi Arthurt s Court, Copyright 1889.~

Vol. XVI, Puddnhead Wilson, Copyright 1893-1894.

Vol. XVII, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, CopyrighT .~ ~

Vol. XXIII, The 4an that Cor ted Hadleyburg, Copy- right 189.T

Vol. XXIV, _The 30,000 Bequest, Copyright 1872.

Works Cited

Brooks, Van Wyck, The Ordeal of Mark Twain, New York, E. P. Dutton and~ompany, 1937

Cowie, Alexander, The Rise of the American Novel, New York The American ~BookE~Comp~y~,T1VT8.

81 82

Dickinson, L. T., "The Sources of The Prince and the Pauper," Modern Language Notes, LVIX (February, 1949), 103-106.

Erskine, John, The Delight f Great Books., Indianapolis, The Bobbs-ferrll Company,1928.

Ferguson, De Lancey, Mark Twain: Man and Legend, New York, The Bobbs -Merril Company=T9T47

Hemminghaus, Edgar H., Mark Twain in Germany, New York, Columbia UniverXa ryPress,~T939. Howells, William Dean, My Mark Twain, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1910.

Knitz, Stanley J., and Haycraft, Howard, editors, American Authors 1600-1900, New York, The H. W. Wilson Company,7,38. Masters, Edgar Lee, Mark Twain: A Portrait, New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, .

Paine, A. B., Mark Twain, A Biograph , in 3 vols. New York, Gabriel~FeillS,92i-1925. Included in the definitive edition as Vols. .XI, J=,II, and II).

Paine, A. B., "The Prince and the Pauper," Mentor, XVI (December, 1928), 8-10.

Spiller, Robert E., and others, The Literary History of the United States, in 3 vols., New York,7 amillan Company, 1948.

Van Doren, Carl, The American Novel, New York, The Mac- millan Company,1940.

'agenknecht, Edward, Mark Twain: The Man and His Jorks, New Haven, Yale Univer-syTPr's~,T%3.

Works Consulted

Bradford, Gamaliel, American Portraits, 1875-1900, New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922.

Clemens, Cyril, Mark Twain: Ut and. Wisdom, New York, FrederickEA. Soes Company, 1935.

>De Voto, Bernard, Mark Twaint s America, Boston, Little, Brown, and Company, 113". 83

De Voto, Bernard, editor, The Portable Mark Twain, New York, The Viking Press, 1946.

Paine, A. B., editor, Mark Twain ts Notebook, New York, Harper and Brothers, 1

Pattee, F. L., Mark Twain: Representative Selections, New York, Th =TmeriAmrcan Book Company, 1935eAem-r-ican Writers Series).