MARK TWAIN AS A REFORMER AND THINKER

SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Ph. D. IN ENGLISH

BY Mohd. Asim Siddiqui

UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF Professor Maqbool H. Khan

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY. ALIGARH (INDIA) ABSTRACT It is an established fact that the religious^ political and intellectual ideas of an age leave their mark on the literature produced in that age. In this case the influence exerted by the ideas and issues current in the nineteenth century America on the literature of that period is of special note. Some of the important ideas and issues that the nineteenth century American writers could not ignore, include : the rising industrial capitalism, various opposing currents in religion, the almost official belief in the idea of progress and American's drift towards imperia­ lism.

The political and economic thinkers of the time favoured equalitarian thought and stressed free franchise and an identification of democracy with eco­ nomic individualism. They held that the concept of laisses faire did not run counter to the ideas of liberty and equality long propogated by Americans. Moreover, the tradition of moral philosophy preached by Stanhope Smith and Francis Wayland in this period, also did not see anything objectionable in the idea of economic individu alism.

With these ideas prtjviding a sort of stimulus, the United States of the nineteenth century witnessed unprecedented industrial development. The industries of railroad, meatpacking and oil had a mind-boggling rise and the country went through a rapid process of urbanization. However, the industrialization also had its attendant dangers as it gave rise to plutocracy and a rich-poor divide. The most tragic change that took place was in the scale of values where a person's worth was evaluated only in material terms. These values were further implanted into the minds of the people by the stories of Horatio Alger. The business tycoons of the time became the revered figures and the 'rags to riches* myth gained wide currency.

Though many economic and political thinkers of the time — James Russel Lowell, George William Curtis and Edwin Lawrence Godkin among others, — warned that the new industrial civilization of the United States, it ran counter to the concept of democracy and true individualism, it was left to the writers to explore various moral and spiritual consequences of the ques­ tions posed by the rise of industrialism. Walt Whitman, Emerson, Thoreau and Elder Henry James regarded the •national love of trade* the main reason behind ^erica's ills. The theme of a number of /American novelists, like Hawthoime, Henry James, Melville, Howells and Mark Twain was the moral alienation of the indiviaual because of the false functioning of democracy. They rejected the false values of the age. If Howells, Twain and Hamlin Garland expressed their rejection of these values in the form of scathing criticism of 1±ie 'gilded age', Henry James and Heniry Adams showed their disapproval by finding an escape in a world and setting of their own choice.

The influence of religion on the writers of the nineteenth century was equally great. The reception given to many books in the later half of the nineteenth century propounding Calvinistic theology, notwith­ standing, there was a definite delimitation of reli­ gious ideas. The rise of industry, the march of science particularly the popularity of the evolutionary theorry and the higher criticism of the Bible by some scholars using anthropological tools weakened the force of tradi­ tional Christianity. The liberal ideas triggered off by the enlightenment still held appeal for the thinking people. There was a sudden growth of some new religious movements which beside having a touch of novelty answered the emotional needs of a large number of -%ieri- cans.

The intellectual temper of the nineteenth century America barring its last decade was optimistic to a great extent. It believed in the myth of progress, the belief that men and his world have improved over the ages. The idea of progress characterised the writings of political scientists, socxologist. Biologists and literary artists. However, the optimism of the evolutionary theory was greatly undermined by the findings of physics which unfolded a world that did not have order, harmony or growth but only flux and chance.

The last decade of the nineteenth century also witnessed the American excursion into imperialism. The popular arguments in favour of imperialism took various forms. Some imperialists viewed the political situa­ tion iv Darwinian terms and that the subjugation of the weak nations by the stronger ones is inevitable. Others pointed out that as a result of political unity at home, I^erica needed new markets across its border. While still others, guided by a false missionary zeal as they were, considered it America's goal to bring civilization to the people sitting in darkness. The world picture also favoured imperialism, China, South Africa and Philippenes were the hunting ground of the imperialist powers. Though they received some opposi­ tion in the form of anti-imperialist protests, they were largely successful in involving the United States in the imperialist game.

II

It is true that Mark Twain was a thinker but he was not a thinker in tiie ordinary sense of the word. He was a presentational thinker and as such devised many literary techniques to transmute his ideas in art forms. His reliance on realism as his literary credo, his use of various masks to cover his personality, his experi­ ments in the field of point of view and his emploiTiient of various techniques to evoke laughter are some of the characteristics o£ Twain's art.

Twain believed that a writer's experience should provide him literary material. He can give this expe­ rience not only by a conscious observation of reality but also by an unconscious absorption of the facts of life. But Twain does not argue for a photographic realism; his stress is on the sense of facts, a seeming of reality. His own experience with the primitive and folk mind provided him some memorable characters and some patterns of story. However, from A Connec­ ticut Yankee onwards he could not rely on realism as a literary technique because of its unsuitability to the dark themes that he took up in his later fiction. His later works show his drift into the realm of fantastic and the Absurd. These works are, peopled by rogues, anti-heroes, and the figure of a stranger who like the hero of an absurd play is alienated from his environment.

Mark Twain sp-oke through many masks in his long literary career. The mask of "Mark Twain" remained with him throughout his life without concealing the identity of Samuel Clemens. Within this mask he adopted three poses in his different writings for writing serious social criticism: pose of a Pool, of a Growler, and of a Transcendent figure. The fool is a naive figure who comments on everything going around him , although no one expects him to make such comments. He appears in Twain's early fiction and is very clearly noticeable in The Innocents Abroad. The growler talks in a more serious and sincere manner and can be seen in A Tramp Abroad and Twain's anti-imperialistic writings. The third pose was that of an overpowering personalty, what has been called a transcendent figure, who rises above the action and is clearly marked from others in the story because of his superior intellectual endowments. The creation of this character was an attempt by Twain to solve some of his own intellectual and emotional crises. Hank Morgan, Colonel Sherbum, Dave Wilson and Satan are some of Twain's transcendent figures. The last o£ the list is omnimiscient and omnipotent,

Twain's experiments in the field of point of view have been his distinct contribution to literature. In his finest travelogue The Innocents ^road, he adopts the point of view of a letter writer who intimately knows his subject. As a letter writer he acts both as a supplier 8

of useful infonnation and a humorous story teller. The Gll_ded Age has been narrated from the omnimisclent point of view but again the narrator gains the intimacy of the reader by various devices : use of italics, exclamations and footnotes. In his next series of works, "Old Times on the Mississippi", Tom Sawver and Iibckle- berry Finn, he attempts to capture a detached and limited point of view of a boy. The telling of the story from Hick's point of view in ttjckleberry Finn makes this story a devastating satire because rtjck's is the folk mind and he analyses the mores and values of his decadent society from which he is seeking a refuge. A number of Twain's works, A Connecticut Yankee, Joan of Arc, and The Mysterious Stranger have been narrated in the first person. These works are marked by Twain's pessimism and the narrator in these works maintains the perspective of a historian. In fact in his later works Twain is more concerned with ideology than with art.

lijmour is the most pervasive element in Twain* s work. A study of Twain's treatment of humour in his different books written at different stages of his life provides an interesting commentary on the gradually changing vision of the writer. Thus in The Innocents Abroad his first book, he relies on the techniques of burlesque, exaggeration and his famous deadpan expre­ ssion. The Gilded Age is characterized by Dickension humour with its fine mixture with pathos especially in the figure of Colonel Sellers. In Tom Sawyer he uses the devices of parody and burlesque and satire is fully identified with pleasure principle. The plot of A Con­ necticut Yankee is full of comic possibilites because of Hank Morgan's incongruous presence in the sixth century. However, the novel turns out to be a scatching satire because of Twain's propogandist intentions. The works produced after A Connecticut Yankee are marked by bleak, dark and dismal humour which was in keeping with Twain's personal despair and determinism. The maxims included in Pu ddn' he ad Wi 1 son and pessimistic ideas developed in The Mysterious Stranger are very bitter in tone, a far cry from the genial humour of The Innocents Ab ro ad.

Ill

Throughout his life Mark Twain's inind was preoccupied with 10

questions of religious and philosophical significance. However, Mark Twain's critics have not given due atten­ tion to two important facts about him. First, the publication of "Reflections" and Letters from the Sarth in the early sixties changed the largely accepted picture of Mark Twain. Second, Twain's religious writings should not be set apart from his philosophical writings,

Twain's early attitude towards religion was one of scepticism and irreverence. In The Innocents Abroad Twain's first literary work, the reader meets a mild but serious critic of religion. The narrator of this book is critical of the Organized Church and the unchris­ tian behaviour of Christians who follow the letter of religion rather than its spirit. In A Connecticut Yankee and Joan of Arc also he takes to task the false Christianity and exposes the evils of the Organized Church. He shows how the Organized Church reduced common people to a life of misery and victimized even a perfect individual like Joan of Arc, Highly critical though Twain is in these works, his censure is mingled with his praise of the Bible and Christ. He talked about Bible in a veiry eloquent manner in The Innocents Abroad and showered encomiums on Christ calling him the 'prince of peace' and the 'saviour of all people*. In fact he sketched the character of Joan of Art: in th3 mould of Christ.

Despite Twain's love for a chirst-like Joan, the novel reflects the deep spiritual unrest that troubled Twain towards the close of his life. This failure to come to a final solution of life' s mysteries also marks "What is Man", which Twain called his gospel. In The Mysterious Stranger also Twain views life from two contradictory angels : Scientific and Christian.

However, in his last two works "Reflections", and Letters from the Sarth, he became a confirmed atheist and an embittered nihilist. Both these works show his utter contempt for traditional religion. He denies the divinity of Christ, charges Bible of obscenity and a lack of originality, challenges the moral founda­ tions of Christianity and calls the real God unjust, unmerciful, vindictive and above all ohe who derives sadistic pleasure by inflicting torture on the innocent and helpless human beings. 12

There were many reasons for this gradual corro­ sion of his religious views. The influence of liberal ideas in the early stage of his life introduced to him through his father and Uncle and a readin-g of Ibm Paine and his exposure to Preemasonary shaped his early attitudes. The scientific thought which proved man's insignificance in a vast universe also affected him. Finally his experiences of the world and his intellectual maturity made him see things in a different light,

IV

Twain's writings are characterized by his ambiva­ lent attitude towards a number of important ideas. This ambivalence manifests itself in his treatment of the myth of progress and the theme of primitivism/ the two important ideas which exist side by side in almost all his works. His belief in gradual onward progress of mankind owed to his reading of history and a compre­ hensive perusal of human conduct at different periods of history. Works like The Innocents Abroad, second section of Life on the Mississippi and A Connecticut Yankee suggest that he anbraced the doctrine of material 13

progress. The image of past is very ugly and unatt­ ractive in these works and it has been identified with the wicked institutions of feudalism and Catholicism. The narrator of The Innocents Abroad who undertakes a trip to Europe and the Holy Land views everything including the paintings of the Old Masters with his materialistic Yardstick and is disgusted to see dirt, decay and degradation in the Holy Land. In Life on the Mississippi Twain is all praise for the new burgeoning civilization of America. The new face of ^erica with its remarkable industrial progress wins him more than the worn-out institutions of the South. More than these A Connecticut Yankee clearly shows that the nineteenth century America devoted to science and technology is better than the sometimes glorified Middle Ages. Hank Morgan, the protagonist of this novel, symbolizing the spirit of the nineteenth century is a Democrat, techno­ logist and a capitalist, all in one.

However, in his later fiction Twain came to have doubts about this whole business of progress. Following the Equator neither presents a very rosy picture of historical past nor that of contemporary world. Joan 14

o£ Arc suggests that Twain lost belief in the redemp­ tive value of history. As if it was not enough. The Mysterious Stranger exhibits a very ghastly and heart­ rending view of history and does not see any ray of hope for man even in future. The past saw deadly wars; the future will see even deadlier ones.

However, even when he seems to fully believe in the doctrine of progress, a strea1< of primitivism cried out from within him for expression. It exists in his writings in two ways : firstly as an attitude — the private metaphorical world of a writer being different from his public world inspired by his society's professed beliefs — and secondly as a from of protest against the phoney civilization of his time. The evils resulting from the new industrial civilization were too apparent not to be felt by Twain, He understood the need of some moral and spiritual values to rejuvenate a decadant civilization. His gaze turned to his childhood which provided him the images of innocence, repose, and content- ment. The probe into the pre-civil war society of his youth also provided him an idyllic fictional setting to give these images a literary form. 15

Thus not satisfied with material progress alone Twain's innermost soul yearned for an instinctive, simple and natural life. He craved for a world without any warped human relationships and hence his special liking for the essentially good human beings endowed with the folk wisdom of a tijckleberry Finn and free from the cant and hypocrisy of the 'sivilized' aunt Pollys and Miss Watsons. He sketched a number of memorable characters who are innately good and virtuous but are faced with a hostile environment. Laura before her seduction. Hack, King Edward, and Joan are some of these characters who are pitted againjt a hostile society. They try to confront the world with their goodness but on most of the occasions their goodness does not prove equal to the dominant values of their society. In fact Twain was painfully aware of' the vulnerability of the good values of his characters. Only in The Prince and_ the Pauper the values of innocence and purity of heart have power of their own but there they are identified with a benevolent monarchy. In his gradually increasing despair of humanity Twain desperately looked for some figures in history who could sustain his faith in his long-cherished 16

values. In Joan of Arc he tried to establish these values. But Joan also ultimately fails Twain firstly because she is the lone §ood individual in the midst of a generally depraved humanity and secondly because she herself needs divine help to succeed. In another important work of this period. Following the Equator, Twain not only ironically identified the disastrous results of civilization with progress, but was also reluctant to glorify the natives of Australia and Newzealand. Thus the belief in primitivism became hard to sustain. By the time of writing The Mysterious Stranger, his last important fictional work. Twain lost belief even in the idea of the innate goodness of man. He came to believe that mankind always sheds blood because of its innate depravity.

The anti-imperialistic writings produced in the last phase of his career highlight his *.ole as a political thinker and more importantly that of a reformer. In his various pamphlets like King Leopold's Soliloquy, Czar* s Soliloquy, essays like "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" 17

and gollowing the Equator his last travel book. Twain sometimes clearly points out while at others implies all modern theories of imperialism : imperi-'lism as an exten­ sion of capitalism, imperialism for selling civilization to the savages or the 'White Man's Burden' concept and finally imperialism explained in Darwinian terms. He also analyzed the role of certain forces that precepitate imperialism. Thus a blind sense of patriotism and the vicious role of yellow press were at the base of the American imperialist venture in Philippines.

In all these anti-imperialist writings Twain took to task all imperialist powers such as Germany, Russia, Prance, Spain, England and the United States. However, his analysis of British and /^erican imperialism is marked by a strange sense of ambivalence. Thus in Following the Equator, he very bitterly criticized the British imperialists in Australia and South Africa. In fact he launched a very vehement attack against Cecil Rodes, the leader of the imperialists in South Africa, However, he approved of the British rule in India and very glowingly praised the military might of the British and their qua­ lities of mind in suppressing the Indian Mutiny success­ fully. MARK TWAIN AS A REFORMER AND THINKER

SUBMITTED FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF Ph. D. IN ENGLISH

BY Mohd. Astm Siddiqui

UHDER THE SUPERVISION OF Professor Maqbool H. Khan

DEPARTMENT OP ENGLISH AUGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY, ALIGARH (INDIA) cc No.

v7 JU-^ i::^3 T4175

''-< 'W, DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH 8t MODERN EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY ALIGARH~202002 (India)

i^ril ft, t5f1

nifiion. Mr. SiaaSgiad^a disseEtstioa Is @i fairly s&tisfs0tos^ arifi o^lgla&l pits-© cf WCMP: IJ«WM oa Dedicated to

MY MOTHER ABBREVIATIONS

MTJ Mark Twain Journal

MTQ Mark Twain Quarterly

SAQ South Atlantic Quarterly

TSLL Texas Studies in Literature and L an gu age PREFACE

There is little doubt that in the populcir mind, as, to some extent, in the critical tradition too, the humorist in Mark Twain — the witty and untiring creator of amusing character and scene, the inexhaustible pur­ veyor of quotable quotes — has irretrievably overshadowed the serious thinker whose unfortunate destiny it was to end up in the isolation and loneliness of almost cynical pessimism. Remembering him as a writer of children's books or, at best, as the author who challengingly took up the theme of negro slavery in Hjckle>berry Finn, his best-known book, the common reader tends to ignore the important fact that Twain was a serious thinker who grew up with his century and, at least in the domain of reli­ gious faith where issues of the ultimate significance of human life are involved, he came to experience the crisis which in the beginning of our century led to the rejection of humanism as a viable philosophy of life. The present study is based on the conviction that Twain the serious critic of thought and society deserves as much attention as the amused commentator on life's patent absurdities. ii

Since as a reformer and thinker Twain owed a great deal to his milieu and as his serious thought must be provided with, and did have, a historical context, a whole chapter has been devoted to a discussion of his social and historical background. Some consideration of Twain's artistic method, specially his assumption of masks and adoption of point of view, was necessitated by the fact that ideas and intellectual formulations have been — as always in significant art — transmuted into art-forms in Twain's writings. The remaining chapters — the main bulk of the thesis — present an analytical discussion of Twain's thought in various fields, I have departed from the main critical tradition in giving salience to Twain's non-fictional works and in shifting the focus away from Huckleberry Finn, an acknowledged masterpiece, to lesser- known and little-read works the study of which has helped me in discovering more coherent patterns of thought in Twain than ordinarily perceived. Originality may be claimed for this as also for the recognition — stated above — that Twain's grov/ing isolation and cynicism as well as his rejection of Christianity and the popular versions of humanism relate him centrally to the main inte­ llectual tradition of the late nineteenth century. iii

In the preparation of this study I have received help, cooperation and encouragement from many quarters. I would particularly like to thank the staff of American Studies Research Centre, Hyderabad, who granted me a short term scholarship that enabled me to study and collect all useful material on Mark Twain. I owe a very deep sense of gratitude to Professor Maqbool H. Khan, my supervisor, who with his keen insight and amazing pers­ picacity, not only guided me at various stages of this thesis but also gave me immeasurable moral and intellec­ tual support. In the same vein I must acknowledge the invaluable contribution of Professor Azizuddin Tariq who with his characteristic cooperative spirit not only sti­ mulated my interest in Mark Twain but also encouraged me to take up this study. My very special thanks are due to Professor S.M. Jafar Zaki, Chairman, Department of English, who helped me at various stages of this study. Thanks are also extended to Shafaat, my friend, who very neatly typed the manuscript despite his busy schedule, In the end I must thank my friends Rashid, Madih, Rizwan and Ishtiaq Bhai who gave me all the help and encourage­ ment that I needed while completing this study.

( MOHD. ASIM SIDDIQUI ) CONTENTS

Page No,

Pref ac e

CHAPTER I :

The Cultural Milieu 2

CHAPTER II :

Twain's Technique 50

CHAPTER III :

Twain on Religion and Philosophy 112

CHAPTER IV :

Twain on Progress and Primitivism 149

CHAPTER V :

Twain on Imperisdism 196

CHAPTER VI :

Conclusion 238

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 248

^t***1^*^^ CHAPTER I

THE CULTURAL MILIEU \i

It is axiomatic to say that art bears direct relationship to society, and literature records the dominant tendencies of the age either in its affirmation of them or more commonly in a rebellion against them. Fixed in time and place, no author can be wholly free from the influence of the intellectual temper of the age; the zeit geist of the age shapes his work conclusively. It is for this reason that an understanding of the social and cultural milieu of an author is essential for any worthwhile study of that au tho r,

American Literature is a classic example of the influence exerted by the time spirit on writers. In not many countries have the creative writers responded so passionately to contemporary ideas and issues as jn America. The most important reason behind it is the fact that America is a pretty young country and since the colonial days the Americans have been very much conscious of their contribu­ tion to the development of the nation. The adoption of the European way of life to their new situation had been their mt3ln concern in the beginning. Then after the new nation came into being a new aw=)reness came to the Americans and the literateur turned their attention to issues which con­ fronted the nation and the ideas which were typically and 3 essentially American and held an special appeal tor the people of iAmerica.

The contribution of' nineteenth century writers in creating this new awareness about the separate identity of Americans is especially very important. In the nine­ teenth century American literature assumed a more literary form. It was more belletristic than polemical; more lite­ rary than didactic and more expressive of the cultural milieu than ever. It can safely be said that American lite­ rature really came of age in the nineteenth century.

The nineteenth century is especially remarkable for the great changes in different spheres of life. It was an age of technological advance, of new ideas about the universe, 5nd of political and civil liberty. Significantly it was also an age of debate over opposites. Opjosite trends were shaping life. But the fact that contrary forces were at work in the nineteenth century, was itselt a sign of a gra­ dually advancing civilization. It is because "the debate, indeed, may be said to be the culture, at least on its loft­ iest levels; for a culture achieves identity, not so much through the ascendancy of one particular set of convictions as through the emergence of its peculiar and distinctive dialogue."^ This controversy or the clash over ideas was a very distinguishing characteristic of the nineteenth century American culture. The conflict between Calvinism and liberalism, industrialism and agrarianism and imperialism and anti-imperialism kindled the imagination of the literairy artists.

In the pages that follow an attempt Is made to study some ot these important issues. The subjects taken up here include religion, the rise of industrialism. Imperialism and the idea of progress which was almost the official philo­ sophy of the Americrins in the nineteenth century.

II

The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed an unprecedented development of industiral capitalism in the Unitad States. The rapid changes that issued from the civil war are generally traced to the break-up oE old domestic economy and the California Gold Rush of 1849. However, the surrender at Appomattox in 18 65 finally decided the course America vTOuld follow for at least.the next fifty years: capita­ lism and industrialism ao against ruralism and agrarianism. In fact the main issue of the civil war itself was not sla­ very or state rights or the preservation of the union but the farm versus factory. "It is more properly styled the American Revolution, a title it deserves far more thcin does our struggle for independence from Britain... the surrender at Apiomattox was, therefore, an enforced and bitter capitu­ lation to the superior power of industrial capitalism, the clear and inescapable triumph of machine over plow, of enter- o preneur over landowner."'' The roots of this growth of industrialism lay in the political and economic theories current in the nineteenth centur\' America. The development of the equalitarian thou­ ght in the nineteenth century stressed free fr.anchlse for all irrespective of his economic condition and a system of frae competition in the economic sph-re. Democracy was identified with economic individualism. A consensus was almost reached on the merit of capitalism and whatever discussion there was, was on the acceptability of two diffe­ rent versions of capitalism. The English classical model was generally approved oy most ot the thinKers. However, there were people like Henry George who believed that the different economic conditions in America necessitated an independent American School. The voice of this group recei­ ved little support, but as parrington notes, "they do not deserve to be forgotten for most often they were an expre­ ssion of the social conscience of the times — a homely G

protest against the exploitation of farmer and worklngman •a by the rising capitalism."-^

The advocates of capitalism pointed out that the rich natural resources of America should be exploited to the fullest extent by everyone. in their opinion the system of free enterprise, of laisses-fair, did not run counter to the old American ideals of liberty and equality. They rather thought that capitalism neld the greatest Denefits £or an individual. A very important thinker of the time Francis Drown wr(t)te "Neither theoretically nor practically in this country, is there any obstacle to any individual's Decoming rich it he will, and almost to any amount that he will ... How is it possible, indeed, that the poor should be arrayed in hostility against the rich. When... the son of an Irish Coachman becomes a governor of a state, and the grandson of 4 a millionaire dies a pauper." Another professional eco­ nomist, Henry G, Carey who was opposed to the Manchester theories of rent and population, talked about the creation of an independent national currency. He even pointed out that the ideals as laid down in the Declaration of Indepen­ dence could be fulfilled only by a proper distribution of wealth under a system of free economic activity.

Apart from the views of the economists, the long 7

tradition of moral philosophy also provided a basis for the growth of capitalism. Clergymen gava their full support to the principles of property rights and the liberty in economic sphere. Thus moral philosophers like Samuel Stanhope Smith and Prsncis Wayland thought that the govaim- ment ought to protect the property rights of the individual. Francis Wayland went to the extent of asserting that the policy of laisses faire was the only system open before -%ierica and the assistance to the p)oor in the form of aid was the least desirable thing. "Where poor rates (direct government aid) are highest, the poor will be found the most discontented and lawless and the most inveterate against the 5 rich." In fact a very important sociologist. Max Weber, studying the conditions which permitted the rise of capita­ lism, in his brilliant essay "Protestant Ethics and the Rise of Capitalism" put forward the theory that the Calvi- nist ethic was one of the main causes of the triumph of capitalism. Though Weber studied those societies where c^pitali-.m failed to rise, his findings are fully applicable to tho America of the nineteenth centujry the spirit of which was essentially protestant.

The justification of industrial capitalism either on democratic grounds or as a natural growth because of the 8 protestant ethic rested on the assumption that the govern­ ment will not indulge in foul play. The system o£ paterna­ lism and favouritism would be a hindrance in the path of true economic equality and th<:i government will make every effort to curb it.

With these theories providing a sort of stimulus, American social and economic life underwent a remarkable transformation in the the second half o1 the nineteenth century. The Railroad was typical symbol of the new age and it played a very importajit role in the centralisation process of America. Compared to the thirty-five miles of track in 18 65, the area of railroad increased to tv/o hundred thousand miles by the turn of the century. Transcontinental lines were also laid ,and the railways had reached the pacific coast. The Government's act of freely granting land for the purpose of railway lines gave a boost to the establishment of railways in America.

With the railroad easing the transport system, the industry of meat-packing also received a boost. Great n^Bmes like Philip D. Armour, Nelson Morris and Gustavus Swift expanded their slaughter-houses into great industries of international repute. "Perhaps in no other field do we find so clear a demonstration of the triumph of capitalist 9

ingenuity over the forces of agrarianism or of the relega­ tion of the grower and herder to a merely auxiliary position 7 in the creation of our national wealth."

Not only railroad or meat-packing but the business of oil also had a very mind-ooggiing rise. In fact the whole process ot industrialization accelerated with the exploita­ tion of the natural resources like oil, coal and iron. Great scientific discoveries of the period — telephone, dynamo — opened new avenues before the industrialists. The immigration from Europe on a heavy scale provided cheap labour which further chi^nged the face of the old Americ a. The triumph of industry together with the immigra­ tion of a bulk of people from iiurope also resulted in the growth of cities. The city was thought to be the land of opportunity and consequently the urban population of the country increased at an alarming pace. By the last quarter of the nineteenth century. New York, Philadelphia, and Boston had assumed a metropolitan character in every respect. The city presenting the contrast of slums and palaces fostered a different kind of mind. Respectability an i honour came to ^e attached to the city people. Most of the writers of the period — Henry J.ames, Mark Tw^ain, 10

Howalls, Crane, Norris, Dreiser and Edith Wharton — depic­ ted the varied patterns of city life in their fiction. However, the change from agrarian to u-ban way of life also made some demands on the Americans. "Americans needed to absorb the city into their consciousness — to accomodate and perhaps comprcimise their predilections towards the image of frontier, with all that this implied to the actu.alities of city living."®

Not surprisingly, the triumph of industry brought with it its attendant dangers. The America that took pride in its great material progress was not the America its founding fathers and philosophers had dreamed. The rise of capitalism and the policy of laisses-f aire could not have taken place without the policy of paternalism. And paternalism degenerated into a policy of favouritism adopted by the government. If the government is to grant a gift, it will be granted in all probablity to the highest bidder. This practically means the benefit of the few at the expanse of the many. Under the presidentship of Grant America saw the triumph of the profit motive; the shaping of public policy to promote private interest. Parrington rightly points out : With its booming industrial cities America in 1870 was fast becoming capitalistic, and in every capitalistic society whiggery springs up as naturally as pigweed in a 11

garden... it exalts the profit motive as the sole object of parliamentary concern. Government has only to wave its wand and fairy gifts descend upon business... It graciously bestows its tarrifs and subsidies, and streams of wealth flow into private wells. 9

The increasing gap between the rich and the poor which was incident to the mad capitalistic iust presented a very ghastly picture before the true democrats. The ideas of democracy and liberty were reduced to theories only and the new America was witnessing the victory of plutocratic forces. It was only towards the end of the century that the farroers of America voicing the populist sentiments, formed an alliance and with the Greenback movement launched their democratic struggle against plutocracy,

A direct result of the triumph of industry was a tragic change in the whole scale of values. The Americans under the influence of the noble ideas of the Enlightenment and Christian humanitarian ism nourished by the environment of a new country free from the weakness of the old world had always dreamed of a simple, secure and comfortable life. But instead of a comfortable life, the Americans of the gilded age were wi l-nessing a cut-throat competition, a ruthless rush for money and a final victory of the acquisi­ tive instinct. The acquisition of material fortune became 12

an end in itself and people measured a person's success only in terms of the accumulation moneys

The extent of crude materialism Crin be gauged from the fact that the age accorded undue reverence to the rich men of the time. The 'Captains of industry*, the 'lords of finance', as they were called, the Fisks, Goulds, Carnegies, Rockefellers and Vanderbilts were the folk heroes of the time. The meteoric rise of these industrialists to fame and fortune so captivated the age that it simply con­ doned any scandals involving them. People attributed the virtues of industry, self-reliance, perseverance and enter­ prise to their idols.

The spectacular success of these man gave-birth tc the 'rags to riches' myth which was further implanted into the imagination of the people by the novels of Horatio Alger. Horatio Alger who wrote more then hundred and fifty novels, used the same plot in all his novels : the trans­ formation of a poor but honest and industrious boy into a millionaire. His works proved to be best-sellers and ins­ pired m "iny generations of Americans to seek a fortune.

In his eagerness to glorify business and busi­ nessmen tforatio Alger never realized that the folk heroes of the time were very often the rough, vulgar and diry 13

people with little aesthetic sense. Thus Commodore Venderbilt who was the richest person of his time, read only one book in his life time. The Filgrim.' s Progress, and that too when he had crossed seventy. Moreover business barons were not the great humanitarians that their popular stereotype implies. Matthew Josephson, in his brilliantly written book eroded the myth that attributed to these busi­ nessman the godly qualities. Granting the material achie­ vements of these lords of finance, Josephson notes ;

But all this revolutionizing effort is branded with the motive of private gain on the part of the new captains of industry. To organise and exploit the resources of a nation upon a gigantic scale, to regiment its farmers and workers into hannonious corps of producers, and to do this only in the name of an uncontrolled appetite for private profit - here surely is the great inherent contradiction whence so much disaster, outrage and misery has flowed. Extremes of management and stupidity would make themselves felt... The alter­ nations of prosperity and poverty would be more violent and mercurial speculation and breakdown each more excij.^dive; while the inherent contradictions within the society pressed with increasing intole­ rable force against the bonds of the old order. 10

It is true th it the common peof le by and large endorsed the new values. However, the reaction of some sctxilars, a number of economists and most of the men of letters was quite different and they for the most part were sceptical about the material progress ot America. To the economists and the political thinkers the evils of the industrial ^^erica "served only to quicken an inherited skepticism of democracy. How can society expect to func­ tion adequately they asked without capable and honest leader­ ship and how can such leadership be hoped for in a rough and tumble democracy that loves the noisiest demagogue V" 11 The exponent of this group ot thinkers was J^mes Russell Lowell who thought that too much of democracy was the main reason behind /unerica's ills. Another group of thinkers led by George VJilliam Curtis was of the view that the root of evil was political. This group stressed the necessity of civil service reform for the proper functioning of the government. Another school of thought under the leadership ot ildwin Lawrence Godkin who described the new civilization of America as chrome civilization' , regarded the system ot unwise paternalism as the main cause of the evils that aff­ licted .America. He thought that unless business was sepa­ rated from politics there would not be any positive change.

However, all these thinkers gave little thought to the soci.'il and more? importantly moral and spixltual conse­ quences of the rise of industrialism. It was left to the writers and poets to explore the deeper implications of the J J

questions posed by the triumph o£ materialistic values. .American writers responded to the c-\ll and tried to portray the actual life of the people. They were "committed during this period to the absorption of the new conditions of culture into a systematized consciousness... it was through Americ-in writers that the American consciousness was pre- served and slowly began to evolve." 1?" It is difficult to agree with Michael Millgate's view that the Americ 3n writers regarded business as essentially an interesting activity and "committed the mistake of regarding the American busi­ nessman as an entirely unprecedented and extraordinary phenomenon... 3s necessarily a great man, a type of the epic hero." ^ It will De proper to say that the American writers turned to business and businessmen not only for lite­ rary matori 3l but they also grasped its real nature and very forcefully expressed their disapproval of the new scale of values. Thus Walt Whitman, the representative poet of America very astutely observed in his "Democratic Vistas' :

The depravity of the business cl-isses of our country is not less than has been supposed, but infinitely greater. The offi­ cial services of America, national, state, and municipal, in all their brnnches and departments except the judiciary are satu­ rated in corruption, bribery, falsehood, m^l-administration, and the judiciary is tainted. The great cities reek with respec­ table as much as non-respectable robbery and scoundrelism. .. In business (this all 6

devouring modem word, business) the one sols object iS/ by any means, pecuniary gain... Money-making is our magician's serpent, remaining to-day sole master of the field... I say that our wew World democracy, however great a success in uplifting the masses out of their sloughs, in materialistic development,products and in a certain highly deceptive superficial popular intellectuality, is, so far, an almost complete failure in its social aspects, and in really grand religious, moral, literary, and esthetic results." 14

In this misgivings about the material forces. Whitman was echoing the thoughts of Emerson, Thorea'a, elder Henry James and Charles Dickens. In his famous essay "New England Reformers" Emerson considered the Americans' obsession with trade TS the root cause of all the evils of their society. The elder Henry James also very emphatically pointed out: "entire system of trade, as based upon what is called 'Unlimi- ted Competition' is a system of capacity and robbery." 15 In fact it is not surprising that an outsider's view of the American situation was not very different simply because he himself happened to be a literary artist endowed with the same literairy sensiDiiity and love of humi^nity. Charles Dickens in his American Notes and Pictures from Italy while conceding that Americar;3 possessed the virtues of cordiality, hospitality and affection, added that the great blemish in "the popular mind of America... (was) the national love of trade. "•'•'' 1 /

>bst of the great writers of the nineteenth century — Smerson, Thoreay, Whitman, Hawthorne, Melville, Howells, Twain, Henry James — had not lost faith in democratic principle. Rather they realised that the false democracy of their time had cut short the stature of the individual. The individual was submerged in the mass. The theme of a number of nineteenth century novels was the moral alienation of the individual resulting from the improper functioning of democracy. They tried to explore the problem of reconciling individual freedom with norrns of social life without the individual losing his perspective.

The disgust of the men of letters with the 'business civilization' of America has been expressed in two different ways. On the one hand the writers refused to do anything with the America of their time and sought refuge in the culture of the old world and in the distant lands of their imaginations. The most prominent example of this sort of escapism is provided by Henry James in a number of his novels. In works like Roderick Hudson (187 6), The American (1877) ^^'^ Daisy Miller (1879), his theme was the flight of Americans in the cultured and polished society of the old world. Taking a cue from Henry James many other writers and intellectuals like Henry Cabot Lodge and Marion Crawford ben.oaned the poverty of materials in thf-ir native land and ^8 became real expatriates thinking and feeling like Europeans. Others like Henry Adams who was sceptical about the whole nature of material progress retreated into the past. Adams sought refuge in the twelfth century Europe. The New England writers — Emerson, Holmes, Whittier, and Charles Eliot Norton especially insisted upon the past and its rich traditions. Their great efforts in translating the classics like the Iliad, Vita Nuova and Faust were inspired partly by their desire to contrast the noble ideals and heroic aspira­ tions of these works with the base materialism of their time and partly by their concern to preserve a glorious past.

However, another group of writers — Mark Twain, Hamlin Garlan, Williaim Dean Howells and Edward Bellamy, etc. — did not share Henry James's colonial feeling toward Europe. They rather depicted in their fiction the evil effects of the new material values on society and social relationships. If Hamlin Garland expressed her belief in the economic equalitarianism through her numerous stories, Howells through works like Annie Kilbum, A Hazard of New Fortunes and A Traveller from Altruria portrayed the upstarts and nouveaux riches, and the evil effects of. their values in warping human relationships. The growth of the sociological novel in the last decade of -the century further explored the various ramifications of capitalism and ]f3 its effect. Many writers identified themselves witn iaoourers and launched an attacK on the great industrial wizards of the age.

Ill

The American mind has been very much susceptible to the influence of religion. Right from the writings of the early settlers, like those of Mathers, down to the nine­ teenth century/religion has had an important place in the life of the citizens of the U.S.A. and has coloured the writings of almost all major writers. This colouring is there either in the form of the understanding of society's problems in the light of Christianity or in the form of a criticism of the institutionalized religion and its stifling influence on the life of the common men.

Alexis de Tocqueville, who made the first comprehen­ sive study of American political and social institutions in his monumental work Democracy in America (1835, 1840) regarded religion a very powerful force in American life. He dwelt at length on the contribution of religion to American democracy. UnliKe Europe where Christianity was gradually losing ground, America paid a high respect to the outward forms of religion, its rites and rituals. Expressing his ;::o surprise Tocqueville noted

On my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention; and the longer I stayed there, the more I perceived the great political conse­ quences resulting from this new state of things. In France I had almost seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of free­ dom marching in opposite directions. But in America they were intimately united and that they reigned in common over the same country. My desire to discover the causes of this phenomenon increased from day to day. In order to satisfy it I questioned the members of all the different sects; I sought especially the society of the clergy... they all attributed the peace­ ful dominion religion in their country mainly to the separation of Church and state. I do not hesitate to affirm that during my stay in Mierica I did not meet a single individual or the clergy or the laity, who was not of the same opinion on this point. 17

Tocqueville also observed that Christianity was clothed with fev/er forms, figures and observances in the United States. Moreover, the clergy identified themselves with the majority opinion and did not venture to interfere in the political affairs of the state. In a way they recog­ nised the two distinct realms of a true democracy — the spiritual and the secular. Another feature of American religion which surprised Tocijueville was the balance betv/een the material success in this world and the other-worldly aspects of religion. Lastly, he noted, religion clearly 21 defined the boundary of all facets of American philosophy and behaviour. It placed a moral restraint on the beha­ viour and the Americans rarely disputed openly its precepts. "While it permits Americans to do what they please, religion prevents them from conceiving, and forbids them to commit, what is rash or unjust.'«1 8

Though Catholic Church has been a force to be reckoned with in the United States — especially the new wave of Catholic immigration after the civil war resulted in the increase of Church membership — the dominent position has been held by protestentism, by Calvinism more specifically. Protestant Christianity was openly taught in the American schools in the nineteenth century.

Calvinism emphasized total depravity of man and presented a pessimistic view about man's salvation because God was under no obligation to save any man regardless of his virtuous life. The grace of the Calvinistic God can not be refused or acquired by anybody of his own free will. Stre­ ssing the study of the Bible, Calvinism also made it Clear that Christ gave away his life for those who will achieve salvation and not for everyone.

The reception given to many books openly defending theism and Calvinistic doctrines, suggests thit the masses greatly clung to supeimaturalistic ideas. Hickok's Humanity Immortal (187 2) and the Logic of Reason (1875) were the defenses of reason. Another important book Systematic Theology (1873) by Charles Hodge, was the defence of the infallibility of the word of God. It was followed by G.T, Shedd's Dogmatic Theology (1888), defending the Calvinistic view of life. Apart from these books certain other factors like the immigration of thousands of Scotch Irish presbete- rians to the U.S.A. who settled in different parts of the country further popularizing these ideas, also helped in preserving the moral attitude of Calvinists. In fact the remnants of Calvinism are still very much present in the U.S.A. "The religious conservatism that exists to this day in much of the Midwest, South, and Southwest attests to the tremendous moral force exerted by Scotch presbyterianism", Horton and Edward noted as late as 1957, 19

However, while the common people were practising Calvinistic theology and the Catholic dogmas, a confined section of society was applying reason to understand Chris­ tianity. The age of Enlightenment which stressed the need of human beings' release from their self-imposed tutelage, triggered off many foirces which greatly affected the thinking minority. The most important change resulting from the ideas of the Englightenment was in the field of religion in the form 23

of a mavement called Deism. By the end of the 18th century Deism had acquired a very important place in the life of the upper class Americans. In -fact the first three presi­ dents of the U.S.A. were deists.

Deists entirely rejected the Salvinistic conception of God as a vindictive and revengeful being. To them God was the supreme power, benevolent and merciful. However, He does not interfere in the affairs of the world which is governed by strict mechanical laws. They also tried to prove the existence of God on a rational basis. They advoca­ ted for a natural religion free from priestcraft and the institutionalized rites and rituals and put a very high pre­ mium on a virtuous and unSinful life. In fact Benjamin Franklin believed that the best service to God will be by doing good to man.

Deist literature is full of the discussion of the abominable practices of different religions. Intolerance and fanaticism in any form was anathema to the deists because in their opinion the essence of all religions was basically the same. They did not believe in ..revelation, magic and other unusual happenings. They accepted the morals of the Bible without regard to its historicity and regarded Christ as a very pious person whose teachings were as old as the < ••

history o£ creation and had a lot in common with the tea­ chings of other religions.

These liberal ideas influenced the individuals as well as many religious organisations and subdivisions. One reli­ gious system to be influenced by some of these ideas was Freemasonry. Basically derived from the medieval sagas and Biblical tradition, the teachings of Freemasonry were greatly coloured by the rationalistic - deistic ideas of the enligh­ tenment. Some individuals like Thomas Jefforson, president of the U.S.A. from 1801 to 1809 and Albert Pike (1809-1891) did a remarkable job of popularizing the message of Free­ masonry in the United States.

Freemasonry' s belief in the exalted conception of God and its motto of freedom, equality and brotherhood of mankind were quite popular in the U.S.A. of the nineteenth century. Founded on piety and virtue. Freemasonry laid great empha­ sis on the performance of good deeds. But the most important feature of this cult was their belief in the transformation of a person's personality from the lower condition of spiri­ tual darkness to a very high level of consciousness.

Of the persons credited with spreading the deistic ideas in the U.S.A., the name of Thomas Paine (1737-1809) figures very prominently.• His most important work The Age o£ Reason appeared in 1794 and 1795. Basically a very bitter criticism of the revealed religion, it brings into discredit the inconsistencies in the Old and the New Testa­ ments. Holding Christ in high esteem but regarding Chris­ tianity in league with the powers of despotism, Thomas Paine was especially critical of the politically established Chur­ ches because they preached against the common people. Paine applied reason in his understanding of Christianity and did not believe in miracles, supernaturalism and other unbeliev­ able incidents which characterized Christianity,

The ideas of Paine and others spread the deistic message far and wide. But it will be a mistake to think that deism was only an eighteenth century phenomenon. Although the term deism was not much in use in the 19th century, it was very much present as an attitude. Moreover because of a gradual process of secularization, people could easily proc­ laim themselves as sceptic or atheist without needing the shield of deism.

The nineteenth century America was remarkable for a number of new movements in religion. A growth of sectiona­ lism, denominationalism and sectarianism sums up the state of religion in that period. Various Churches v/ere subdivided and many religious organizations were formed. Some of the 20

movements that flourished in the 19th century were spiri­ tualism, Millerism, Mormonism, Adventism, Perfectionism, Shakerism, and Christian science. The followers of these religious groups were very committed people and believed in the transforming power of religion. Most of these movements were characterised by millennial ideas. All these new movements had a touch of novelty about them. The ideas prea­ ched by these movement held appeal for the restless as well as the complacent and prosperous people of th0 city, it has been suggested that "the continued vogue of supermaturalism in the more traditional as well as heterodox forms answered the emotional needs of a large number of Americans. It pro­ vided assurance in a period of change and dislocation incident to industrialisation and urbanization and to the challenge of the new science with all its uncertainities." 20

However, despite the vogue of new religious cults and despite the existence of deism as a religious attitude, the belief in religion and for that matter in supernatural ideas was being greatly challenged by the reality of the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The great changes appa­ rent in every walk of life left their mark on religious ideas too. Thus the rapid rise of industry and the resultant urba­ nization also started the process of scularization. The Church which used to be a very strong social tie in rural areas '^1

ceased to perform that function and had to loosen its control on the life of the people. There was a definite decrease in the observance OE; the Sabbath. Besides the city was also the centre of the advance of science and the people were more receptive to scientific ideas in cities than in villages,

The scholarly efforts of many philologist and learned people studying closely the religious texts also resulted in the watering-down of the people's religious perceptions. Their conclusions often ran contrary to the orthodox views about Christianity. Thus they proved that the Bible did not have a divine origin; rather it was a collection of a heterogenous pieces of writings written over a thousand, years. The description of deluges, virgin births. Cruci­ fixion and atonements had their precedent in the older religious writings of Oth6r peoples. Writing about many features which Christianity shared with other religions these philologist with their amazing knowledge of anthropology tried to show the naturalistic rather than the supematura- listic basis of religion. Thus the popularity of books like Gospel - Criticism and Historical Christianity (1891) by Orello Cone, or Who Wrote the .Bible (1891) by Washington Gladden or the religious novels of Margaret Del and and Mrs Humphrey Ward — all these works propounding hete­ rodox views about religion — further point to the cirumbling c8

power of faith.

Finally, the onward march of science exemplified through its epoch-making discoveries most powerfully deli­ mited the appeal of supernaturalism. Geology proved the antiquity of the earth which questioned the chronology of the genesis suggested by the Bible. Astronomy established the insignificance of man in the face of an infinite universe. Most importantly# the Christian belief of considering man a special creation, directly descending from Adam, was in conflict with the Darwinian thesis. In his highly influen­ tial book The Origin of Species (1859) , he tried to prove that the present man has gradually developed from simpler forms of animal life. All these discoveries greatly affected the religious thinking of the people.

IV

The intellectual temper of the nineteenth century, barring its last decade, was by and large optimistic. It believed in the rational ideas of the enlightenment. The optimism coupled with the belief in rationality gave birth to what is popularly known as the myth of progress which epitomizes the nineteenth century intellectual thought. The 23

idea of growth characterized the writings of biologists, historians, social scientists and literary artists.

The United States which was relatively free from the strangle-hold of rigid customs and traditions, despite the vogue of supernatural ism, provided a suitable envirnment for the reception of these ideas. A critic veiry aptly remarks :

Anerican life, largely mobile because of the frontier experience, the shift of population to urban centers, and the incoming of throngs of immigrants, suggested that there was little indeed that was fixed and final... All these reasons, then, help explain why the scientific and especially the evolutionary position, emphasizing as it did the long- favored doctrine of progress, the power of man to reconstruct society, and a generally optimistic faith in the future, found conge­ nial soil in America, 21

In the social sciences the idea of progress is quite conveniently traced to the French thinker Condorcet (1743- 1794) who in his work Sketch of an Historical Picture of the Progress of the Human Spirit (1795) talked about the developnent of mankind through nine epochs. The tenth, Condorcet argued, beginning with the revolution results in the final betterment of humanity providing absolute equality of opportunity to everybody. In his opinion the popular education of people was the foundation of progress. 30

Greatly influenced by Condorcet, Saint Simon (1760 -

1825) , another French thinker, stated the law of the three

stages of social development. He also propounded the organic

theory of human society. However, it was not Saint Simon

but Auguste Comte, his collaborator, who fully elaborated

the philosophy of history in his numerous writings. Gomte

systematically ejqjlained the law of the three stages of

intellectual thought : theological, metaphysical and posi­

tive. In the first stage man thought of the universe in

terms of supernatural, all-mighty and anthropomorphic

power. In the second stage the role of deties in human

affairs was discarded and man came to believe in an unde­

fined force. It is the third stage with its rejection of

all old supeiDatural doctrines and mystical beliefs, which

showed man's remarkable progress. Now with the help of

science man analyses the universe in exact, demonstrable

and predictable tertns. In fact so accurate is Gomte* s

analysis that Woodbridge Riley thinks that "the three

centuries of American existence — the seventeenth with its

theocracy, the eithteenth with its abstract theories of

political rights and its faith in constitutions and the nineteenth with its industrialism on science - would seem

to be pages out of the positivist philosophy of historyo" 22

The idea of the gradual progress of mankind also :u

Illuminates the writings of historians and political and legal scientists. The historians like Bancroft, Parkman and Motley believed in the gradual development of the human race. They thought that mankind was able to achieve its present enviable position because of the superiority of some great individuals and some institutions. In fact John Piske set out to write the history of mankind with the express purpose of promoting the Darwinian concept of evolution. Fully believing that historical changes result from fixed and predictable laws, Fiske studied the evolution of langu­ age of Anglo-Sexon people, and of their political institu­ tions. In the hands of these able historians history was no longer a record of unrelated events without any pattern or meaning. It was now an interpretation, a philosophy and a pointer to a systematic growth of mankind.

The political scientists elaborated the idea of the slow but gradual growth of political institutions. The state was no longer considered an artificial creation. Like political science, the writings on law also reflect the influence of the myth of progress. A very prominent thinker of the time Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, wrote a book The Common Law (1881) , in which he epitomizes the popular opinion of the time. Holmes points out : 32

The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. The felt necessities of the time, the prevalent moral and political theories, intuitions of public policy, avowed or unconscious even the prejudices which judges share with their fellowmen, have had a good deal more to do than the syllogism in determining the rules by which men should be governed... the law embodies the story of a nation's development through many centuries and that in order to know what it is, we must know what has been, and what it tends to become. Much that was taken for granted as natural, has been laboriously fought for in past times: the substance of law at any time corresponded fairly well to what was regarded as conve­ nient by those making or interpreting it, but the form or machinery and the degree to which it is able to work out desired results, depended much upon its past. 23

Not only social sciences but biology also propogated the idea of progress. Darwin's theory of the development of man from simpler forms is too well known to be discussed here. Moreover, it was Herbert Spencer, rather than Charles Darwin, who left an extraordinary influence on Americans coming to maturity after the civil war. In 1852 he wrote a paper ' Development Hypothesis' in which he gave a theory of organic evolution and found a key to this evolution in the struggle for survival. He came to form his opinions independently of Darwin and coined the famous ejqpression 'survival of the fittest' . In his outstanding career, Spencer also deduced certain laws relating to physical, organic and social 33

developnent, He pointed out that the progress of mankind lies in the transformation of the homogenous into the heterogenous and simple into the complex.

The credit to popularize the evolutionary doctrine in America goes to John Fiske. Piske tried to show the poten­ tial theism of Spencer's First Principles C1860) after the great debate between science and religion had been reinforced by the spread of evolutionary theory. Fiske thought that the evolution was simply God* s manner of achieving his noble purposes and that the purpose of all natural processes was to produce happiness. In his Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy (1874) he clarified the Spencerian conception of cosmic evolution. He suggested that evolution just proves the exis­ tence of a supernatural and eternal force. Piske also argued that faith in a benevolent God and immortality was not cont­ rary to the theories and postulates of science.

The wide acceptance of Spencer's and Piske's ideas just proves that the Americar) mind was ready to believe anything which guaranteed progress. The disciples of Spencer and Fiske discovered unity, grcrwth, purpose and order in the universe, and as Parrington notes :

In the evolutionary science were the grounds of a genial optimism that nothing could shake. If they had lost something of :M

jauntiness of the transcendental faith that beheld God plowing furrows of Brook Farm, they were armed with a scientific faith that by tapping stones and comparing fishes they should find His plan in an evolving series of life forms... Freedom, love, benevolence progress towards a millenial perfection — these were the clarion notes in a huge symphony in praise of human perfec­ tibility that assaulted /unerican ears in the Gilded Age. 24

The sane optimism characterised the poetry of the representative poets of America. Whitman accepted the evo­ lutionary idea though it bore the influences of Emerson rather than Darwin. He exalted the stature of man by prai­ sing the future possibilities and the potential goodness of man. Another poet of the period Sidney Lanier, thoroughly immersed in Darwinism, tried to bridge the gap between science and religion. His poetry is also marked by a note of hope and . . hospitality to the new scientific doctrines.

However, this optimism was not to last forever. The biological thought soon gave way to the theories of physics and the intellectual leadership passed from Spencer to Haeckel. The world that physics unfolded did not have order, harmory, or growth but only flux and chance. It signified the end of the myth of progress. Instead of the teleolo- gical conception of the universe, the mechanistic theory held an unhappy appeal for intellectuaj^ and writers. "The :i5

idea of . progress slipped quietly from their minds, and in its stead was only a meaningless and purposeless flux of 25 things." With the final victory of the mechanistic theory, all old faiths in free will, purposive providence and a benevolent universe crumbled. There was utter hopeless­ ness in the mind of intellectuals and other perceptive souls.

The most prominent example of this pessimism and disillusionment is Henry Adams's classic work The Sducation of Henry Mams. He was not convinced of the material prog­ ress of itoerica; did not see any order in the universe; and discarded the evolutionary historiography of his time that envisaged an orderly progress of human institutions.

The obsession with the mechanistxc theory and the resulting despair and despondency found a suitable expression in the naturalistic novels of Theodore Dresier, Pranc Noris and Stephen Crane. Mark Twain also came to write a number of works showing his belief in the mechanistic theories. These writers conceived of man as a pawn in the hands of a cruel fate. Man was believed to be guided by chemical forces from within and social forces from without and hence not to be blamed for his actions. It was a far cry from the earlier America of Emerson and Whitman. 3G

The last decade of the nineteenth century witnessed American e>ccursion into imperialism. The war against Spain, the armed conflict against Philippines and the interference in China are some important events in the history of America. The champions of imperialism tried to justify America's expan­ sionist venture on a number of grounds. Their arguments in favour of imperialism can be fully understood only in the context of the nineteenth century : the then current philo­ sophy and the economic prosperity of America,

A number of Americans viewed the new reality in darwinian terms. They thought that the idea of the 'survival of the fittest* fully applied to nations and it was in keep­ ing with the law of nature that a strong nation should dcani- nate the weak ones. The religious-minded people interpreted the doctrine of inevitability to prove God's will in granting divinS guidance • to strong nations. Thus the American president William Mckinley Knelt down on his knees to get divine sanction for his imperialistic policies. In .fact political Darwinism was openly popularised by the widely read magazines and the public speaches of some noteispeakers. As early as June 1854, Hunt's Merchant's Magazine brought out : 37

As in modern society the capita­ list has the pauper in his power, so among nations the rich ones will require the service of the poor ones, or cause their destruction. Nor is the universal and irresistable operation of this law to be regretted... It is better that an inferior race should tlius become extinct than that the development of a superior race should be prevented. 25

By the end of the nineteenth century political Darwinism had become so popular that the Republicans openly supported this. A very strong supporter of this idea. Senator Albert J. Beveridge even preached it in Congress :

God has not been preparing the English speaking and Teutonic peoples for a thousand years for nothing but vain and idle self-contemplation and self-admiration. No ' He made us master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigned. He has given us the spirit of progress to overwhelm the faces of reaction throughout the earth. He has made us adept in government that we may admi­ nister government among savage and senile peoples. Were it not for such a force as this .the. world would relapse into barbarism and night. Ana of all our race He has marked the American people as His chosen nation to finally lead in the regeneration of the world. 27

Another argument in favour of imperialism revolved around the business interests of America. The champions of imperialism maintained that America's object should be to 38

develop its industrial economy at home and promote trade throughout the world. The chanL,ing scenario in America and Europe also gave weight to their views. By the end of the decade America had achieved political unity at Home as a result ot tne closure of its trontier and the rapid process of industrialization. The development of industry^ trade, and banking necessitatsd the creation of new markets. As long as the contiguous territories remained to be conquered, the industrialists* and enterpreneurs did not think much about the overseas expansion. But with the final closing of tne frontier, tne business interests of the country could be realised only through the creation of new . colonies. Albert J. B eve ridge' s famous 'March of the Flag' speech delivered on April 27, 1898, clearly sums up this attitude i

American factories are making more than the American people can use. American soil is producing more than they can con­ sume. Fate has written our policy for us, the trade of the world must and shall be ours and we shall get it as our mother, Knglana, nas told us how. We will estab­ lish trading posts throughout the world as distributing points fpr American pro­ ducts. We will cover the ocean with our Merchant Marine. We will build a navy to the measure of our greatness. Great colo­ nies, governing themselves, flying our flag and trading with us, will grow about our posts of trade. Our institutions will follow our trade on the wings of our com­ merce. And American law, American order. 39

American civilization and the American flag will plant themselves on shores hitherto bloody and benighted, by those agencies of God henceforth made beauti­ ful and bright. 28

The world-picture also goaded the imperialists to clamour for expansionist policies. There was a general triumph of industrialism in Europe and the process of colo­ nialism which had been started by Prance, Spain, England and Poland 300 years ago had now reached its final phase, Italy and Germany also joined the race for colonies and the imperialists in United States thought that their country should also make efforts to get possession of some colonies before they are claimed and gobbled by the European nations. Thus Senator Henry Cabot Lodge was a very vocal supporter of this idea. He pointed out on many occasions that America had better join the race before She found herself left at the post.

As is clear from some of the passages quoted aboye, a powerful argument of the imperialists included their belief in the superiority of American civilization. It was pointed out by many that the mission of America was to spread civilization and the ideals of liberty and equality in the midst of the less fortunate people of the world. The concept of the 'Whit Man's Burden* was openly embraced by 40

protestant Churchmen also. They thought that they should contribute their mite to the regeneration of the backward people. More aggressive proponents of this view believed that the people sitting in darkness are not capable of learning democracy or running their own government and it was in their own benefit that the civilized people should rule them. This idea had its origin in Sngland but the American imperialists were in constant touch with and borrowed from British imperialist ideas, "The Victorian insistence... upon the division of the globfe between civi­ lized and uncivilized societies in time affected Anerican 29 perspectives too." The last two decades of the previous century also saw the publication of two great works in support of impe­ rialism which greatly influenced tne foreign policy of the United States, These works present the syntheses of all the old arguments about the need and legitimacy of imperia­ listic ventures. The first of these works was Josiah Strong's Our Country (1885) which stressed the idea of the inborn superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race and urged the Americans to spread the American values of civil liberty and spiritual Christianity in the backward lands.

Even more important was the book by Alfred Thayer 41

Mahan, The Influence of Sea Power on History (1890) which was couched in Darwinian terms. Mahan viewd the relation­ ship between nations based mainly on self-interest and was not opposed to the use of force. A nation should be pre­ pared to fight and follow the policy of aggression for its own existence. He stressed the need of a powerful navy which he regarded more effective and flexible than an army and considered the export of finished products to other nations indispensable for the proper functioning of the navy. Mahan* s views influenced not only the policy makers of the United States but also those of Japan, England, and Germany. In America the credit for popularizing his ideas goes chiefly to Theodore Roosevelt.

With all these arguments hanging in the air, the United States was just biding its time for a suitable opportunity. The stage was set and only a spark was needed to crystallise these imperialist sentiments into a reality. It was provided by the revolution for Cuban independence from Spain. The imperialists with the help of the yellow press convinced the people of the United States that Spain needed a war and that the United Statas,stood for the highest ideals of liberty and democracy in this war. The war was finally declared on April 25, 1898 which ended in Spain's defeat. Spain was forced to sign a humiliating peace 12

treaty and had to relinquish Cuba. The imperialist nature of this protocol can be gauged from the fact that Puerto Rico and all Spain's other islands in West Indies were ceded to the United States. By one ambiguous clause, the Unites States also took control of tyxe Philippines.

The Filif)inos welcomed the American army and under the able leadership of Aguinaldo assisted them to take Manila. However, the news of the terms of the treaty of Paris with Spain, and the brutality of the Americans in the Philippines soon disillusioned the Filipinos and they turned against the Americans. Using primitive weapons they resisted the American army until after the turn of the century. It was only when Williams Howard Taft was made the Governor General of the Philippines in ' 1907 and when the Filipinos were assured of their independence that the Philippines problan could be solved.

In Africa and Asia also imperialism had taken firm roots. In the years 1898-1900 the Boer War was going on in South Africa. The Boers led by Kruger were fighting British imperialism which under the leadership of Cecil Rhodes was assuming dangerous proportions.

In China the nature of imperialism was more subtle. Under many treaties signed at different periods, the Chinese 43

government gave trade concassions to the United States and other European powers. By these agreements significant areas in the thirteen richest^ most populous and most desir­ able Commerical cities were rented to the foreign powers and they turned these provinces into their 'Sphere of influence.' However, this looting of China did not conti­ nue without a violent reaction on the pcirt of the Chinese people. A militant group of Chinese r amed 'Boxers' rose in rebellion against the foreign encroachments of their motherlind. But they could not match the strength of the conibined forces of the Europeans and Americans. The Chinese defeat had disastrous results for it and it had to pay huge indi.imni ties. The whole o£ China was dismembered and the European nations — France, England, Germany and Russia besides the Asian army of Japan — occupied different territories of China. The United States did not take any territory because of its advocacy of the ' oper door' policy but it did exploit • China's economic resources through many consortiums and loans which Chinese gave very grudgingly.

The entry of the Unites States into the rdCQ for colonies did meet with opposition at home. The opiX)nents of the imperialist policies argued on religious, ethical humanitarian and also practical grounds. They talked of 44

the curtailment of armaments which would result in the prevention of war. The pacifists thought that the United States did not have any moral right to rule the unwilling people; it repudiated the philosophy of the natural right of all peoples to self-determination and self-government. Many of the anti-imperialists believing in the superiority of the American people, thought that the involvement in the affairs of the old world will have disastrous result as the Americans will be affected by ' the ills of Europe. The anti-imperialists also pointed out the futi­ lity of the imperialist ventures on practical grounds. In their opinion imperialism would result in navalism, mili­ tarism and war incurring thereby heavy expenditure and taxes and giving no profit.

The anti-imperialist sentiments attracted people from all walks of life. Most of the writers and intellec­ tuals sided with them and the opposition to the official policies of the government took an organized form. On June 15, 1898, in Boston the American Anti-Imperialist League came into existence. They in one voice opposed the American policy on the Philippines, However, the victory of McKinley in the presidential election of 1900 on an openly impe­ rialist platform was a big blow to the voice of the 'anti- imperialists. Further, the diversity in their views and 45 their disunity did not work in their favour and even at the height of their organized activity they were not very influential. 4G

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. R.W.B. Lewis, The American Adam, (Chicago, 1955) , p,2.

2. Rod W. Horton Si Herbert W, Edwards, Backgrounds of American Literary Thought, (New York, 19 67) , pp. 139, 141. Hence onward referred to only as Literary Thought.

3. Vernon Louis Parrington, Main Currents in American Thought, Vol.Ill, (New York, 1958), p.103. Hence onward referred to as Main Currents.

4. Francis Brown, The Principles of Political Economy, (Boston, 1959), pp. 122-123.

5. Quoted by Merle Curti, The Growth of American Thought, (New York, 19 64) , p. 29 3. Hence onward referred to as Americ an Thought.

5. He points out that the essence of capitalism lies in its stress on the pursuit of profit and the organiza­ tion of all enterprise in a rational manner. Two major characteristics of capitalism, standardization of production and the specialized division of labour were greatly encouraged by protestant ethic which stressed a uniformity of life and the Importance of a fixed calling in life.

7. Literary Thought, op.cit., p. 144. 47

8. Jay Martin, Harvests of Change, (New Jersey, 1967) ,

p.4.

9» Main ^Currents, Vol.Ill, op.cit., p.21.

10. Matthew Josephson, The Robber^ Barons ; The Great

American Capitalists 1861-1901, (New York, 1934), p.453.

11* Main Currents, op.cit., p. 138.

12. Jay Martin, Harvests of Change, op.cit., p.12. 13. Michael Millgate, American Social Fiction (Edinburgh, 19 64) , pp. 20 6-207. 14. Walt Whitman, "Democratic Vistas" in Prose _Works 189 2, Floyd Stovall, ed. (2 vols : New York, 19 63 64), 11, p.370.

15. Henry James, Moral!sm and Christanity, (New York, 1850) , p.33.

16. Charles Dickens, ^Qrig_an^ Notes and Pictures from ItaT^, (London, 1957), p. 246.

17. Alexis de Tocqueville, Demoqrac;^ J-P. ^.Q^i.ca (New York, 1945), Vol.1, pp.319-320.

18. Ibi..4., p.316.

19 • Literary, ^Thoujght op.cit., p. 47 . 20. American Thought, op.cit., p.523.

21. I^i^d., p. 540-541. 4«

22. Woodridge Riley, American Thought, (New York, 1915), p. 172. 23. Oliver W. Holmes, Jr., ZlL®.-S2JSffi2.ilJi§,^ (Boston, 1881), pp.1-2. 24. Main jCu_rrents op.cit., p.201. 25. Ibid., p.202-203. 26. lint's Merchants' Magazine, XXIV (June, 1855), p.708. 27. Quoted in Am_erican Thought, op.cit., p. 657. 28. Albert J. Beveridge, "The March of the Flag", Indianapolis Jou mal, September 17, 1898.

29. David Healy, U.S. Sxpansionism :^ The Imperialist Urqe in the 1890s, (Madison, 1970) , p.38, CHAPTER II

TWAIN'S TECHNIQUE 50

The history of Twain criticism points to two different modes of critical response. On one side are the detractors of Twain who present him as a thwarted genius, reducing him to the stature of a itiere buf forai and an unskilled artist. The second stand is taken by critics who stress the richness of themes and the presence of what may suitably be termed "as * Americanness', in Twain's worko

This current of opposing opinions was first trig­ gered off by the Brooks-Devoto controversy of the early thirties. Van Wyck Brooks, in his highly influential book. The Ordeal of Mark Twain (1920) , called Twain a ,'wounded genius' whose work suffered artistically because of his concern for the popular taste of his times and the adverse effect of the restricting frontier conditions. Using psycho-analytical tools. Brooks also held responsi­ ble Twain's mother, his wife, his friends particularly William Dean Howells, and his editors for exercising a harmful control on his work. Brooks' charges were answered one by one by Bernard Devoto in his almost equally impre­ ssive book Mark Twain's America (1932) . Devoto considered Twain as the embodiment of the best in western culture and asserted that fer from being thwarted by the frontier condi­ tions, Twain's genius really flourished under them. 5i

Most of the critical judgement about Twain is derived from the positions taken by Brooks and DevotOo However, judging from the perspective o£ age it can be said that Brooks is hardly convincing in his "assertion that humour proved the undoing of Twain the serious 4rtist= In fact Twain owes his evergrowing popularity to his fusion .of humour with social criticism. Brooks' charge that Twain was not a satirist because he did not have any system to substitute for the one he was criticizing is also mot very tenable. Throughout his literary career, despite the pessimism of later years. Twain emerges as a great humani­ tarian concerned with fundamental human problems. His love for an instinctive and pretension-free life<, his hatred of dictatorship and imperialism and his trust in democracy, and his contempt for the stifling influence . .of. - institu­ tionalized religion are issues which ^eluded BrookS* analysis.

Devoto' s position is also not very sound. His work gives the impression that he was a better historian than a literary critic. HenceIMs arguments about the literary merit of Twain's work, which are very few, are to be taken very cautiously.

Though pitted against each other. Brooks and Devoto stand on the same platform in at "least one respect : in 1^2 missing the various dimensions of Twain the man and the artist. Ironically, both fail to appreciate that Twain was both a skilled craftsman and a thinker who had much to offer by way of his acute observations on life. And because of the influence of Brooks and Devoto the criticism on Twain appearing after them, seems largely devoted to Twain 'the man and the thinker* rather than Twain 'the artist and the thinker.* Another reason why Twain 'the artist and the thinker* has not been studied, is the critics' undue reliance on Twain's own pronouncements about his art. He projected himself as a non-literary person and a 'jackleg novelist*, a myth which was further perpe­ tuated by Devoto. Whatever be the reasons, the man dominates the artist in Twain criticism. Thus Edward Wagenkecht*s monumental work Mark Twain; The Man and His Work (19 35) highlights his personality rather than his works and his art despite the writer's intentions to study his works and his art. In fact Delancy Ferguson was the first critic who in his book Mark Twain : Man and Legend (1943) pointed out that Twain was not a folk humorist but a highly skilled man of letters. After Ferguson, some other critics like Gladys Bellamy, Edger M. Branch, Richard P. Adams and James M. Cox turned to what Lewis Leary describes as "the legitimate province of literary criticism— concern 53

1 with what a man wrote rather than why he wrote it."

The present researcher feels that Twain's artistic method was unique in many ways. His art implies a vision of the universe, a philosophy of life and a system of values. However, if this philosophy of life had been presented in the form of a semnnon or treatise it would not have stood the test of time. The ideas of philosophers and religious teachers lose their force with the passage of time simply because they appeal to discursive reason. But a novel is neither a religious sermon nor a textbook of sociology. It appeals to imagination and distributes and then realings sympathies. Its success cannot be judged in rational terms because a poet or a novelist is not a thinker in the ordinary sense of the term. He is, rather, a presentational thinker.

Twain was also, like any true literary artist, a presentational thinker. Incapable of sustained logical speculation, he could never have expressed himself in terms other than literary. He approaches every problem in terms of action, character, setting and metaphor. His greatest work The Adventures of Hickleberry Finn is remarkable as much for the values which are arranged in a coherent scheme as for presenting a moral judgement in an artistic manner. 5 4

In his other writings especially of his later period because of his mental dilemmas and the shattering of many of his illusions, he could not fully succeed in achieving either consistent thematic unity or a detached point of view or a plausible moral judgement. Despite this his later writings are read even today which is a pointer to the fact that he was able to transmute his vision of life into art forms.

In the present chapter an attempt is made to throw some liglit on Twain's artistic method. Twain's reliance on realism and humour, his experiments in the field of point of view and his presentation of certain characters for the twin purposes of comedy and satire will be discussed during the course of this chapter. A study of Twain's use of masks and the problems it presented before him, will also form part of this chapter.

II

Avery notable feature of Twain's art is his reli­ ance on realism as a literary technique. His decision to portray life truthfully in his novels guided his themes, plots and characters. Ihe agti-old truism that a writer* s life provides him material for his writings is especially true r>r-)

in the case of Mark Twain. His personal experience was of primary importance to him. In fact he pointed out on many occasions that a writer should not attempt anything which he has not lived through and experienced. Thus when a budding writer asked for Twain's advice, he sugges ted :

Literature is an art, not an inspi­ ration. And its capital is experience — and you are too young, yet, to have much of that in your bank to draw from... Is it hypocritical to notice these little blemishes ? No - not in this case; for I wish to impress uj;)on this truth that the moment you venture outside your own experience you are in pei^l — don't do it. 2

Twain was also very clear about how a writer gains this experience. A writer builds up a store-house of experiences not only by conscious observation of reality but more importantly, by unconscious absorption of the facts of life. And this store-house of experience is very often provided by the writer's acute observation of the life of his own immediate surroundings. Twain's essay "What Paul Bourget thinks for us" gives an idea of the role of the novelist's experience in the making of his art. He writes :

Does the native American novelist try to generalize the nation ? No, he lays o G

plainly before you the ways and speech and life of a few people grouped in a certain place — his own place — and that is one book. In time he and his brethren will report to you the life and the people of the whole nation... 3

However, experience alone does not make a writer a writer. "The observer of the peoples has to a classifier, a Grouper, a Deducer, a Generalizer, a Psychologizer, and, 4 first and last a Thinker." Twain wants to see these qualities in a novelist because, in his opinion, the nove­ list's task consists of not merely reporting the exterior of a nation but also its interior — its soul, its life, its speech and its thought. His view of realism does not admit of mindless adherence to literal reality. His empha­ sis is not ^ facts but rather on a sense of facts, a seeming of reality which distinguishes his realism f rem the crude photographic realism of a writer lik6 Theodore Dreiser. This approach to realism is particularly reflected in his treatment of histoty in his works and his opinion of historical writings. He was greatly influenced by what has been called as the interpretation of history. "What he considered one of the highest literary arts was that of vivifying history, of evoking what was essentially life in the f Lux of time. Toward that intellectual art, realism r- ^

5 of the sort... was an intelligent stepping stone." of all the historians he read — and he read so many — Lord MRcaulay held the greatest artistic interest for him. Tt was particularly Macaulay's genius of imbuing history with life or, to put it in other words, his transmutation of life into history that appealed to Twain. He fully agreed with Macaulay that history is not merely an organi­ zation of facts arranged in a chronological order; rather it provides him an imaginative vivifiration of the past. In A Connecticut Yankee Twain set out to picture the life of sixth-century England. In The Prince and the Pauper his intention was to give a sense of the harsh and inhuman laws of the fifteenth century. The medi­ tative passages of Following the Squator, particularly the ones where Twain speaks of his inexplicable fascination for India, bear the influence of the Macaulayan art of historical realization.

However, it must be said that Twain* s comprehensive view of realism and his appreciation for Macaulay's approach do not run counter to his emphasis 6n a writer's personal experience as providing him with literary material. Twain's broad view of realism also takes into consideration the lesser aspects of realism. It was because of his his broad view that he was able to use his own past in his fiction. ri8

William Dean HowellS/ a close friend of Twain and a powerful influence on his work, is generally considered the father of the movement for realism in literature in America. Twain's support to the cause of realism is generally overlooked simply because critics do not take his opinions on art and the technique of literature very seriously. Another factor behind their neglect is Twain's own work which is a fine blend of realism and idealism. However, in his criticism of other writer's work, he fully identified himself with the cause of realism. He appreci­ ated Zola's gloomy view of human nature which illuminated some of his own agonies. Howe's The Story pf a Country Town moved him because of its attained sense of life. In the case of William Dean Howells Twain was more ^nphatic and clear in his praise. His evaluation of Macaulay, Howe and Zola was not meant for publication, gathered as it is from his desultory statements on artistic method, but he extolled Howells in print and was all praise for him throughout his life especially for Howel]^ s realistic port­ rayal of life and his artful masteiry of his material.

Giving his support to the cause of realism. Twain vehemently criticized James Fenimore Cooper and Sir Walter Scott. In the essay "Cooper^ Literary Offenses" Twain 5^

took Cooper to task £or his defiance of the •eternal laws of nature.* In his opinion The Deerslayer belongs to the decadent domain of romantic fiction. However, Twain is hardly justifiable in his evaluation of Cooper's art because he misses its symbolic and mythic implications. Talking about Twain's criticism of Coopar's work, Sydney Krause points out that "from one situation to the next the theme reverberate that Natty's is the celebrated idyll of the new Adam, redeemed by Christian sensibility and restored to Eden. lb these reverberations Twain is deaf."

In fact the most important reason behind Twain's vitriolic attack on Cooper was his feeling that with the revival of the historical novel in the 1890s Cooper and Scott had threatened the very basis of realism in America. By criticising Cooper as the symbol of dead and decadent romanticism. Twain was simply defending himself as well as the cause of realism in an aggressive manner.

Twain's criticism of Sir Walter Scott for failing to write realistic fiction is even more bitter. He feels that Scott's protagonists are not truly human and admirable; his characters are not real types, and his sentiments are false and insincere. In the second part of Life on the GO

Mississippi Twain noted that Sir Walter ^cott had a very evil influence on the southern writers. He is of the opinion that there is a lot of talent in the south but "its work can gain but slight currency under present condi­ tions; the authors write for the past, not the present, 7 they use obsolete forms and a dead language." As is clear from this criticism. Twain slightly exaggerated the things. But here, as in his assault on Cooper, Twain was speaking as an advocate of the cause of realism, southern realism in this instance. It will be interesting to see how much Twain himself conformed to his theory of fiction. His own experience of life, particularly of his town Hannibal and his river years, provided him the material for his fiction at least upto the writing of A Connecticut Yankee. After this book his success in transforming his experience into art was only sporadic simply because he came to have doubts about his experience itself.

Twain repeatedly said that during his years as boat- pilot, he got the opportunity of meeting a variety of people. He was able to obseifve the life-style of sophisticated people as well as those of primitive types. His fiction also shows his life-long concern with Ordinary and Gl

simple individuals who have an essentially primitive and folk mind. The most important characteristic of this folk mind is its reliance on common sense. A number of his characters like Huck, Jim, Captain Stormfield, Joan of Arc, Laura before her seduction, Tom though partially, and others have something of folk mind in them.

The interest in the primitive mind not only provi­ ded Twain his protagonists, but also some patterns of story and plot. Robert A. Wiggins develops the thesis that in most of Twain's stories "the hero dreams of per­ forming some action embodying one of the aspirations of the folk; the dream finally comes true, and he actually does become a hero. The basic plot anbodies all the folk conceptions of what on a philosophical level may be referred to as the problem of appearance and reality." Thus the dream of success in The Gilded Age, Tom's essentially elemental dreams for success and advaijture in Tctri Samyer, Huck'3 noble dream of a just order in Huckleberry Finn, Tom Canty' s dream of being a king in The Prince and the Pauper and Hank i^torgan's dreams of creating an ideal, progressive society in A Connecticut Yankee are only variants of the essential dream of the folk mind. Wiggins further notes that "the only discipline Twain had for G'^

controlling his material was his realistic style, which made him render the general forces he was trying to control 9 into concrete, specific, accurate prose."

In his fiction Twain was very careful to provide a factual basis for various events. However, he was concerned more with the inner reality of events and not merely with the surface realism of the naturalists. Thus in The Gilded Age he parodies actuality and is very selective in the presenta­ tion of various details. In Tom Samyer and Huckleberry Finn also Twain wants to achieve moral truth to nature. Huckleberry Finn is especially dependent on his personal experience. The same is tirue of Roughing It and Life on the Mississippi which are fictional autobiographies of Twain.

Not only was Twain concerned with the actuality of events, but also with characters who existed in real life. For this he was heavily indebted to his childhood, his family, his acquaintances and the reports of newspapers. He infact never intellectually left his town Hannibal. Thus in The Gilded Age the Hawkins family is modelled on Twain's own family and the idea of Tennessee land scheme is suggested by Twain's father's preoccupation with the land he owned. Laura was either an early sweetheart of Twain or the famous Laura whose trial evoked a lot of controversy in his time. G3

In the preface of Tom Samyer, Twain himself says that Tom's character has been modelled on three boys he knew and that Huck existed in real life.

The writing of A Connecticut Yankee proved to be a turning-point in Twain's experiments with the technique of realism. In this novel Twain slightly departed from his theory because of his propagoni3ts's intentions. His writing^ from A Connecticut Yankee onwards show his gradual drift towards the Fantastic and the Absurd. Time and again the naive philosopher in him comes in the open doing immense harm to Twain the novelist. The early style was suitable only for describing the life and the environment of the essentially folk characters. But now he could hardly rely merely on realism to present his mechanistic theories. Life had become meaningless for him, bereft of any purpose. He had lost faith in God too. In this hopeless situation his obsession with fantasy was not. only essential but also natural. The disharmonious relationship with the universe resulted in a fantastic, absurdist and non-realistic mode. Wiggins is hardly convincing in his assertion that Twain being unaware, "could not understand the modifications necessary for effec­ ting a successful break with the folk mind in applying his later mechanistic doctrines." 10 The fact is that Twain was conscious of the suitability o£ his early realistic mode to G4

his subject. In the same way he knew that his realistic technique alone was not enough for transmuting his dark vision into works of art. He did understand the need of modifications as his dip into the realm of fantasy and his persistent efforts — though not successful for the most part — to use symbols of despair testify.

Twain's interest in the figure of the ironic stranger in his later fictional writings marks the beginning of his drift into the Absurd and the Fantastic. The stranger generally appears in complacent and dull communities. He is distinguished from other members of these communities by his superior wisdom and technological know-how and is always instrumental in exposing the tnje nature of the community by using his abilities. However, in the end his presence in the community proves to be repressive rather then libera- tive. Disillusioned himself in the end, he comes to share the author's belief that man is a slave to himself and his community and lacks dignity, free-will and selflessness.

This ironic stranger first appeared as H,ank Morgan in A Connecticut Yankee. Like the hero of any absurd play, he is displaced, alienated, restless and ill at ease. In his futile efforts to reform the people of Arthur's England, he himself becomes completely disillusioned with the human G5

race and is convinced of the impossibility of any worth­ while reform. However, it is not true to say that Twain completely casts the status of realism in doubt in this novel. Peter Messent takes a very erroneous view of Twain's technique in A Connecticut Yankee when he says that in this novel "science on which realism bases itself i^ "o,t superior, in terms of its results at least, to the occult. Equally — and I think this is the implica­ tion of the ending where Merlin's 'magic* finally defeats Hank — Realism is not allowed sujieriority over fantasy." 11 Messent fails to appreciate the fact that in Twain's work fantasy only serves to balance his realism. Science is simply amoral and the disasters and destruction in the novel can be attributed to Hank's evil intentions and to Twain's pessimistic view of mankind. The end of the novel presents a very fine blend of fantasy and realism. Twain had to bring the Yankee back to the nineteenth century because he knew that no technological revolution really took place in the sixth century and for this reason Yankee's return to the nineteenth century was a historical necessity. Moreover, in all the encounters of magic and science, it is science that is shown as triumphant.

As a literary form f.antasy is greatly dependent on plotting. Twain's growing absurdist vision could find a GG

proper ejcprassion only after he could pay more attention to plot rather than characters. In Puddh'head Wilson Twain presented another stranger in the form of Wilson. His character is not fully developed and the novel retains its interest chiefly because of its tightly-knit plot and the exploration of an existentialist problem. It deals with the theme of alienation and the loss of identity. Roxana's act of changing two identical-looking twins — one black and the other white — results in a loss of identity for both the boys. With the help of this superior knowledge of science of fingerprints, Wilson reveals the true identity of both the boys and helps restore a corrupt social order based on slavery. Tom who was brought up as a white boy, is sold down the river and is forced to work as a slave. Though the novel deals with more fundamental issues than slavery, it must be said to Twain's credit that he fully succeeded in realistically presenting the issue of slavery. Neither senti­ mental, nor emotional, his handling of various types of slavery, is how it existed in the pre-civil War America.

The Mysterious Stranger is perhaps the clearest example of Twain's leap into the realm of fantasy and the Absurd. In his book Mark_Twain at Work (1942), Bernard Devoto put forward the thesis that in his dark writings of G7 later yaars Twain was struggling with himself. In these works Twain is projecting the despair caused by a series of personal tragedies : "criticism is usually altogether unable to say how a writer's experience is transformed into works of art. In these manuscripts we can actually see that 12 transformation while it is occuring." The Mysterious Stranger presents the world and a man's life in the form of a dream. Everything is a dream in the world and nothing really exists. Devoto inadvertantly touches upon Twain's absurdist vision when he writes, "If everything was dream, then clearly the accused prisoner might be discharged. The accusation begotten by his experience could be stilled by 13 destroying all experience."

Ill

The manner of narration has been the chief concern of literary artists through the ages. While talking about how to represent an object in a literary work, Aristotle, the first major literary critic, suggested that in the manner of narration a literary artist may either "speak at one moment in narrative and at another in an assumed character, as Homer does; or one may remain the same throughout. G8

14 without any such change." The first part of Aristotle's statement touches upon the relatively recent concern of writers to detach themselves from their work. The second part refers to the direct expression of his feeling by a writer which in literary criticism in considered the decline of art. In the work of Mark Twain both these elements are easily noticeable. His life-long concern with the use of varied personae in his fiction was the attempt of an artist to clothe his feelings in some kind of dressing. However, in his later writings he was not fully successful to dis­ guise the destruction of his targets with his masks. But whatever success he achieved in the use of masks — and it was remarkable — it is his distinct contribution to the art of fiction especially in America.

The longest-lasting mask created by Mark Twain was •Mark T^vain'. However, even before this mask he had adopted some masks during his years as Journalist. As W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab, he had played the boastful and affected politician; as Sergeant Fathom, the scoffing parodist; as Thomas Jefferson Snodgross, the unlettered rustic; as Quintus Curtis Snodgross, the overpolished viewer of cheap preten­ ders; and as Josh the narrator of anecdotes. VA)

In these earlier instances of his use of masks. Twain simply followed the conventions of South Western humorists. In the South Western tradition a pseudonym had a fixed identity and some fixed features. Twain's use of the 'Mark Twain* mask was neither a complete concealment of personality like that of Henry /Adam's use of Francis Snow Compton, nor the displacement of original personality like that of Arovet's Voltire or Mairy Ann Evans's George 21iot. Rather, like Dickens' Boz , the pseudonym stood in the eyes of the reading public as a pseudonym. It was an exten­ sion of the personality of Samuel Clemens. liDwever, all the experiences of Samuel Clemens should not be literally attributed to Mark Twain. James M Cox's opinion in this respect carries weight :

It is, after all, Mark Twain's nature to refract, exaggerate misra- member, or forget the experiences of Samuel Clemens. These distortions are not, however fictions in the lite­ rary meaning of that term* they pivot always upon the world of actuality and are in a certain respect dependent upon it. They may show the deceptions of that world, may call it into question, but they never transcend it. That is why, if Mark Twain's world is a recons­ truction of Samuel Clemens' experience, the reader is constantly in the process of reconstructing Samuel Clemens out of Mark Twain. 15 70

It is true that this pseudonym implisd greater free­ dom than the pseudonym of other South Western humorists. 1-lowever, as a humorous pseudonym it also clearly defined the areas of his writing as the reading public would not accept anything which was not humorous. The more Twain came to reall2?e this, the more he resented the fate of the humorist. The serious writer in him was impatient to break the prison-walls of humour. It was a clear case of a conf­ lict between Clemens versus Mark Twain.

However, the sensitive thinker and reformer that he was. Twain could not long keep himself confined to writing Innocuous- humorous pieces. He explored various possibili­ ties latent within his pseudonym for expressing his social criticism. •Ae also worked on other subtler methods, which would meet the expectations of the reading public as well as satisfy his humanitarian and artistic urges : the discovery of new person ae, and the special efforts in the field of charac teri:3ation.

His most important discovery was in the field of person ae. Throughout his writing career Twain was expre­ ssing himself through the use of varied masks. FUDughly speaking all his masks fall in three categories. On the one hand there is the mask of a fool which particularly appears 71

in his earlier work. The later work is dominated by Twain's mask of a growler, rebel, and reactionary all in one. How­ ever, th ^se categories are not fixed as the fool very often takes the qualities of the growler and vice versa. The third important mask that Twain assumes is that of an empowered personality who completely dominates his environment.

The fool can be detected in most of Twain's memorable characters. oimon Wheeler, Colonel Sellers, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, Jim, Hank Morgan, Roxy and the Mark Twain of travel books are endowed with the characteristics of a fool. The fool is the spokesman of Twain's serious criticism. His opinions ire always ironic because no one takes him seriously. He commits mistakes, pretends what he is not, deludes himself, but is ilso able to arouse the sympathy of the reader. Through the parsonae of the fool Mark Twain "heaps scorn on pecksni- f Eery and disassociates himself from it, while at the same time the fool's argument contains legitimate criticism. The very faot of his being used as a critic makes this fool a good one, just as the very act of Mark Twain's trying to be a critic makes a fool of him."

In the Innocents Abroad the travelling Mark Twain, the narrator and also a fictional character partakes of the characteristics of a fool. He appears as an inspired idiot. 'd

a moralist, a vandal, and as a very patriotic American. The inspired idiot is clearly evident in the fool's treat­ ment ot patronizing guides. Thus he constantly asks the guides, "Is Columbus dead,'* or about the mummy in Italy : "Is he dead ?" As art critic he ridicules the works of old Masters as well as other artists though fully giving the impression that he does not know much about art. In his criticism of French dance cancan he poses as a moralist : "That is cancan. The idea of it is to dance as wildly, as noisily, as furiously as you can, expose yourself, as much as possible if you are a woman, and kick as high as you 17 can, no matter which sax you belong to." Colonel Sellers of the The Gilded Age epitomizes the spirit of the materialistic age which is the object of Twain's satire in the book. Like Micawber of David Copper- field, sellers has grandiose plans and myriad schemes to turn millions some day. He lives on wild hopes and is given to daydreaming all the time. By endowing him with the characteristics of fool Twain just suggests the age- old idea that the virtues of industry and labour and not daydreaming and rhapsodizing about the future ensure success in the world. Tom is a fool only in a very limited sense of the word. "He is a comic figure in the classical sense of being a victim of delusion." 18 Thus he does not f^ a•

recognize his cruelty towards Jim because he does not consider Jim a human being. So naive a chracter could hardly be a mouth-piece of Twain's serious social criticism. And yet in Twain's mocking attitude towards the Church, school and other inconvenient institutions of St, Feters- berg. Twain partially identifies with him.

Mark Twain's use of Huckleberry Finn as a narrative persona is a liandmark in the history of American literature. He portrays Huck as a fool, an eiron who is constantly put in situations where he has to rely on his common sense. The chief interest of the book lies in the reversal of Hjck' s moral sentiment. All the time he is berating himself for his supposedly wrong actions. However, the more he chides himself for his bad acts, the more ha rises in the esteem of readers because his 'bad acts' are the noblest acts in reality.

The assumption of the mask of the rebel or grumbler was an attempt by Twain to satisfy his inner needs. Twain growled because he realized that there were many problems which required a critical appraisal. Through the mask of a girumbler Twain could release ais aggression on countless issues. Like the fool, the girumbler also is an unsophisticated person, free of cant, pretensions and fakery. He generally 74

identifies himself with low characters although he himself may not be so low in station. Conte, the narrator of Joax) of Arc is better educated than most of his mates, but he seeks identification with the common people.

Though the grumbler was always there in some of the pronouncements of the fool, he really was discovered by Twain while gathering material for A Tramp Abroad,- A letter written by him to William Dean Howells during the composition of the book, apart from throwing light on his mood, records the outlines of a grumbling character taking shape in his mind. Twain wrote :

I wish I could give those satires on European life which you mention, but of course a man can't write successful satire except he be in a calm judicial good humour... WhererT^ T hate travej., and I hate hotels, & I hate the opera. Si I hate the old Masters—in truth I don't ever seem to be in a good enough humor with Anything to satirize it; no I want to stand up before it & curse it, & foam at the mouth, or take a club St pound it to rags & pulp. 19

This hatred, so Important a part of the grumbler's personality, has certainly gone into his criticism of the German language, Wagnerian opera, the long-respected myths, St. Mark's cathedral and most importantly the Italian pain­ tings. Thus 'Mark Twain.' the grumbler rails against 75

Titian's Venus largely on moralistic grounds. To his mind

it is "the foulest, the vilest, the obscenest picture the world possesses... It was painted for a bagino, and it was probably refused because it was a trifle too strong. In

truth it is too strong for any place but a public gallery." 20

Mark Twain also grumbles against the double standards that obtained between painting and literature in his time. In his time the description of Titian's Venus by a writer would be strongly disapproved because the "privileges of literature in this respect have been sharply curtailed (p.379) He cannot deal freely with the foul subjects of his time though, as he feels, the age of Fielding and Smollet could accept the grossness and obscenity of their works. But Venus as a work of art has a right to lie there in this manner because "Art retains her privileges* literature has lost hers"

(p.381) .

The same bitter grumbling is in evidence in Twain's experience of an unfamiliar German opera 'Lohengrin'. He felt tortured by the banging, slarmning, booming and crashing of this opera and remembers with pain the "howling and wailings and shrieking of the singers, and the ragings and roarings and expoision of the vast orchestra, (p. 47)".

The persona of the grumbler enabled Twain to express 70 his disgust with the writers who deliberately make their writings abstruse by using many foreign expressions. He notes :

A man who writes a book for general public to reafl is not justified in disfiguring his pages with untranslated foreign expressions. It is an isolence toward the majority of the purchasers... these writers are flaunting those fluttering rags of poverty in the reader's face and imagining he will be ass enough to take them for the sign of untold riches held in reserve (pp. 214-15)»

Not only in A Tramp Abroad but also in Following the Equator the travelling Mark Twain is something of a grumbler. In his diatribe against the white rulers of Australia and Newzeeland, in his analysis of the Boer War particularly the role of Cecil Rhodes and in his various other pronouncements about life in general, Twain's persona sounds very vehement and bitter.

The same bitter growling is easily noticeable in his various non-fictional pieces. His anti-imperialistic wri­ tings like "To the person sitting in Darkness," King Leopold's ooliloquy. Czar's Soliloquy present a grumbling persona who is unremitting in his efforts to reform the worlrl though his determinism very often leads him to pessi­ mism and cynicism. The later work of Twain shows his concern with a character who enjoys great power and intelligence but is scrr.ething of a crackpot. Hank Morgan of A Connecticut Yankee, Dave Wilson of Puddn'head Wilson and Satan of the Mysterious Stranger are some examples of what Paul Baender calls Twain's "transcendent figures." Without any sense of responsibility towards the human race, these characters unmistakably voice the bitter feelings of Twain and present a very negative view of mankind.

There have been two possible interpretations for the appearance of these characters. Paul Baender studying Twain in the nineteenth century context, traces the genesis of these figures to the South Western regional literature dealing with giant figures like Davy Crocket. In his opinion Twain was greatly influenced by "the mora vulgar literature of the period... the heap of biographies and tales concerning Western heroes." 21 The second possible source of Twain's interest in the transcendent figures as explored by James L. Johnson was the ideas of Emerson. He suggests that :

There exists a surprising correlation between Twain's power figures and the imperious self sketched so persistently in Emerson's work. For both men, the strength of the empowered self lies not so much in his ability to adjust to the world, as in his ability to make the world adjust to him. He does not manage r~< a(

In the world so much as he manages the worli itself... Twain and Emerson were much preoccupied.-., with the same problem: that of realizing in practical terms the capabilities they believed man harbored within him. 22

Both interpretations, though useful and interesting in themselves, do not emphasize the fact that the creation of this all-powerful character was an attempt of Twain to solve his own intellectual crises and emotional disturbances caused by a number of personal disasters and the observation of general corrupt state of mankind.

Identification with thGsa characters did prove detri­ mental to his art. But as a sensitive thinker he could not keep himself detached from the day to day world which presented before him the spectacles of cruelty, callousness and bru­ tality. When he could no longer endure his helplessness in ameliorating the world, his im.igination, as Henry Nash Smith points out, "sought refuge in the image of an alternative persona who was protected against suffering by being devoid of pity or guilt, yet could denounce the human race for its cowardice and ciruelty, and even take action against it. «23

Colonel Sherbum of Huckleberry Finn is the earliest example of this character. He murders Hoggs with cruelty but is not smitten by any pangs of conscience. The 7'J

lack of conscience or moral sense is also a characteristic of Wilson and most importantly of Satan. Wilson brings about the ultimate tragedy of the novel that bears his name, but is not aware that he has given support to an unjust social order. His action is simply amoral. Hank Morgan of A Connecticut Yankee also never realizes his cruelty, not even in the cataclysmic battle scene.

3atan is the most classic example of the empowered figure. He is not limited^' not subject to human conditions; is amoral and most importantly is omniscient and omnipotent. For him there is no separation between the self and the other. Endowed with these qualities he becomes an adequate vehicle for the expression of Twain's misanthropy. Twain's final verdict on mankind comes through his mouth. However, the persona of Satan is too thin to completely hide the nihilism of the ageing writer. It just shows that ideology has regis­ tered a final conquest over art in Twain's artistic uni­ verse. The inability to disguise his message, a far cry from his successful use of a fool's persona in The Innocents Abroad, puts a stamp on the decline of Twain the artist.

IV

Mark Twain's great literary triumph in maintaining a 80

consistent point of view in Huckleberj^y ,ginn has been commented upon and acclaiined widely. It was, however, a culmination of a process of experiments that started with his early journalistic writings especially with his Alt a California letters which were later published as The Innocents .Abroad. This book then should be a starting-point for any discussion of Twain's achievement in the field of narrative point of view.

Since The Innocents Abroad developed out of travel letters, the point of view in this book is essentially that of a letter writer who intimately knows his reader. The narrator of the story refers to himself as 'I*, to his fellow companions as 'we', and to the readers as 'you'. The letters covered a variety of subjects : simple information about some facts, description of places, social criticism especially of unchristian behaviour of Christians, and the burlesquing of some incidents. The treatment of these varied subjects in the same book made it necessary for Twain to narrate the story from different points of view.

The point of view of the supplier of useful informa­ tion can be detected in passages dealing with the "stalwart bedouins of the desert," the proud history of the "Stately Moors," the Venetian fleets and many other passages. In 81 these passages Twain very flatly describes the facts. Ironically his style follows very closely the style of the guidedbook writers whom he intended to burlesque.

The duU descriptive style of The Innocents Abroad is very oft3n followed by the satiric passages that save the book from becoming merely a guidebook. In the role of the sati­ rist Twain grumbles a lot and is angry at the slightest deviation from rational behaviour. This is particularly true of Twain's criticism of many unseemly Christian practices and the obnoxious behaviour of the believers. Thus in Italy he cannot control his anger in writing about the wretched condi­ tion of masses which stands in stark contrast to the riches of the Church. His criticism of the Old Masters who immor­ talized the tyrannical rulers of the past is also very much unrestrained. When he describes the behaviur of the Chris­ tians he continues to maintain this satiric pose. Thus describing the Holy Sepulchre, Twain remarks : "Christians of different sects will not only quarrel but fight also in this sacred place if allowed to do it " (p.446) .

Twain once made a distinction betwcan witty, comic and humorous style of story telling and concluded that humorous story telling which depended upon the manner of telling it was the most difficult for a writer to write. In The Innocents < i < 1

Abro_ad Twain shows his artistry in the art of humorous story,tellinq. In the adaptation.of the old anecdotes and more importantly in presenting his "experience" of the Turkish Bath, and numerous other "adventures" in the orient he is playing the role of a story-teller.

The various roles that Twain plays in the book have led many critics to say that the narrator of The Innocents Abroad is highly inconsistent and it is doubtful if he really has any identity at all. The charge of the lack of consistency in the narrator can hardly be challenged. But the narrator does have an identity despite the shifts in tone and point of view . Henry Nash Smith says that the narrator "represents the meaning that Mark Twain, with his gift for recognizing mythical elements in his own experience, was able to extract from the confusions of the Quaker City excursion... he exists in the dimension of romance... and is an .Vnerlcan Ad.am resembling in many respects his contem- 24 porary, the protagonist of Leaves of Grass." As Twain pointed out in the preface oE the booK^ the narrator, true to the spirit of nineteenth century American culture, is not taken in by the so-called superiority of ^iurope or the much talked about splendour of the east. By ensuring full participation of the narrator in 8:^

various events of the book. Twain transforms him into a fictional character. And because the book developed out of Twain's sketches, the character bears striking ressmb- lance to Twain himself. However, the experiences of the narrator are not the experiences of Twain but his values are Gssentiilly the values Twain stood for and api-)roved of in his real life.

His values of common-sense and prac tic al-mindedness have been presented in sharp contrast to the values of the pilgrims with whom he undertakes the journey of Europe and the Holy Land. The narrator identifies himself with the bunch of sceptical boys who are making fun of the pilgrims' activities all the time. In a way the narrator assumes the role of a sinner that enables him not merely to view the pilgrims critically but also the likes of them in his trip to the Holy Land. Henry Nash Smith points out that "Mark Twain recognized that the antagonism between sinners and pilgrims gave concrete form to much of his subversive feeling about the dominant culture, and in his revision of the dis­ patches he tried to develop the antagonism into a narrative 25 pattern for the book as a whole."

In his first novel The Gilded Age, written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner Twain relied on the 84 omniscient point of view. He discusses at length the thoughts, fe.-^lings and motives of various characters. The intrusive narrator of this book is particui.arly noticeable in his treatment of Laura Hawkins and in his discussion of two possible conclusions of the narrative. Within this mode of narrative Twain tries to gain the intimacy of the reader by adopting many other devices like using italics, exclamations and even putting footnotes. Thus after narra­ ting at length a rather boring conversation he points out in a footnote that the conversation actually took place in a drawing room of the United States. The Influence of the narrator is also a striking feature of this book. It is clearly in evidence in his use of personal pronouns like "our heroine," "our hero," "our readers."

The publication of The Gilded Age in 187 3 was followed by "Old Times on the Mississippi" (187 5), Tbm Sawyer (187 6) , and Huckleberry Pinn, (1885) . These books are remarkable for Twain's attempt to capture-the detached and limited point of view of a boy. In the "Old Times on the Mississippi" Twain identifies himself with a boy and tries to narrate those experiences which hold an appeal for a boy. In Tom Sawyer also he makes a partial attempt to move into the mind of a boy to narrate his story. The narrator of the story is unmistak.*ly an adult and the intrusion of this 85 self-conscious narrator Into the narrative is also a fact. But there are episodes in the narrative which are narrated from the point of view of a boy. Twain evinces spacial interest in portraying Tom's vitality, acute observations, and love of display and show off. Commenting on Twain's conscientious attempt to recover the boy's point of view, John C. Gerber notes that s

evidence for this intention can be found particularly in the much higher proportion of concrete material than wa have seen before — and not only in the proportion of such material but in its quality as well. The details, taken as a whole, are more sharply observed, and the scenes begin to assume a third dimension. Perhaps one can see the influence of Twain's point of view, also, in the increasing interest in dialogue and in the constant manipula­ tion of material for climax or effects. 26

Ir fact Twain assumes three poses which result in three points of view in the novel. When Tom is a foolish boy. Twain identifies himself with readers and feels amused at Tom's activities. He . identifies himself with Tom when he is an innocent character, not corrupted by the false values of the town. This identification is clearly evident in the parody of Sunday School literature and in the portrayal of the inconvenient nature of institutions like Church and school . The third point of view appears towards the end of the book when Tom fully identifies himself with the 8B materialistic values o£ St Petersburg. Here Twain keeps himself completely detached from Tom and is even satirical of his activities. In fact he grew interested in Huckle­ berry Finn and was disgusted with the way Tom was likely to mature. In a letter to Howells he gave his reasons as to why he did not intend to carry Tom beyond boyhood. He wrote that "if I went on, now, and took him into manhood, he would be just like all the one horse-men in literature 27 and the reader would conceive a hearty contempt for him." Twain's growing interest in the character of Huckle­ berry Finn in the closing chapters of Tom Sawyer made him aware of a new fact. If he were to write a social satire, a character like Tom who embraces the values of dominant society, would be a poor medium for it. In Huck Finn he discovered a hero whose values run counter to the practised ideals of society. It is for, this reason that he can be an ideal vehicle to carry any satirical message. In Huckleberry Finn he made a highly successful attempt to capture the limited point of view of a boy by narrating the story from Huck's point of view.

The use of Huck as first person narrator relieved Twain of tha responsibility of analyzing explicity his various mental crises, social problems and intellectual predicaments 87 because Huck is a boy of limited intelligence. The central irony o£ the book lies in the reversal of Huck* s moral response to the problems he faces. What Huck considers his worst actions are in the raader'3 eyes his best. Thus the telling of the story from his point of view closes the method of direct satire for Twain because as a boy Huck lacks sense of humour and Twain can not take recourse to his usual comic devices of exaggeration and burlesque for satirical effect. They have to be toned down or trans­ ferred to other characters because in Huck's vernacular they look out of place. But the method of indirect satire that opens up before him makes Huckleberry Finn a very devasta­ ting piece of social criticism.

Huck* s is the folk mind. He does not know anything about politics/ economics or culture in the conventional sense of the words. However, he is endowed with folk wisdom which rests entirely on his. humanitarian principles. In all his actions — his help in freeing the slave, his refusal to be ' sivilized', his analysis of King and Duke's behaviour — he is guided by his humanitarian instincts. The writing achieves satirical effect simply when Huck acts true to his folk nature.

There are reasons to say that Twain identified himself 88 with Huckleberry Finn and fully approved of his values.

In a sense Twain's response to Huck is similar to that of any ordinary reader of the novel. Paced with many intellec­ tual crises. Twain was trying to understand the incomprehen­ sible march of events in the gilded age. With Huckleberry

Finn he unconsciously tried to seek a solution to his mental dilemmas. As William G, Spengemann says, "when he retired Into Huck's mind, he regressed into a world he could understand, a world he longed for with embarrassing 28 regularity throughout his life."

After jiuckleberry Finn 'r.V.il.n was n-iver able to achieve a fully detached point of view. All his later wri­ tings show his concern with ideology rather than art. This certainly marks the decline of Twain the artist. A Connec­ ticut Yankee was written to illustrate a thesis. The same is true of The _Prince and the Pauper. The intrusion of

Twain's personal despair and despondancy into his work also mars the literary worth of his works like Joan of Arc,

Puddn' head. Wilson and The Mysterious _Stranger.

There are certain common features that characterize these later fictional works of Twain. All these works except

The Prince and the Pauper and Puddn' head Wilson are narrated in the first person. The first person narrator 89

voices the pessimism of the writer. Hank Morgan's repeated references to the worthlessness of the human race, the anachronistic commentary of De 3onte on the extent to which human beinc^can be cruel to a person like Joan, the vulnerability of Theodore to Satan's bitter assault on the human race — all point to Twain's personal despair expre­ ssed through his characters in not so undisguised a manner.

Another important feature of some of these works is that the narrator maintains the perspective of a historian, a chronicler of events. Irs A_Gonnecticut Yankee, the narrator talks about his experiences in sixth century England. However, because of his participation in the events his tale lacks objectivity. So is also tcue of the narraor of Jo an of Arc. In this work, De Gonte, the narrator, tells the story from the perspective of some fifty years. He comments on Joan's voices, the peasantry and the aristo­ cracy of Prance, and most importantly on Joan's trial. Because of his superior intellectual attainments, a relatively passive participation in the events, and the perspective of age, his tale sounds more authentic than that of Hank Morgan in A Connecticut Yankee.

In puddn'head Wilson, on the contrary, the narrative voice of the historian is very much aloof and detached but fjO authentic nevertheless. The omniscient narrator very clearly shows the ironic nature of the universe by presen­ ting a set of characters and some melodramatic situations. /V:cordin(7 to the view presented in the novel, life is full of coincidences and Eatalities and no human action can be called fully meaningful. Thus Roxana's act of exchanging babies — one black and the other white — brings only disaster. The good upbringing of Tom and the denial of luxuries to chambers do not yield the desired result. The narrative voice of the chronicler is able to realize that man is basically a tragic victim of his circumstances and his own inherent evil. This realization was completely denied to Hank Morgan and was achieved only partially by De Conte,

Avery important characteristic of Twain's work is the constant shifting of point of view. The shift in point of view in The Innocents Abroad has been discussed else­ where in the chapter. The most notable example of this shifting point of view is presented by Twain in A Connecticut Yankee where the meaning of the novel depends upon the wave­ ring relationship of the author to the narrator. Like Swift's Gullivers Travels the constant shift in focus in tiiis work leads to a good deal of complexity. When Hank Morgan talks about the prevalence of superstition and dogma in sixth cen­ tury England and asserts the supremacy of democracy to 31 monarchy and scientific technology to magic, he is certainly the mouthpiece o£ Twain's belief in the myth of progress. But Hank Morgan is also a literary character and subject to the frailties of mankind, a victim of his prejudices and illusions. In this later role Twain views him with some irony and keeps himself detached from him.

^" Joan o£ ^^c the narrator generally maintains a reverent tone towards religion. However, there are occa­ sions when he voices his scepticism regarding the reliability of Joan's voices. At another place speaking in almost pro­ phetic tone, he says that some day the peasant will rise and fight for equality. Here, he obviously refers to French revolution and the words which seem out of place in a work set in the Middle Ages, were deliberately put by the author in his mouth. These fluctuations in the attitude of the narrator who poses as historian are a redeeming feature of an otherwise rather monotonous work.

V Humour is the most pervasive element in Twain's work. Prom his earliest writings to the last, his works are informed by his wit, humour and irony. However, the good-humoured laughter that his earlier work evokes is totally different from the dark and black humour of his later work. A study [^2

of Twain's treatment of humour in his different books written at different stages provides an interesting commen­ tary on the gradually changing vision of the writer.

Twain did not regard humour and social criticism as two separate things. He was perhaps not aware of the diffe­ rence between humour and satire. Robert A. Wiggins accuses Twain of his "apparent lack of discrimination between comedy, burlesque, satire and humour." 29 Thus talking about the everlasting cjualities of humour. Twain once remarked :

Humorists of the 'mere* sort cannot survive. Humour is only a fragrance, a decoration. Often It is merely an odd trick of speech and of spelling ... Humor must not professedly teach, and it must not professedly preach, but it must do both if it would live forever. By forever I mean thirty years. With all its preaching it is not likely to outlive so long a term as that. The very things it preaches about, and which are novelties when it preaches about them, can cease to be novelties and become commonplaces in thirty years. 30

In this passage Twain is talking about a humorist but his description is more applicable to a social satirist. The fusion or confusion of humour and social criticism is also to be noticed in his act of underlining those lines of Thackeray's essay on Swift which point to the inborn gra­ vity of a genuine humorist : "The humorous writer professes 33

jtq awaken ari diract your love, your plty^ „YQ^^ kindness — your scorn for untruth^ pretension, Imposture — your tender­ ness for the weak, the poor, the unhappy,.. He comments on all the ordinary actions and passions of life about. He 3 1 takes upon himself to be the week-day preacher." In his writings also Twain fuses satire and irony with humour. There are only few pieces written by Twain like "Jumping Frog" story where the effect of the story is wholly humorous and the piece exists Independent of satire.

The Innocents Abroad was the first book in which Twain fully realized his comic genius. The most important comic devices employed by Twain in his book are those of parody and burlesque. Various revered legends like those of Heloise and Abelard and the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus are parodied by Twain in an attempt to expose their falsity. In the same manner, referring to the legend of Petrarch and Laura, Twain feels sympathy for Laura's husband for having endured the humiliation of reading the sonnets written by another man in praise of his wife. Twain refers to him as "Mr Laura."

In his role of the public lecturer Twain's success owed a lot to his famous deadpan expression. In The Innocents Abroad^ as James M. Cox, notes "the deadpan is implied by VA

the endless 'disappointments/ the exqu 1 si te *su Ere rings,' and the repeated 'tortures' the narrator undergoes on his pil- 32 grimage to the Holy Land." In these experiences the burlesquing Mark Tw.^in Is able to provide criticism as well as entertainment. Thus he had a very high opinion of the romance and splendour of the East but his 'experience' of the Orient shattered all his illusions. For years Mark Twain had dreamed of the romance and novelty associated with the Turkish bath. He had imagined himself breathing the 'slumbrous fragrances of Eastern Spices' filling the air, and •passing through a weird system of pulling and hauling' the soft carpets, the sumptuous furniture and the drinking of delicious coEfee while smoking the soothing narghili (p. 297) . However, this illusion about the Turkish bath received a rude shock when Mark Twain actually had the ordeal of going through it. "That was the picture, just as I got it from the incendiary books of travel. It was a poor, miserable impos­ ture. The reality is no more like it than the fiv3 points are like the Garden of Eden (p. 297)-"

The same process of illusion and consequent disillusion is in evidence throughout the book. This method, apart from telling readers how to view Europe from their ovm eyes, is also successful in evoking laughter. Thus his final judgement 'J 5 on the oriental scenes is a fine mixture of burlesque and satire :

Oriental scenes look best in steel engravings. I cannot be imposed upon anyone by that picture of the Queen of Sheba visiting Solomon. I shall say to myself, you look fine mad.3m, but your feet are not clean, and you smell like a camel (p. 433) .

In The Gilded Age also Twain successfully fuses satire with Dickenston humour which has its source in pathos. The book presents a satirical treatment of corruption in all walks of life. Yet in the figure of colonel sellers Twain was able to portray a truly humorous character who is a fool of his illusions. He lives in his created world of possi­ bilities far removed from reality. Twain simply lets the character indulge in his wishful thinking without any autho­ rial intervention. His portrayal of Sellers is marked by his tolerance for human frailties, a characteristic of a true humorist,

Tom Sawyer further proves Twain's exellence in employing the techniques of parody, burlesque and satire in writing a fully entertaining book. By portraying Tom as a bad boy who prospers. Twain burlesques the traditional opi­ nion about a good boy. The elements of burlesque are evident throughout the book in the reenactment of adult rituals by the boys. The love-affair of Tom and Becky burlesques the romantic and sentimental convention of love-pieces. In this relationship Tom does everything to impress her. He tries to become a hero in the eyes of the school mates; takes the teacher* s whips for Becky and even indulges in thoughts of self-destruction. The feelings that Becky's rejection of him, inspires in Tom presents a fine parody of sentimental romantic literature. It is particularly made clear by the narrator's own comment at the end of the passage:

He entered a dense wood, picked his pathless way to the center of it, and sat down on a mossy spot under a sprea­ ding oak. There was not even a Zephyr stirring; the dead noonday heat had even stilled the songs of the birds; nature lay in a trance that was broken by no sound but the occasional far-off hammering of a woodpecker, and this seemed to render the pervading silence and sense of lonliness the more profound. The boy's soul was steeped in melancholy; his feelings were in happy accord with his surroundings. He sat along with his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands, meditating it. It seemed to him that life was bu t a trouble, at best,... Now as to this girl. What had he done ? He had meant the best in the world, and been treated like a dog — like a very dog. She would be sorry some day — may be when it was too late. Ah, if he could only die temporarily '. But the elastic heart of youth cannot be compressed into one constrained (,\

shape long at a time. Tom presently began to drift insensibly the concerns of this life again. 33

The lamentations of the village folk, expressed in conventional language, on hearing the news of Tom's death are also burlesqued. The burlesque achieves comic effect because readers share the narrator's knowledge that Tom is not dead. So even a very serious passage describing the villagers' sincere grief produces laugyhter :

But there was no hilarity in the little town that same tranquil Saturday afternoon. The Harpers, and Aunt Polly's family were being put into mourning with great grief and many tears. An unusual quiet possessed the village, although it was ordinarily quiet enough, in all cons­ cience. The villagers conducted their concerns with an absent air and talked little; but they sighed often. The Saturday holiday seemed a burden to the children. They had no heart in their sports, and gradually gave them up. 34

James M. Cox, in his perceptive study of M>ark Twain's humour, puts forward the theory that Tom Sawyer is neither a burlesque nor a satiric novel. The truth is that, as he writes, "the narrator's impulse toward burlesque and satire 35 is largely assimilated in his indulgent posture." Cox also suggests that the real commitment of the book is to a pleasure principle and Twain's burlesque-indulgent perspective 08 enabled him to dissolve entertaininent into play. "It is, after all, a tale — an adventure — and its commitment is not to exposing sham, as in the case of satire; nor is it to mocking a prior art form as in the case of parody and burlesque. Instead, the positive force — the force to which the world of St Petersburg succumbs —• is play itself."-^^

In Huckleberry Finn Twain was able to contain serious things within a humorous point of view. But he was not so successful in fusing humour with satire in The Prince and the Pauper. Twain had a serious purpose in writing this book and he deliberately cliose a plot to illustrate a thesis.

Tho result is a book which is definitely satirical but hardly humorous, despite the writer's commitment to humour and as

Cox says "it betrays that impulse and forces humour to seirve a noble purpose instead of forcing all purpose to serve humour, •* 37

Like The Prince and the Pauper, A_Connecticut Yankee was also written to a thesis. The very plot of the novel is full of comic possibilities. Hank Morgan's incongrtious presence in the sixth century itself promises a lot of fun.

Tlie burlesquing or making fun of chivalry, particularly TWain's mounting the knights on bicycles or making them put on iV3 placards, advertising products like Persimmons soap or Peterson's prophylactic toothbrushes, or using telephone are really the source of much humour in the book.

However, again like The Prince and the Pauper the novel turns out to be a scathing satire rather than a humo­ rous book. The reason for this is the undramatized charac­ ter of Hank who unmistakably becomes the mouthpiece of the writer intent on expressing his indignation and rage. The institution of chivalry that he originally intended to burlesque later fills Hank with determination to make war against it. Comparing this novel's failure to the success of -'Huckleberry Finn Cox makes an interesting observation :

But whereas as the vernacular of Huckleberry Finn he had discovered a vehicle to convert the indignation which stands behind both humour and satire in the ironic observation, apparent indiffe­ rence and mock innocence which constitute them, the vernacular of Hank Morgan lacked the inverted point of view which would convert the emotions of rage and hate into humor. 38

By Twain's own admission, A Connecticut Yankee was to be his last work. Though not his last novel, it does mark a turning point in his literary career. The novels written after A Connecticut Yankee are not humorous but very bitterly satirical. This is understandable because they ICO reflect his dark vision which also resulted in his experi­ ments with some new comic techniques. The healthy, good- humoured jokes of the earlier writings were now a thing belonging to a dead past. The humour of these later works is bleak, cynical and anticipates in many ways the existen­ tialist^ dadaist .and absurdist humour of twentieth century literature. Twain's relationship with his readers in his later period also reminds one of a dadaist writer's relation­ ship with his readers. In his early period he was very careful about the taste of his readers. He would not seirve the 'rowdy and slangy' western humour of his journalism days to a national audience in The Innocents Abroad. The idea to publish The Prince_and the Pauper and Joan of Arc under his comic pseudonym was anatheme to him because they were 'serious works' which the reading public did not expect from a humorist. This care for the taste of reading public was not to last forever. He wr(t)te all his later writings for his own amusement, for the resolution of his own emo­ tional crises and intellectual predicaments. Another reason behind this indifference to his audience was Twain's reali­ zation that some of these pieces were too strong to be published in his life-time.

The protagonists of Twain's later fictiop are rogues j[:i

and anti-heroes. This brings Twain closer to the existen­

tialist position. The world of these characters is amoral

and purposeless. Hank Morgan, Da,ve Wilson, Satan, King

Leopold and Czar are the major characters in Twain's later works. Such anti-heroes and rogues were present in literature before Twain but merely as minor characters and not major figures.

Twain is also preoccupied with dream, sleep and mental processes in his later writings. In "The Great Dark" Edwards comes across death, and many other agonising experiences in a dream. After waking up he confuses dream with reality which results in unrelieved frustration for him and produces an insane brand of humour. Walter Blair notes that Twain "substantially foreshadowed some of the central elements of contemporary fantastic and black humour... in his conversion of satire to diatribe, his exploitations of schizophrenia and dream worlds; and his 39 movement toward absurdist uses of language."

The maxiirs included in Puddn'head Wilson perhaps present the best example of Twain's cynical humour of his declining years. The maxims appear as chapter headings and bear some thematic relationship with the chapters.

Thus readers come to know that Wilson the most intelligent 1[:2

person of the village, is termed Puddn'head by the village people . However, the first maxim introduces this ironic idea much before their naming him so :

There is no character, howsoever good and fine, but it can be destroyed by ridicule, however poor and witless. Observe the ass, for instance : his character is about perfect, he is the choicest spirit among all the humbler animals, yet see what ridicule has brought him to. Instead of feeling complimented when we aure called an ass, we are left in doubt. 40

The maxim's appear also in Following the Equator where they do not have a direct relevance to text. In both the books the maxims are attributed to Dave Wilson, the protagonist of Puddn'head Wilson. However, they are unmistakably the unhappy pronouncements of Mark Twain himself and cover a variety of subjects like art, literature, humour and various professions. But the most important maxims are about man and his behaviour. Apart from their wit they are marked by a tinge of cynicism. Thus about friendship Twain says : "It takes your enemy and your friend, working together, to hurt you to the heart; the one to slander you and the other to get the news to you," Twain frames some maxims about months and relates them to human condition. Thus about February : .103

This is the blessedest of the months: there are two or three days less of sin in it, & toil, & weariness, & death, Sc expense.

Of April 1 :

April 1 is the day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred sixty four.

Many of the maxims show Twain's preoccupation with death and the idea of the worthlessness and absurdity of hum.an life. These maxims foreshadow the ideas that playwrights like O'Neil later developed in their plays. Of man's basically faulty dis­ position he writes :

Everyone is a moon, and has a dark side which he never shows to anybody. or Men and women — even man and wife are foreigners. Each has reserves that the other cannot enter into, nor understand. These have the effects of frontiers.

The idea that death is a welcome relief from the worries and anxities of the wretched life is made clear by the following maxims i

Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral ? It is because we are not the person involved. ICI

or Whoever has lived long enough to find out what life is, know how deep a debt of gratitude we owe to Adam, the first great benefactor of our race. He brought death into the world.

or Pity Is for the living, envy is for the dead.

or Each person is born to one possession which outvalues all his others — his last breath.

In his later years Mark Twain lost belief in the idealism of his early years. I-towever, he felt that this idealism, though false, was necessary if he wanted to live : "Don't part with your illusions; when they are gone you may still exist but you have ceased to live."

It was in these maxims that Twain finally realized that "everything human is pathetic. The secret source of Humour itself is not joy but sorrow. There is nc humour in heaven . "

The pessimistic ideas contained in these maxims — particularly the ones expressing the worthlessness of life and the negative view of mankind — reappaer in The Mysterious J(,5

stranger in the speeches of Satan. The novel 1 acks in humour, and even the satire of the novel turns into a bitter diatribe. The definition of humour presented by Twain through his personae of Satan just show how far he has come from the genial humour of The Innocents Abroad. In a very biting diatribe, Satan concedes that in the form of humour huamn beings have one redeeming feature :

You have a mongrel perception of humor, nothing more; a multitude of you possess that... Por your race, in its poverty^ has unquestionably one really effective weapon — laughter. Power, money, persuasion, supplication, persecution — these can lift at a colo­ ssal humbug — push it s little — weaken it a little, century by century, but only laughter can blow i t to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand. You are always fussing and fighting with your other weapons. Do you ever use that one ? No, you leave it lying rusting. As a race, do you ever use it at all ? No, you lack sense and the courage. 41

This passage,however, should be understood as a definition of satire and not that of humour. The satiric laughter which can blow everything to rags is not to be found in the world of Tom Sawyer or Huck Finn. Rather it has its origins in Twain's pessimism, his intellectual crisis and his personal tragedies. It is not the zenith of Twain's .H:G

achievement in humour but as James M, Cox says "the epitaph disclosing how he had buried it." i(;7

NOTES AND RSPERENCSS

I. Lewis Leary, A Casebqqk _on ..Mark Twain* s Wound, (Crowall, 19 62), p.30.

2 * Dl xon Wee tor (e d.) , The Love ^Letters of Mark Twain (New York, 1949), p. 227.

3. Quoted by Robert A. Wiggins, Mark Twain ; Jackleg Novelist (Seattle, 19 61), p.29.

4. Ibid., p.29. 5. Sydney J. Krause, Mark ..Twai^n ^as Critic (Baltimore, 19 69) , p. 224. The present c'hapter is greatly indebted to this wbrk, 6- i^4^" p. 129.

7. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (New York, 1950), p. 377. 8 . Mark Tw;ain _; Jackleg Novelist, op.cit., p.17. 9. Ibid., p.20.

10. Ibid., p. 21.

II. Peter Messent, "Towards the Absurd : Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee, ludd'nhead Wilson and the Great Dark", in Mark Twain : A Sumrtuous Variety, Robert Giddings (ed.), (London, 198 5), p.176.

12. Bernard Devoto, "The Symbols of Despair", Reprinted in Mark Twain ; A Collection of Critical Essays, Henry Nash Smith (ed.), (Englewood Cliff, N.J., 1963), p.140. i(:8

13. Ibid,, p.157. 14. Aristotle, On the Art of Poetry, Ingram Bywater (tr.) (London, Reprinted, 1947) , p. 27.

15. James M. Cox, Mark Twain ; The Fate of Humor, (Princeton, New Jersey, 19 56), p.22.

1^- Mark Twain as Critic, op.cit., p.23. 17. Mark Twain, Innocents Abroad in Mark Twain, (New York, 198 4), p.108. (Further references to this work are incorporated in the text) .

18. Henry Nash Smith, "A Sound Heart and a Defojrmed Conscience" Reprinted in Mark Twain ; A Collection of Critical Sssays, op.cit., p.95.

19. Henry Nash Smith and William M. Gibson (eds.) , Mark Twain - Howells Letters (Cambridge, 1910) , pp. 248-49.

20. Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad (Reprinted, London, 1985) p. 380. (Further references to this book are incorpo­ rated in the text) .

21. Paul Baender, "Mark Twain's Transcendent Figure", unpublished dissertation. University of California (Berkeley), 1956, p. 36.

22. James L, Johnson, Mark Twain and the Limit of Power (Knowxville, 198 2), p.5.

23. Henry Nash Smith, Mark Twain ; A Collection of Critical Essays, op.cit., p. 100. .1(}9

24. Henry Nash Smith, Mark Twain ; The Development o£ a Writer (Cambridge, Massachusetts, 19 62), p.50.

25. Ibid., p.45. 26. John C, Gerber, "The Relation between point of view and style In the works of Mark Twain" in Style in EEI^S.® miction : finqlish Institute Essays -1958 (New York, 19 59), p. 156.

27. Henry Nash Smith and William M. Gibson (eds.), Mark Twain - Hpwells Letters, op.cit., p.91.

28. William C. Spengemann, Mark Twain and the Backwards Angel, (Kent, 19 66), p.67-68. (The present researcher feels obliged to express his thankfulness to this book). 29. Mark Twain ; Jackleg Novelist, op.cit., p.25.

30. Bernard Devoto (ed.) , Mark Twain in Eruption (New York, 1940) , p. 20 2.

31. Quoted by Philip 3. Foner, Mark Twain ; Social Critic, (New York, 1958) , p. 63.

32. The Fate of Humor, op.cit., p. 50. 33. Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawer, Reprinted (New York, 1946) , p.80-81.

34. Ibid., p.164.

35. The Fate of Humor, op.cit., p. 132.

36. Ibid., p.147.

37. Ibid., pp.154-55.

38. Ibid., p. 207. .1 1 0

39. Walter Blair and Hamlin Hill, i^^erica's Humor ; From Poor Richard to Doonesbury, (New York, 1978) , p.361. 40. All the references to the maxims are from The Portable Mark Twain, Bernard Devoto (ed.) (New York, 19 61) , pp. 557-5 67. 41. Mark Twain, The Mysterious Stranger in The Portable Mark Twain, pp.730-37. (Further references to The Mysterious Stranger, also from the same edition, are incorporated in the text.

42 . The Fate of Humor, op.ci t., p. 286. CHAPTER III

TWAIN ON RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY 112

It is coiTTTion knowledge that religion unmistakably •a!:l:ects the members of: a society irrespective of the fact whether religious beliefs are 'true' or not, whether they are adhered to zealously or discarded disdainfully. Mark Twain's writings also show a life-long interest of the writer in religious matters. His constantly wavering attitude towards Christianity notwithstanding, a major portion of his works especially his first travel book and the works produced in the last fifteen years of his life explore religious and philosophical issues. The later writings are particularly important in this case because they also point to the drastic change in his religious outlook in his later years. The 'irreverent believer' of the early writings is lost some­ where in the bitter outpourings and diatribes of the 'cynical agnostic' of later writings.

There have been some good studies of Mark Twain's treatment of religion. However, these studies have not given due consideration to two very important facts. One is that the publication of Letters from the Earth in 1962, and "Reflections on Religion"' in 1963, completely changed the picture of Twain, the religious thinker. The omission of these works from the study of Tw^ain's religious views has also rendered useless the early criticism of Twain's religion. 1 1 3

Secondly, no study of Twain's religious views can be called complete if it does not consider his philosophical writings. Twain's philosophical writings have generally been studied as separate from his works dealing with religion. As a matter of fact Twain's entire work should be a frame of reference for any unified picture of Twain the religious thinker.

The first thing that strikes readers about Twain's treatment of religion in his various writings is his heavy dependence on the Bible. It provided him characters, quotations and imageiry. He may lean towards Biblical characters for the purpose of comedy or Eor writing serious passengers. More importantly perhaps, it was the explora­ tion of the problem of evil that troubled his mind and soul throughout his life and which finds an expression in most of his works. In the pages that follow an attempt is made to study Twain's attitude towards religion and other related philosophical problems. The study reveals Twain's conflic­ ting opinions about the Bible, his praise and criticism of Christ and some other Christian concepts and finally his failure to solve some of the philosophical problems he was confronted with.

II Of all the books Twain read, the influence of the 114

Bible was the most profound,- "The Mythology of Christianity", writes Elsnor, "engrossed his imagination." He was introduced to the Bible at a very tender age because of his Presbyterian background and especially because of his mother's efforts. When he started his writing career he could draw upon the Bible because most of his readers were quite familiar with Biblical themes and incidents. "Thus the Bible provided 2 a common ground on which Twain and his audience could meet." Elsnor has also ncbted that the three images used most extensively in his writings were those of the prodigal son; Adam, Eve and the Fall; Noah and the Flood, However, he does not elaborate his thesis completely and significantly omits the discussion of the influence of the Bible on Twain's major fictional works. Apart from these images Twain used the characters of Adam, Christ, Noah and most importantly of Satan in his writings. Satan very often voices the anti-religious views of Mark Twain in his later works. The other aspects of Christianity which attracted Mark Twain's attention were his critical analysis of the evil effects of the Established Church particularly the relation­ ship of the institutionalized religion to man and society; his scornful commentary on the Church practices and his sca­ thing criticism of the gap between Christian profession and practice. 1 IT)

Twain's attitude towards the Bible and its charac­ ters, though sceptical, is still marked by some degree of reverence in his early fiction. The Innocents Abroad contains many passages "which have?obviously been written 3 from the view of a believer." In these passages Twain expresses his views on the Bible, Christ and some Holy places. In one such passage Mark Twain, expressing his deep admi­ ration for Joseph's story in the Bible, comments ; "It is hard to make a choice of the most beautiful passage in a book which is so gemmed with beautiful^passages as the Bible, but it is certain that not many things within its lids may take rank above the exquisite story of Joseph (p. 389) ."

Twain held Jesus Christ in grea'^ reverence. When­ ever he talks about Christ in The Innocents Abroad his tone at once reflects the adoration and veneration which a devout Christian feels for the Saviour. Thus Twain is of the view that the Colosseum in Rome, where thousands of Christians suffered martyrdom in ancient times, is a holy place. He says, "And well it might, for if the chain that bound a saint, and the footprints a saint has left upon a stone he chanced to stand upon, be holy, surely the spot where a man gave up his life for his faith is holy (p. 219) ." In another impassioned passage. Twain, mixing his characteristic irony J [G

with his reverence for Christ talks about the Holy sepul­ chre in a very reverent tone. He feels pained to realize that mankind has fought so ruthlessly and shed rivers of blood to gain possession of the Holy sepulchre :

With all its clap-trap, side shows and unseemly impostures of evrry kind, it is still grand, reverend, vanerable for a God died there; for fifteen hund­ red years its shrines have been wet with the tears of pilgrims from the earth's remotest confines; for more than two hundred, the most gallant knights that ever wielded sword waited their lives away in a struggle to seize it and hold it sacred from infidel pollution. Even in our own day a war, that cost millions of treasure and rivers of blood, was fought because two rival nations claimed the sole right to put a new dome upon it. History is full of this old Church of the Holy Sepulchre — full of blood that was shed because of the respect and the vene­ ration in which men held the last resting place of the meek and lowly, the mild and gentle, prince of peace (p. 457) .

Though Twain doubts the veracity of the myth of certain holy places associated with Christ's appearance, the place of Christ's Crucifixion affects him differently and he expre­ sses his unflinching faith in it. He remarks, "It is not possible that there can be any mistake about the locality of the Crucifixion. Not half a dozen persons knew where they buried the Saviour, perhaps, and a burial is not a startling 1 17

event anyhow; therefora, we can be pardoned for unbelief in the Sepulchre but not in the place of the Crucifixion (pp. 455-56) ."

The Innocents Abroad is not the only book in which Twain show !rs praise on Christ. In "Captain Stormfleld's visit to Heaven," the captain Is asked to name the world he came from. Bewildered, the captain tells that he belonged to the world the Saviour saved. His bewilderment is, how­ ever, not over because he is further told that the Saviour saved many worlds and not just one.

The inspiring figure of Jesus Christ provided Twain some literary materi.il as well. He casts the chairacter of Joan of Arc in the mould of Christ, The parallels between the life of Joan and Christ are unmistakable. Like Christ she spends a pastoral childhood; she is the saviour of France; finally she is betrayed by her own people. In all her ordeals she displays Christ-like endurance, bravery and 4 forgiveness. She becomes "a female Christ figure."

The inspiring figure of Christ is one thing and the evils of the Established Church quite another. Throughout his life Twain nursed an antipathy towards priestcraft and the Established Church. In Viis opinion the Established Church always degenerates into an institution of exploitation .1 18 of the poor. He touches upon the evil effects of the Established Church on the life of the people in numerous works. In The Innocents Abroad his hostility towards the Established Church found an outlet in his trenchant criti­ cism of Italy. He calls Italy a land which has been groping in the midnight of priestly superstition for six­ teen hundred years. He finds that Italy is a land 'troubled with' unholy priests and an "unpardonably' large number of Churches. Twain presents the riches of Churches in stark contrast to the poor masses o£ Italy living a very wretched life full of misery and hardships. He holds the Church responsible for the pitiable condition of the people of Italy. That is why he approves the Italian government's action of confiscating the domains of the Church run to the administration when it ran out of finances. Speaking of the riches of the Church and'its adverse effect on the lives of the ordinary citizens Twain remarks :

Now where is the use of allowing all those riches to lie idle while half of that community hardly know, from day to day, how they are going to keep body and soul together 7 And where is the Wis'dom In permitting hundreds upon hund­ reds of millions of francs to be locked up in the useless trumpery of Churches all over Italy, and the people ground to death with taxation to uphold a perishing government ? J1 f)

As far as I can see Italy, for fifteen hundred years, has turned all her energies, all her finances, and all her industry to the building up of a vast array of wonderful Church edifi­ ces and starving half her citizens to accomplish it. She is today one vast museum of magnificience and misery. All the Churches in an ordinary American city put together could hardly buy the Jewelled frippery in one of her hundred Cathedrals. And for every beggar in America, Italy can show a hundred — and rags and vermin to match. It is the wretchedest, princiliest land on earth (pp.202-203) .

Twain was greatly enraged to see the predominance of beggary in an otherwise 'rich country' and he exhorts the beggars, "Oh, sons of classic Italy, is the spirit of enter­ prise, of self-reliance, of noble endeavour, utterly dead within you ? Curse your indolent worthlessness, why don't you rob your Church (p. 203)?"

The ill-effects of the Established Church are high­ lighted in greater detail in A Connecticut Yankee. The first thing that the Yankee notices about the Kingdom of Arthur is the pathetic condition of the qnasses. They did not have any liberty and the society was divided into slaves and masters. The monarchy with its feudal structure had reduced the people to misery and hardship. It was actively supported by the Established Church. In fact both the i;: 0

monarchy and the Church were hand in glove together to maintain an unjust social order. All the exploiters were highly religious-minded people. The Yankee is of the view that the monarchy and the aristocracy of England will lose all their power if the Church withdraws its active support to these evil institutions. Its false theological reasoning to preach the poor the virtues of humbleness and submission even in the face of oppression and tyranny has spelled dis­ aster for them. The best example of the disservice done by the priests to the poor is provided by the pathetic condition of the prisoners in the Kingdom of King Arthur. The Yankee is filled with pity to see the "skeletons, scarecrows, goblins, pathetic figures, everyone : legitimatest possible children of Monarchy by the grace of God and the Established Church."^

However, the priests in terpret their lot in a different light. They preach the poor captives that God had put them there for some good purpose and teach them that "patience, humbleness and submission to oppression was what He loved to see in parties of a subordinate rank, had traditi6ns about these poor old human ruins, but nothing more (p. 104) ."

The Yiinkee views with great misgivings the very emer­ gence of the Established Church. Before its arrival men were 121 men; they were equal. They had a man's pride and spirit and independence. The statues of the people were achieved rather than ascribed. But the arrival of the Church changed this ideal picture. The Yankee very wryly notes :

But then the Church came to the front, with an axe to grind; and she was wise, subtle and knew more than one way to skin a cat — or a nation; she invented 'divine right' of kings, and propped it all around, brick by brick, with the Beautitudes — wren­ ching them from their good purpose to make them fortify .^n evil one; she preached (to the commoner) humility, obedience to superiors, the beauty of self-sacrifice; she preached (still to the commoner, always to the commoner) patience, meanness of spirit, non resistance under oppression; and she introduced heritable ranks and aristo­ cracies, and taught all the Christian population of the earth to bow down to them and worship them (p. 42) .

The Yankee feels that a just and equitable social order can not come into existence as long as the Church reigns supreme. He therefore decides to weaken the power of the Church. In his view religion is a private and individual affair and the separation of the Church from the State an utmost necessity for a proper functioning of a country. The Established Church should not be used as a political machine because "it makes a mighty power, the mightiest 1:: 2

conceivaable, and then when it by-and-by gets into selfish hands, as it is always bound to do, it means death to human liberty, and paralysis to human thought (p, 50) ."

As if to illustrate the true nature of this 'mighbest conceivt ibie power'. Twain subjects his protagonist to suEfer defeat at the hands ol: the Church. The Yankee's efEorts to curtail the power of the Church are frustrated and the Church maintains its supremacy at the end of the novel.

The same mighty power of the Church is shown in Joan o£ Arc. Joan, the perfect embodiment of human virtue, is captured by the British and tried in an ecclesiastical court headed by Cauchon, a wily and malicious priest. Cauchon is mainly interested in self-aggrandizement and is guided by the British and not by his own conscience. He manipulates facts ahd 'proves' Joan guilty of breaking the 'laws of God.' The cold attitude of the people towards Twain's trial resulting from the fear of the Established Church further proves its unlimited power. The manner in which Twain presents Joan' s character and tne awesome power of the Estab­ lished Church clearly point to Twain's own dislike for the Established Church. \2'd

III

In the beginning of this chapter it was mentioned that Twain's perception of religion changed drasticrilly towards the closing years of his life. It was also pointed out that the critics' omission of Letters from the Earth and "Reflections on Religion" from their analysis presented only a half-true picture of Mark Twain the religious thinker. As a matter of fact some of the otherwise brilliant studies of Mark Twain's religion present a half-true picture because of the writer's omission of these writings. Thus Pilip Foner's painstaking analysis of Twain's religion in his Mark Twain ; Social Critic fails to satisfy a modem reader of Mark Twain because he does not make any mention of these works. Similarly Edward Wagenknecht's brilliant chapter on Twain's religion, "Oharts of Salvation" in his monumental work M.^rk Twain ; The Man and His Work is less convincing because of this unavoidable omission of these pieces. Even a critic like Bernard Devoto who had access to the unpub­ lished writings vand manuscripts of Twain thought that The Mysterious Stranger was Twain's final statement on religion and related matters. This erroneous view was followed by many critics partly because it was an established critic's view and partly because of their mistake of sepa­ rating Twiin's writings on religion from his philosophical J:; 4

writings. Itowever, th-; fact remains that Twain's later wri­ tings are of crucial importance to understand his religious thinking. In those works his views on Christianity are greatly coloured by his personal pessimistic, deterministic philosophy. In fact so impatient is Twain in these writings to propagate his views that he even sacrificed the need of adopting a persona to express himself. In his brilliant study of Twain's last ten years, Hamlin Hill, repeating an opinion shared by many critics, points out that in th-^se writings Samuel Langhome Clemens broke the comic mask of Mark Twain to provide readers with his own comments. He writes :

Always uncertain and uncomfortable with tictions, Clemens more and more empha­ sized the autobiographical voice during his last years. His autobiographical dictations were the roost obvious example, but his letters, diaries, essays and literary polemics were only slightly disguised versions of that same voice. The 'fiction' of the decade was almost always abortive and unfinished. Realistic fiction, H.innibal and the Mississippi River, were lost to him as resources for writing; instead anti-imperialism, anti- vivisection, vituperation against Mary B ^ker 2ddy, and similar outbursts, largely lacking the humour characteriS'tic of Mark Twain to provide distance and equanimity, were the major products. And the autobiography itself was the purest form of this confessional n-ode. 6 kf)

These autobiographical writings include Twain's "fiction", Joan of Arc, Puddn'head Wilson, The Mysterious Stranger; his short stories like "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg"; his philosophical pieces like "What is Man"; his dictations like "Reflections on Religion"; his Letters from the Earth and finally his anti-imperialistic writings. Apart from the autobiographical elements there are certain other recurrent motifs in these works. All these works reflect Twain's preoccupation with the problem of evil. They point to man's insignificance in the scheme of things. Some of these writings contain a negation of the Biblical world - view and present a very bitter and damaging criticism of the Biblical God, Christ and the Bible itself. Mark Twain's fascination with Satan also distinguishes these writings.

All these pieces are marked by Twain's growing pessi­ mism. It may be contended that Twain's earlier writings are also tin with the traces of his later pessimistic outlook. As a matter of fact throughout his literary career Twain the reformer is waging a war to dmeliorate the human condition. In the earlier writings it is in the form of a struggle against a society thac can be controlled. It is found in Huckjeberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee and the Prince and the Pauper. But in his later pessimistic pieces .1:: i) the ones under discussion, he is fighting an already lost battle against a mechanistic and determined universe. In these works his pessimistic attitude "shifts from the injus­ tices of a distorted social order to that of a hopeless and useless life in general." 7

Twain' s novel Joan of Arc is poised somewhere in the midst of these two categories. Joan' s final defeat is partly to be explained by a distorted social order and partly by a determined universe. Always fascinated by Joan, Twain thought her superior to Eve as she was above temptation. She is a perfect embodiment of human virtues and transforms even some ordinary persons like Paladin, La Hire and Dwarf into extraordinary creatures.

However, it can not be said that in Joan Twain "perceives a ray of hope" or that she offers the ideal example of the intuitively moral individual rising above the p dehumanizing effects of envirorrrental determinism." True that Jo3n is identified with the Fairy tree in the novel which represents uncorruptible youth, moral purity and reli­ gious faith. Tirue that despite Twain's scepticism about the interventions of God in the affairs of man, he prevents the descriptions of Joan's voices without being partial. Yet she does not conquer the environmental determinism as her .ic7

tragic death itself results from its dehumanizing effects.

Pitted against a cruel and corrupt world of Immoral priests

and an uncaring King, she meets her downfall after being

burnt at the stake. In .fact it is Twain' s eulogization of

Joan that had led critics to say that she is above all

experience. William Searle also misses this point when he

says that Twain' s praise of Joan is inconsistent with his 9 moral determinism. The truth is that Twain has only a

sentimental love for Joan, the individual, firstly because he had respect for some heroic figures like Martin Luther, Napolean and Cromwell , because they possessed those qualities which ordinary mortals lack. Secondly this novel also has some autobiographical touches as Twain saw simila­ rities between Joan and his daughter Susy. As a matter of fact Twain' s love for his wife and his typical attitude towards all women colour this novel. Thus this senti­ mental love for Joan owes something to Twain' s personal life and it is not inconsistent with his overall detenninism as the tragic death of Joan and the presentation of a debased humanity in the novel would testify.

William T. Frederick analyses Joan of Arc as a startling confession of spiritual unrest. "ZO"^"^ of Arc w as written at a time when Twain was confronted with some ,1:8 personal tragedies of his life; business failures, death of his daughter. Moreover, certain factors like scien­ tific determinism, spread of industlrialism, imperialistic wars, and the growing materialism were causing the decay of spiritual values. Twain, always a man of the world , was deeply influenced by these factors. "That he could represent Joan simultaneously as Christian, Democrat and nature goddess, and yet not exclusively as any of these argues a spiritual ambivalence, a tension among skepticism, determinism and faith which was by 1896 far from being resolved.

The overall vision of Twain as it emerges from this novel is that of a pessimist. Despite his praise of Joan in the highest possible terms Twain does not suggest that her perfectibility is really an attainable ideal. On the other hand there is ample proof in the novel to prove that the forces of evil are too strong to be conquered by the forces of good represented by Joan, the female Christ. "Even as the best the human race has to offer, Joan cannot ultimately improve the course of human society or save herself.""^"

In the other fictional works of this period, "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg", and The Mysterious Stranger .ILB also Twain pessimistically surrenders to the evil inherent in man. His preoccupation with the figure of Satan in these works throws some light on the functioning of his troubled mind.

In the "Hadleyburg" story Twain presents human soul as entirely cormjptible despite man's vain assumption that one can live a righteous life. Hadleyburg in the most hon

But then a mysterious stranger comes to the town and Hadleyburg has the ill-luck to offend him. He takes a vow to corrupt the whole town and succeeds in his endeavour by tempting the town with a sack of money. This portion of the story reads like "the reenactment of the fall of Adam." These exemplary nineteen citizens are exposed one by one as thoroughly corruptible. After his success the stranger, acting like Satan, comes out with the moral of the story which almost reads like Milton* s Aeropaqaetica; "As soon as I found out that you carefully and vigilantly kept yourselves and your children out of temptation, I knew how to proceed. Why you simple creatures, the weakest of all weak things is a virtue which had not been tested in the fire."-^^ .i:iO

Twain's preoccupation with Satan continues in .The Mysterious Stranger also.Sdward Wegenknecht noten that "Satan seems to have appealed to him more as the principle of rebellion th.3n as the principle of evil." 15 In this novel also Twain voices his rejection of Christian world- view through the mouth of Satan.

The Mysterious Stranger is a novel of initiation. The principal character of the novel, therefore, is being educated in the mysteries of life by Satan who claims to be omniscient. Satan represents the "true voice of man's free will" while Theodore represents traditional Christianity, Through their encounters Twain tries to grasp the reality of life. He constantly views this reality from different perspectives : "His judgement on Christianity is based on the assumption that the world is deterministic; his judgement of ( sic ) is based on the assumption that the structure of the world must be a moral one." 17 Thus Satan traces the history of mankind to Adam which is essentially a Christian idea but he denies after-life, a deterministic idea. His final judgement on life is utterly nihilistic t

Nothing exists; all is a dream. God — man — the world, the sun, the moon, the wilderDess of stars — a dream. :a

all a dream; they have no existence. Nothing exists save empty space — and you 1... And you are not you — you have no body, no blood, no bones you are but a thought. I myself have no exis­ tence; I am but a dream — your dream, creature o£ your imagination (p. 742) .

Satan, voicing Twain's opinion, presents a wholly pessimistic picture of man and not "an optimistic belief in the collective power of the human mind" as Budford Scrivner Jr. tries to explain. 18 He has but disgust and contempt for man : "Man is made of dirt — I saw him made. I aim not made of dirt. Man is a museum of disease, a home of impurities; he comes today and is gone tomorrow; he begins as dirt and departs as stench. I am of the aristo­ cracy of the imperishables (p. 742) ." The moral sense which Christianity claims makes man superior to other creatures because it gives him the knowledge of right and wrong is to Satan the greatest weakness of man. He views man's pride in possessing the moral sense in the same contemptuous manner :

It is your paltry race — always lying, alw

when a brute inflicts pain he does it innocently; it is not wrong; for him there is no such thing as wrong. And he does not inflict pain for the pleasure of inflicting it. only man does that. Inspired by that mongrel Moral Sense of his '. A sense whose function is to distinguish between right and wrong, with liberty to choose which of them he will do. No what advantage can ha get 6'Jtof that ? He is alv>?ays choosing, and in nine cases out of ten he prefers the wrong (pp. 669-670)

But it must be pointed out that Theodore always keeps his moral sense- He views Satan' s judgment with suspicion and always tries to reform him.

Another pessimistic idea that is pjresented in the novel is that of death as a release from the imprisonment of life. In fact in his later years Twain was very much preoccupied with this idea. First there are some references to it in A Connecticut Yankee. Later in his short epigrams attributed to Dave Wilson in Puddift'head Wilson and Following the Squator, he is constantly seen welcoming death.

In The Mysterious Jtranger this idea is voiced through Satan. He tells Thaodore that he will bring Nikolaus to an e^rly close.To the boys'pleadings against it he argues that if he did not do it, Nikolaus would catch scarlet fever with pathetic after-effects : "for forty six years he j:i3 would lie in his bed a paralytic log, deaf, dumb, blind and praying night and day for the blessed relief of death

(p. 598) .••

Nikolaus finally dies as Satan had predicted. His tragic death is mourned by all and his mother finds fault with God' s ways to man : "But in His hard heart there is no compassion. I will never pray again (p. 711)." Here TwHin introduces a Christian idea through Theodore : "Why, He h^d saved it from harm — but she did not know (p.711) In other words Theodore says that God can sometimes bring good out of apparent evil.

The Mysterious Sti;anger does not resolve the contra­ dictions of Twain's mind. This failure to come to a final solution of life's mysteries also characterizes "What is Man", which Twain called his gospel. This work is presented in the form of a dialogue between a young man and an old man. The ^bittered and cynical old man obviously voicing the opinions of its ageing author, explains to the young man the meaning of life. Considering man merely a machine he denies man any freedom of thought. All his ideas, religious or political, are determined not by his inner convictions but because he wants to gain the recognition and approval of people he values. The mind of man is merely a blank tablet J :\ '\ and thera is no fundamantal difference between his mind and that of animals. The old Man further says that it is human environment which influences his mind and his fee­ lings, furnishes him his ideals and sets him on his road and keeps him in it. He even denies man the freedom of instinctive action. Instinct is merely petrified thought, thought solidified and made 'inanimate by habit.'

"What is Man" thus emphasizes the law of causality and flirts with the evolutionary theory. But it is also Twain' s plea for pardon because if man is helpless, he can not be blamed for his actions. It exonerates man from all blame because he is doomed to be defeated, sentenced to commit fault, and fated to be a worthless creature.

IV

Twain's final statement on religion are recorded in "Reflections on Religion" (dictetedln June 190 6) and Letters from the .Sairth (written in 1909) . In these works Twain expresses his onnfcmpt for the Christian conception of God, Christ, heaven and hell and the Bible. "Reflections on Religion" were direct dictations to his biographer Albert Biglew Paine while in Let_ters _f rom^ the Earth Mark Twain uses Satan as his very thinly disguised persona. Satan J :i n exiled from heaven, comes to earth to pass his time and reports back his observ-itions to St. Michael and St. Gabriel, These works may be considered a culmination of a process that began with Calvinism and continued through his experi­ ences of the world and his family tragedies. The tone of these works is so acrid and astringent that Twain did not want tht^m to be published in his life time. Before writing "Reflections on Religion" Twain wrote to Howells on Sunday, June 17, 190 6 "Tomorrow I mean to dictate a chapter which will get my heirs and assigns burnt alive if they venture to print it this side of 200 6 AD which I judge they won't; there'll be lots of such chapters if I live 3 or 4 years longer. The edition of A.D. 200 6 will make a stir 19 when it comes out." However, it came out in 19 63 and not 200 6, thanks to Charles Neider's courageous efforts... But it did make a stir as it changed the hitherto accepted picture of Mark Twain the religious thinker. For nowhere else does Twain express his contempt so strongly for Christianity and the Bible, as he does here.

Twain launches an attack upon the Biblical God vehemently. lie calls Him "a man overcharged with evil impulses far beyond the human limit (p. 332) ." God's acts .i;U)

also enrage Twain

In the old Testament His acts expose His vindictive, unjust, ungenerous, pitiless and vengeful nature constantly. He is always punishing — punishing trifling misdeeds with thousandfold severity; punishing innocent children for the misdeeds of their parents; puni­ shing unoffending populations for the misdeeds cf their rulers; even descending to wreak bloody vengeance upon hannless calves and lambs and sheep and bullocks as punishment for inconsequential tres­ passes committed by their proprietors (p. 332) .

Twain incriminates God with treachery for having not warned Adam of death if he tasted the frxiit of the forbidden tree. In defence of Mam he argues that /V3

VJe conceive that the earthly half is just, merciful, charitable, benevolent, forgiving and full of sympathy for the sufferings of mankind and anxious to remov3 them. Apparently we deduce this character not by examining facts but by diligently declining to search them measure them and weigh them. Thti earthly half requires us to be merciful and sets us <3n excvnple by inventino a lake of fire and brimstone in which all of us who fail to recognize and worship Him as God are to be burned through all eternity... \:i7

We have nothing approaching it among human savages, nor among the wild beast o£ the jungle (pp. 333-334) .

Twain also cries shame upon the Real God, the God of grandeur and majesty, the omniscient and the Omnipotent. He explains the indifference of God to man's affairs with reference to the Boer War. The God who is called Father is wholly unsympathetic and has designed everything to inflict misery from the v3rr>' first day of creation. He is completely destitute of moral'? and "proves every day that He takes no interest in man, nor in the other animals, further than to torture them, slay them -and get out of this pastiire such en tert ninment as it may afford — and do what He can not to get weary of the eternal and changelss monotony of it (p. 349) .

The Bible about which Twain h^d spoken so highly in The Innocents Abroad also incurs the wrath of his embit- tered soul. 20 The first charge that Twain makes against the Bible is its lack of originality. Thus it borrowed the idea of the Golden Rule and the Deluge from other sources without even acknowledging this debt. Similarly the idea of the Immaculate Conception had been worn threadbare before the Bible adopted it as a new idea. To Twain this idea is HH

a very puerile invention. It enrages Twain so much that he also charges Christianity and the Bible with immorality. "It could occur to nobody but a God that a divine son procured through promiscuous relations with a peasant family in a village could improve the purity of the product, yet that is the very idea (pp, 337-338) ."

The idea that the Bible corrupts the mind recurrs in Letterr, also. In this work Satan, the mouthpiece of Twain while criticising the Biblical account of creation summa- tizes Bible : "It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and som'3 good morals; .and a wealth of obscenity; 21 and upwards of a thousand lies (p. 14) ." Twain had completely lost belief in the Christian concepts of heaven and hell. In "Reflections" he points out that its existence is based merely on hearsay evidence. If Christ had really been God he would have proved its exis­ tence. In the Letters, on the other hand, Satan makes fun of man's conception of heaven. In his opinion man attaches utmost importance to two things in this world : sexual intercourse and intellect. Yet there is no mention of sexual intercourse in heaven. As for intellect "in man's heaven there are no exercises for the intellect. 1 'A li

nothing for it to live upon. It would rot there in a year — rot and stink (p. 13) ."

In both these works Twain tries to seek a solution o£ the problem of evil by £ix.ing the entire blame on God. Denying m ^n .gny free will Twain says that all control is vested in his temperament and his circumstances — tnings over which he has no control. In the "Reflections" he points out that God alone is responsible for every act and word of a human beings life between the cradle and the grave. In the Letters Twain also makes a distinction between the true and supposed law of God. The tern per anient of man is thj true law of God while th'2 comniandrrnDnts is the supposed law of God. So it is quite imposslblt;, for man, an automatic mechanism, to follow the coniii.andments.

The preceding discussion just shows how far Twain had come from his Innqcents Abroad days. The early scepti­ cism of his travel books and fiction pales into insignificance when one goes through his works produced in the last decade of his life. This raises two fundamental questions about his religious thinking. What were the forces that shaped his 140

early scepticism ? What were the factors that brought about such a drastic ch

The answer to these questions necessiates an analysis of some of the facts of Twain's life and the impact of science on his overall philosophical thinking.

A highly controversial book on Mark Twain, The Ordeal of Mark Twai.n, by Van Wyck Brooks, highlights the impact of Calvinism, especially imposed by Twain's mother, Jane Lampton Clemans, on his thinking. It is true that Calvinism exercised a powerful influence on Twain's early thinking in that he became familiar with the Bible and other sacred works at a pretty early stage of his life. However, in these very years Twain's religious thinking was affected by the liberal ideas of his father John Clemens, and uncle John Quarles. In his later life uncle Quarles became a Universa- list. Ini fact Twain's town Hannibal witnessed frequent discussions on the relative merit of Calvinism and Universa- lism. The UniversaLsts, though few in numbers, held an appeal for sensitive and intelligent people like Twain.

There was a definite change in Twain's religious outlook after he left H.innibal in 1853. As a Cub pilot he Mi

was introduced to deiStic ideas through, among other sources, Tom Faine's The Age q£ Reason. He also came under the influence of Freemasonry. In 1861 he became a Freemason joining the Polar star Lodge Number 79 of St. Louis. How­ ever, the impact of Freemasonry, though clearly noticeable ir The Innocents Abroad, c^^nnot be overestimated as has been done by Alexander 2. Jones. It is true that certain masonic tenets especially the ones stressing the humin origin o£ religious creeds, contempt for the traditional Jehovch oE the old Testament did appeal to Mark Twain. However, it cannot be said with any amount of certainty that Twain came to form liberal views especially under the influence of Freemasonry. Alexander S. Jones' view that Twain's respect for God the Creator under the influence of Freemasonry, 22 remained "even in his final years" is wholly erroneous as has been suggested in the preceding pages.

Twain's experiences of the world also placed a very important role in shaping his thinking. He witnessed the goldrush period closely and realized how civilization is m-ade up of the usual depravities, baseness and hypocrises. The great hopes that he held for mankind were certainly eluding him like the Utopia that eluded the Connecticut Yankee. Edward Wagenkecht has put it precisely : "The great M^

idealists asl too much of mankind, too much of themselvas; their vision of what life might be is so high that the 23 thought of what it is becomes unendurable." These expe­ riences coupled with his personal tragedies — death of his daughter and wife and the business fiasco —tamed him into a philosophical mechanist.

Mark Twain's intellectual predicament was also greatly a result of the impact of the rhen current scientific thought. The growth of Darwinian school of thought in the 1870s, and the mechanistic philosophy in 1890s with the new claims in Physics, shook the convictions of most of the intelligent men of the time. Mark Twain was no excep­ tion. His knowledge of science though not complete by any means, was nevertheless quite exhaustive.

He was familiar with Darwin's theory of evolution. Darwin's idea that there is no fundamental difference in man and animals recurrs in the last writings of Twain. However, Twain did not accept Darwin uncritically. He rather dif­ fered from Darwin on the question of the moral superiority of man as has been discussed elsewhere in the chapter. It might be said that his disgust with humanity combined with Darwin's theory to produce his idea of 'man's descent from higher animals' . Stan Poole makes a very interesting }4'S

observation on the influence of Darwinism on Twain's thought. He says that "it seems more likely that Mark Twain treated the complex body of theoretical material associated with Darwinism as a source of stimulating ideas he found useful for expressing his own varied response to life but which never provided the kind of unified vision necessary for a coherent philosophy," 24

The mechanistic thou^t of Huxley and Haeckel dwells upon the functioning of a natural law, the indifference of the impersonal universe to man's personal life. Their thought reduces man to a state of nothingness. The ideas of Twain's gospel "What is Man ?" as discussed elsewhere in the chapter conform greatly to their mechanistic view of life. He also considers man a mechanism, an unimportant creature in the overall scheme of the universe.

The idea of the insignificance of man in the vast uni­ verse also owed a great deal to Twain's lifelong interest in geology and astronomy, the sciences which while emphasizing the infinite time scale and the vastness of universe, make human history and human world look so trivial.

Minnie M. Brashear in her famous book Mark Twain ; Son of Missouri, has developed the thesis that Mark Twain's 14'1 philosophy basically springs frorr. eighteenth century thought and is completely unaffected by the intellectual development of his own time. In a rebuttal of her point of view, Hyatt Howe V'Jaggoner, while rightly pointing out that Twain's philosophy owed a lot to nineteenth century scientific thought, clarifies : "If Mark Twain's philosophy has points in common with those of Hobbes and Hume, that is not strange : Hobbes and Huma influenced the whole course of modem thought. The fact to be noted is that his philosophy also has much in common with the ideas 25 OL Darwin, Huxley and Hackel." However, the truth lies in the fact that Twain's religious and philosophical thinking was a result of all these factors : early atmosphere at home and in his town, the exposure to dels tic ideas, the scienti­ fic thought of his time, and most importantly his own unique reaction to various experiences of life. J 45

NOTES AND RSPBRENCES

1. Allison Ensor, Mark Twain an;i the Bible (Lexington, Kentucky, 19 69), p.l.

2'. Ibi.^.» P.^ 3. Edward Wagenknecht, Mark Twain ;. .The Man and_His Work, (Norman, 1961) , p. 175.

4. Yvonne A. Amar, "Mark Twain's Joan p€ _Arc : An Asbestos Character Rising from the Ashes", Mark Twain Joiirna]^, Vol.XIX (1978-79), No.3 (Winter), p. 17 .

5. Mark Twain, A Yankee at _the ^Court of King Arthur, (Lonlon, 19 26), p. 105. Page numbers of further refe­ rences to this reprinted edition are incorporated in the text itself.

6. Hamlin Hill, Mark Twain x God's Fool (New York, 197 3) , p. xxii .

7. Robert Douglas , "The Pessimism of Mark Twain", !!ladi_Twai_n_Qu.artera^, Vol.IX (19 51), No.l (Winter), p. 3. 8. James D. Wilson, "In Quest of Redemptive Vision: Mark Twain's Joan of Arc", Texas Studies in Litera­ ture and Language, Vol. XX (1978), No. 2 (Summer) , p. 190 .

9. See William Searle, ThQ ^3ai_nt _and the Sceptics ; Joan 2.1 Arc_ _i_n the Work of Mark Twain, Anatole France, and Bernard Shaw (Detroit, 197 6), pp.16-20. .14G

10. George N. Jhuster, "The Tragedy of Mark Twain", as quotei by John T. Frederick, The Darkened oky, (Notre Dame, 1969), p. 166.

11. Albert 3. Stone, "Mark Twain's Jo_an _of Arc : The Child as Goddess", Arnerjcan Literature, Vol.XXX ( 1959) , No.l, p. 18.

12. "Mark Twain's Joan _qf Arc : An Asbestes Character Rising from the Ashes", op.cit., p.19.

13. Thomas Wer-je, "Mark Twain and the Fall of Adam", MTJ, Vol.XV (1970), No.2 (Summer), p.10.

14. Mark Twain, The Man .that Cprcupted _Haileyburg, Strom- field SdLtion (New York, 11.29) , p.52.

15 . Mark Twain ; The Man and His Work, op.cit., p. 19 3. 16. Budford Scrivner, Jr., "The Mysterious Strangor : Mark Twain's New Myth of the Fall", MTJ, Vol.XVII (1975), No.4 (Summer), p.21.

17. David Kamath, "The Mysterious Stranger : Its Mode of Thought", MTJ, Vol.XIX (1979), No.4 (Summer) , p. 5.

18. "The Mysterious Stranger : Mark Twain's New Myth of the Pall", op.cit., p.21.

19. Juoted by Charles Neider in his introduction to "Reflections on Religion", Hudson Review, Vol.XVI (1963) No.3 (3um,mer) , p.331. Page numbers of the subsequent references to the text of "Reflection", also from the same work are indicated in the text. J 17

20. Though Twain seems to have been influenced by the then current scientific thought, he perhaps did not make a direct study of the higher criticism of the Bible. The higher criticism of the Bible, largely based on the findings of anthropology, stressed the mythical and allegorical dimensions of the Bible. But Twain seems to have tenaciously clung to the literal interpretation oE the Bib^e.

21. Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, Bernard De Voto (ed.) , (New York, 19*^2) , p. 14. Page numbers of the subsequent references to this work are incorporated in the text.

22. Alexander S. Jones, "Mark Twain and Freemasonry', American Literature, Vol.XXVI (1954), November, pp.363-373.

23. Mark Twain ; The 'Man and His Work, op.cit., p.212.

24. Stan Poole, "In Search of the Missing Link : Mark Twain and Darvinism", Studies in Mierican Fiction, Vol.XIII (1985), No.2 (Autumn), p.201.

25. Hyat Howe Waggoner, "Science in the Thought of Mark Twain", American Literature, Vol.VIII (1936-37), January, p. 369. CHAPTER IV

TWAIN ON PROGRESS AND PRIMITIVISM 1413

All Mark Twain's critics unanimously hold the opinion that he ended his career as a bitter cynic and pessimist. As with other ideas, he had also completely lost belief in two important ideas he held dear earlier. Thus the idea that mankind has registered a definite prog­ ress through the ages and the idea that man is innately good and capable of doing noble and virtuous deeds did not hold any appeal for him in his declining years.

Though coming from different systems of philosophy, the ideas of progressivism and primitivism, entail certain comiion beliefs^ hope in democracy, equalilty of all men, realization of one's potentialities and an awareness of the intrinsic humanity of man. So important a part of the social and cultural milieu of the nineteenth century United States, these two ideas fired the imagination of most of its writers. They either embraced these ideas or rejected them but could not ignore them. Mark Twain's reaction to both these ideas, like his reaction to so many other ideas, was queer, curious and marked by his characteristic ambiva­ lent attitude. On the one hand, he accepted th^^ myth of progress but, on the other, lamented the loss of the simple and tension-free society of old times. In the works of this representative writer of America these two strands are ] T; 0

very intricately mixed. In the following pages an attempt is made to analyze Twain's optimistic belief in the idea of progress and his nostalgic yearnings for the lost world of romance which he expresses by presenting a set of inno­ cent characters who are in conflict with the so called progressive society.

II

Twain's optimistic belief in the gradual onward progress of mankind with the evolution oE knowledge owes a lot to his comprehensive study of history. He was well read in history and among the works he thoroughly enjoyed were the memoirs of Saint Simon CAssanova, Pepys, Greville, Margravine et cefera. Certain overly subjective and highly colourful accountsof historians like Carlyle's French Revolu­ tion as al.^o the interpretation of the history of human thought and conduct like the one sketched in Lecky's History of Suropean Morals and Andrew D. White's WarEare of Science also interested him a great deal. Minnie M. Brashear has made an exhaustive study of Mark Twain's reading in her meticuously researched chapter on "Sam Clemens' Reading" in her book Mark Twain ; Son of Missouri. iSxploding the .151

myth that Twain was free from bookishness, she points out that Twain made extsnsive use of his reading to help out his own narrative. "What he read excited him mentally and emotionally and stimulated him to get his reaction 2 expressed." The greatest stimulation, however, came from his comparative perusal of human behaviour at different periods of history. In this he was greatly influenced by the then current philosophy of history. The historiography of the period stressed an onward development of knowledge and political liberty. A movement beginning with the works of Hume, Voltaire and Condorcet culminated in the works of the English historian Lord Macaulay. Popularly known as •Whig historians', these celebrated writers did not glorify the past in any way; rather they were interested in the past slfnply because they thought that it contained the roots of the present.

Expressing his sanguine belief in progress Twain in an unpublished manuscript entitled "On Progress ,civiliza­ tion. Monarchy, etc . " (1880) talks about certain steps by which the western civilization has registered progress from the dark past of our ancestors. The steps discussed by him almost echo the ideas of Condorcet, Macaulay and other champions of the whig hypothesis: destiruction of English ]r)2

serfdom and slavery; loosening of the control of tte Church; introduction of representative government and considerable extension of the suffrage; penal reform (reduction of penalties for minor crimes and the abolition of restriction of counsel from state prisoners) ; army reform; and the 3 gradual stripping of various privileges from the nobility.

The steps enumerated by Twain show that he v^as more interested in legal and political rather than economic reforins. He held democratic ideals very dear and found them missing in the olden times. Hence his reaction against the middle ages.

All those ideas are reflected in his travel books, and the fiction written at different periods of his literary career. He was constantly using history in his works which provided him a perspective to embark upon a comparative study of human conduct at different periods. In fact some of his major works like The Innocents Abroad, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee and Joan of Arc heavily draw upon Macaulay' s thesis that history should provide an imaginative vivification of the past. In fact Twain seems so much obsessed with Macaulay's ideas that Sydney J. Krause is led to think : "If there was one writer Twain would rather have been other than himself, I believe J 5:^

4 it would have been Macau I ay."

It was perhaps under the influence of Macaulay and other 'whig' historians that Twain began to consider his generation the most enlightened one. He even conceived material and political progress going hand in hand to bring about a moral progress of mankind. He was happy to note that as a result of the abolition of two wicked institutions — Catholicism and feudcalism — there is more religious tolerance and an overall spread of democratic ideas. There is eciuality before law and an absence of organised cruelty. The moral progress of mankind has resulted from the better institutions of today. The most important change that has come about in the attitude of the people is the fact that now a new idea is valued for its own sake. It means that the door to progress is always open.

In The Innocents Abroad, his first literary work of consequence. Twain treats history with irreverence and acknowledges in no uncertain terms the legal, political and technological progress of mankind. Interestingly the book suggests that those who failed to embrace the new material values of science are either dull or superstitious. As the preface of the book makes it clear that Twain is going to appraise everything in Europe and the Holy Land J 54

from his empirical point of viaw :

it has a purpose, which is to suggest the reader how he would be likely to see Europe and the east if he looked at them with his own eyes instead of the eyes of those who travelled in those countries before him... I think I have seen with impartial eyes, -and I am sura I have written at least honestly, whether wisely or not (p.3) i

Greatly impressed by the materialistic progress of the time. Twain was unwilling to praise the orient as it presented the spectacles of dirt, dust, decay and degrada­ tion everywhere. His disapproval of the 'oriental splen­ dour* also implies his criticism of the people of the East, their life styles, customs and culture which show their backwardness and their inability to keep pace with the development taking place elswhere. ^e is especially appalled to notice the punishment system and the taxation policy of these people. They do not have much regard for democratic ideals. Thus the King of Moracco is described a soulless despot for his ruthless taxation policy. The tyrannical ruler of Greece is also ensured for misusing his revenue. The Moorish system of punishment seemed to him very cruel and inhuman and reminded him of the tyrannical rule of the council of Three in Venice of old days where the convicts were put in solitary imprisonment without TJH

light, air, or books. Convinced of the legal progress of his tiime Twain wryly notes : "Masked judges and masked executioners, with unlimited power and no appeal from their judgements, in that hard, cruel age, were not likely to be lenient with men they suspected yet could not convict (p. 75) ."

In sharp contrast to his criticism of the East is his praise of Napolean 111 under whose rule France made notable material progress. Twain hails Napolean as a great builder, an able administrator and one who takes genuine interest in the welfare of the masses. In France adminis­ tration is such that ordinary life is very smooth and very comfortable. The credit for-his type of able and efficient administration goes to Napolean 111, "the genius of energy, persistence enterprise' (p. 103) who kept pace with materialistic progress.

The image of the past most clearly evident in Twain's art criticism, is also very ugly and unattractive. It is fully identified with Catholicism and feudalism. In Italy he very enthusiastically went to see the celebrated works of the old Masters. His visit, however, sadly turred out to be an unhappy one as the paintings of the old Masters failed to evoke his admiration. After watching the "Last Supper" Twain regrets the lack o£ creativity o£ the artist as they never think to paint this difEerently, and artists after artists "go on copying it as long as any of the original is left visible to the eye (p. 150) ." He however, feels that the copies of the paintings of a Raphael, a Rubens or Da Vinci are superior to the original. But his fellow travellers' tendency of praising the ^Id Masters in hyper­ bolic terms really irks him firstly because it implies an unwarranted glorification of the past which did not value creativity and secondly their praise quite wrongly assumed certain values the past.

In the paintings of the old Masters Twain sees the spirit of the middle ages : tyranny, cruelty and unashamed submission to authority. A great artist like Andrea del Sarto immortalised certain tyrannical princes. The paintings of Raphael glorifying such abominable and despicable figures as Catherine and Marie de Medicis are other examples of an artist prostituting his art. T =n protests against the grovelling spirit that could pursue these masters to bring in disrepute their noble talents to th^. adulation of such monsters as the French, Venetian and Florentine princes of two hundred years ago. He does not accept the justification that the old Masters had to glorify these damnable tyrants .157

to express their gratitude and kindness towards them because the Princes were the only patrons o£ art. He very strongly opines : "if a grandly gifted man may drag his pride and his manhood in the dirt for bread rather than starve with the nobility that jrs in him untainted, the excuse is a valid one. It would excuse theft in 'Washing- tons ^nd Wellingtons and unchastity in women as well (p. 20 4) ."^

The second part of Life on the Mississippi written in 1883, is remarkable for Twain's idealization of the technological and industrial progress achieved by America in the nineteenth century. He even thought that Americans had better and sounder morals than the ilnglish and the French. In his journey down the river he was particularly impressed by the new rising American civilization. Compa­ ring this burgeoning civilization with the one of his child­ hood, he notices improvements everywhere. His heart is filled with pride to see the city of Natches : "Matches, like her near and far river neighbours, has railways now... And like Vicksburg and New Orleans, she has her ice factory." He then highlights the contrast between the old civilization and the new by noting that "in Vicksburg and Natchez, in many time, ice was jewelry; none but the .158

rich could wear it. But anybody and everybody can have it now (p. 3 25) ." Twain proudly notes that the city has powerful machinery, electric lights, good clubs, telephone and sanitary improvements everywhere. To cap it all there is the democratic institution of journalism which in Twain's opinion is a very notable change. These changes characterize the new face of America. "Prom St Louis northward there are all the enlivening signs of the presence of active, energetic, intelligent, prosperous, practical nineteenth-century populations (p. 461)."

Not only does TV;ain speak of the changes brought about by the technological revolution to the face of different cities, he also acknowledges the positive impact of the new values on the peoples themselves. Thus the city of Natches is well outfitted with progressive men — thinking, sagacious, long-headed man. He describes the people living northward to St Louis as the once who work and not dream only.

In this book Twain also tries to answer the question as to what happens when a society does not outgrow its decadant institutions. In this case this society is the American South which lags behind the North in every respect. The southerners are still intoxicated with the joy of cock- fighting and the discussion of war. Twain fully identified jrji3

the South with feudalism and a false and empty romanti­ cism.

There are many reasons why Jouthemers still cling to outdated customs and false romantic notions. In Twain's opinion the most important reason is the influence of Sir Walter Scott on the southern mind. His jejune romanticism with its glorification of an absurd and dead past still ELourishea In ths South even though the whole world has rejected it. in th3 South "the genuine and wholesome civilization of the nineteenth century is curiously confused and commingled with the Walter Scott Middle-Age sham civi­ lization (p. 375) ." Under the influence of Sir Walter's glorification of War every southerner thinks himself a colonel, major or captain. Twain even goes to the extent of holding Sir Walter responsible for the Civil War : "Sir Walter had so Isirge a hand in making southern character^ as it existed before the war, that he is in great measure responsible for the War (p, 37 6) ,"

The pernicious influence of Sir Walter al.K) extends to the southern writers. The writers write not about and for the present but try to idealize a dead and wicked past. With few exceptions, these writers use obsolete forms and a dead language. In fact so bitter is the feeling of Twain .i(;o

that he says that the whole south is suffering from "the Sir Walter disease."

The theme of the technological progress presented i" Life on the Mississippi is fully developed in A Connecticut Yankee. In this work Twain compares the nineteenth century with the sixth century and suggests that the nineteenth century with its ideology of liberalism, democracy, and technological progress is better than the sixth century devoted to superstition and dogma. The efforts of modern man to realize material goals are approved by Twain in clear terms.

One of the important incidents that provoked Twain to write this book was the attack of Matthew Aimold on 7 American civilization. Arnold described Americans as hard, practical and materialistic people with little aesthetic sense. Though he praised the American's social and political equality, Arnold excluded political and material achieve­ ments from his definition of civilization. However, Twain considered Matthew Arnold's concept of civilization snobbish and set out to prove through his protagonist that the liberty of the masses, and technological and material progress constituted the real definition of civilization. But to say that the book is merely a defence of Americanism and an ^ W '^

attack on British feudal system is to limit the canvas of ,its satire. Not only does it celebrate the idea of the material progress of the world, America in particular, it is also an expression of an international crusade for democracy as the Enqlish critic W.T. Stead has asserted.

The meaning of A Connecticut Yankee depends on the interpretation of the character of its protagonist. Hank Morgan. He embodies three very important concepts of nineteenth century American civilization : he is a democrat; a technologist; and also a capitalist hero. Transported in the sixth century. Hank Morgan tries to civilize Arthur' s England by making it embrace his nineteenth century values.

In the preface of the book Twain says that "the ungentle laws and customs touched upon in this tale are historical, and the episodes which are used to illustrate them are also historical (p. 1) ." Without going into the details of the historicity of the episodes, it can safely be said that Hank Morgan, the spokesman of democratic values, attempts to build a system in which these ungentle laws and customs have no place. Twain was fully convinced of the progress made by mankind in the field of law. Here he is simply elaborating the theme he had earlier taken up in The Prince and the Pauper where he had made the dethroned prince \i\2

wander among the masses as an ordinairy man. King Edward observes the operation of inhuman laws in his land — a typical feature in history before the dawn of civilization — and takes a vow to change these laws when he becomes King again.

Hank Morgan sincerely shares King Edward's sympathy for the masses. He is appalled to see that the Church supported by the cruel political institutions has made the condition of the masses utterly miserable. The nobility enjoys all the benefits of the land. People are put to torture and even death for very petty crimes. Sympathetic towards the masses he pardons a number of 'criminals'. In th3 end he destroys the very institution of Knight-errantry which is the breeder of oppression and tyranny. In his efforts to alleviate the suffering of the masses by bringing the light of civilization, he becomes a "humanitarian 9 emancipator of the downtrodden peasants."

In his role of the technologist Hank Morgan attempts to industrialise Arthur's Kingdom. He is an engineer in th3 real sense of the word as he himself puts it :

Then I went over to the great arms factory and learned my real trade; learned all th3rG was to it; learned to make everything — guns, revolvers. I f; 3

cannon, boilers, engines, all sorts of labour-saving machinery. Why I could make anything a body wanted — anything in the world, it didn't make any difference whaty and if there wasn't any quick new-fangled way to make a thing, I could invent one — and do it as easy as rolling off a log (p. 4) .

With great enthusiasm he sets out to industrialize the sixth century. He establishes factories, patent office and opens many other institutions. By educating the bril­ liant minds of King Arthur's time he tries to create manpower suitable for rapid industrialization. However, his plans fail to materialize in the end as he has no answer to the awesome power of the Organized Church. Yankee's failure was also necessitated by the demands of realistic fiction because no technological changes took place in sixth century and Twain's presentation of history is also only an alterna­ tive history used for the purpose of satire.

The most important role that Hank Morgan plays in the novel is that of an enterpreneur and a capitalist. The ideology of industrial capitalism that gripped the United States after the Civil War is treated by Howelte in A Hazard of New Fortunes and Warner in A. Little Journey in the World. But Twain's book "was the first literary effort of 11 any consequence to treat the enterpreneur sympathetically." HM

Throughout the book Twain refers to Hank's plan of making money. He spends his energies on the advertising of various piroducts and embarks upon many plans for minting mon ey,

In a brilliantly written article, Lome Fienberg, clarifies the nature of Hank's economic activity in the novel. Basing his study on the writings of two twentieth century economists, Joseph Schumpeter and Fritz Redlich, he discusses the role of Hank Morgan as an enterpreneur and daimonic figure, with all the crises that the idea of enter- preneurship involves. In the absence of any competition. Hank iMorgan establishes full control over the economy of the country. The complex organizations that come into exis­ tence as a result of his monopoly capitalism are also cha­ racteristic of the nineteenth century capitalism of Twain's time. Finally his downfall is brought about by his inabi­ lity to control the complex chain of organizations. However, as Fienberg points out, the elements of self-destruction are inevitably inherent in the enterpreneur's very creativity. He further notes that "given this notion of Hank Morgan as a type of daimonic enterpreneur, the ending of A Connecticut Yankee emerges as an integral and inevitable part of Twain's 12 'fable' of economic progress." M]^)

III

The experience of an age is a very complex and difficult thing which can not be described in the form of a generalized statement. Thus, to say that a certain age was the age of reason or imagination is only a half-truth because in any age there will be people who think differently from their contemporaries. Further, it is also very impor­ tant to make a distinction between the private metaphorical world of a writer and his public world inspired by his society's professed beliefs. As a member of society the writer himself may live on two planes : one necessitated by the manifest culture of his country and the other his very own world made of his own felt images and created symbols.

It is the function of literature to deal with such diverse and variegated threads of experience . Mark Twain, exposed to an exceptionally rich variety of experiences, repeatedly stated that literature should come out of a writer's own experience . In fact the fusion of apparently contradictor^' statements, unrelated themes and the writer's constantly changing mood and hence the change of focus in the same work leave his works very open-ended and make it very difficult for critics to pass any judgement on the writer. Thus it will be misleading to say that Twain's ](;(;

approval of the idea of progress and his temporocentrism, make him at once a progressivist. The fact is that the elements of primitivism which characterize almost all his writings balance his treatment of the myth of progress. In a single work both these ideas exist side by side.

The belief in primitivism, an eighteenth century philosophy though as an attitude as old as m.an*s thought and feelinc), lays stress on the innate goodness of man and a preference for a simple as against a complex society. The extreme primitivists, turning the clock back, clamour for the plain, natural and artless society of the past, the one that can be found in the life style of the tribals, our •primitive contemporaries.' However, the more moderate primitivists speak of a society where individuals live an honest and 'unsophisticated' life in the absence of warped and mechanical human relations without any arrcuntof intellec­ tual retrogression. Mark Twain perhaps falls in the second category. His was not the chronological primitivism, rather it was as much a love for the igenuous and guileless life for its own sake as a reaction against the ills resulting from the rapidly changing society of his time.

Twain shared the general anguish of the sensitive souls of his time and while the diplomats and political H;7

thinkers talked about the need of creating new political and social institutions he sought to present through his artistic medium the moral and spiritual values necessary for the regeneration of human society. In this way he was concerned both with the existing society of his time as well as the ideal conception of social relationships. The break­ down of social values in the wake of the industrial revo­ lution was especially very painful to writers like Twain because it signified the betrayal of the myth of America itself. The American myth, remarkable for its high idea­ lism "saw life and history as just beginning. It described the world as starting up again under fresh initiative, in a divinely granted second chance for the human race, after the first chance had been so disastrously fumbled in the 13 darkening old world." Twain was distressed to realize that not only the old world had fumbled this divinely granted chance but that his own countiry was also following in the footsteps of the old world. This was not only Twain's dilemma- "By the time of Twain's maturity the American writer had an additional past with which to contend : not only of Europe but the more recent past of America itself." 14

What could be done in this kind of hopeless situation. 1G8

How could a literary writer help in the rejuvenation of an ideal society based on spiritual values, a society which was the heart-felt desire of many more tormented souls of his time ? The European past had been discarded as corrupt and sinful, though it held an aesthetic appeal as the dilemma of writers like Washington Irving and even Twain would testify. 15 America, the celebrated land of present and future possibilities was equally disappointing. Faced with this dilemma some of the American writers, most importantly Twain, turned to their childhood in search of some hope, some values and some possibilities for the ideal society. Having come to maturity before the civil war. Twain naturally turned his gaze to the pre- civil war village society which, as Salomon points out, "came to symbolize a peculiarly .'American past — a past, in this case, with a moral dimension that seemed missing from the present," 17

The recollection of childhood di(3 provide him an image of repose, contentment, harmony and innocence. And the probe into the pre-civil war society of his time gave him a suitable idyllic setting for presenting this image of innocence in fictional forms. The idea of innocence that Twain associated with childhood or uncorrupted youth was full of many possibilities and potentialities. "It entails \{]i)

the belief that the individual will, operating in a natu­ rally permissive environment, can dictate right action without recourse either to institutional dogma or to 18 educated reason." In a number of his writings Twain unconsciously attempting a fictional rendering of the myth of America, introduces a hero who is endowed with a number of traits of the new Adam of the American myth : "an individual emancipated from history, happily bereft of ancestory, untouched and undefiled by the usual inheritances of family and race; an individu-al standing alone, self- reliant and self-propelling, ready to confront what2V3r awaited him with the aid of his own ur,',que and inherent resources." 19 This hero is generally shown as involved in a grim battle. The conflict is generally between two value systems presented in the form of a fight between the individual and the community, between the individualistic rural dweller and the socially directed urbanite and between * agrarian and industrial values.

The result of this moral battle throws light on the attitude of Mark Twain towards the relative strength of values held by his protagonist or the power of the forces the hero is pitted against. Sometimes this battle between good and evil results simply in the recognition of evil by the 170

innocent hero. At other times there is either the defeat of on-2 of the contestants or the evasion by the hero or a situation of uneasy compromise between two forces. While presenting this moral drama Twain was painfully conscious of the assailability of the innocence against the strong forces of evil represented by different institutions of society : school. Church, government and commerce et cetera.

It is foe this reason that sometimes his characters like

Laura in The _Gilded Age, or Tom in Adventures of Tom

Sawyer find the pull of the materialistic values too strong to resist and ultimately, much to Twain's anguish, they embrace those values.

The problem of these innocent characters is that they feel morally and psychologically estranged from society.

However, their moral alienation does not prevent them from participating in various activities of their social environ­ ment. Their psychological alienation, on the other hand is simply an aspect of their response and, as Susan K.

Harris points out, "they are at o^ ^s with some significant aspect of prevailing belief that they .^ever participate 20 whole-heartedly in the geist, or spirit of their time."

Even this half-hearted participation of the hero in this conflict ensures his necessary education. Most of 171

Twain's fictional narratives deal with the education of its principal character. The protagonist, a native and innocent figure embarks upon a journey of the world which teaches him its ways. Albert 2. Stone Jr. points out "the typical Twain story repeats the pattern of initiation rite so familiar to our modern anthropological imagination."2 1 At the completion of his symbolic journey the innocent prota­ gonist learns that the outside world is inhabited by evil forces and has no respect for his values. In some of his works, however. Twain reversed the pattern of this journey by presenting a hero with wrong notions about the world. As such his journey is from artificiality to natural­ ness, from his sophisticated world to the free life in the lap of nature.

The Innocents Abroad was the first book in which Twain presented this naive and unsophisticated character. The narrator of the book is a young man full of optimism and romantic illusions about life. He sets out to see Europe and the Holy Land with his knowledge gained from reading of the guidebooks. However, his experiences in Europe comp­ letely disillusion him. The works of old Masters, the Turkish bath, the holy air of Jerusalem, the Churches of Italy and so many other celebrated things which looked so beautiful in books, simply disappoint him. His initiation in life is not a very happy experience for him and it is no wonder that he longs for his lost illusions repeatedly in the book.

In his next important work. Roughing It, published in 187 2, Twain again presents an innocent character. The first part of this work records the exfariences of Greenhorn as he goes to the west. The second part, on the other hand, is almost entirely devoted to an account of the events and the environment of the west. His physical journey is at the same time a symbolic journey from repression to freedom, from the state of being 'civilized' to being 'natural*. The west in this work stands for freedom and release from all sorts of anxities and cares which characte­ rize city life. This land of freedom provides him with many experiences which shatter his foolish idealism and romantic hankerings but which, in Twain's view, is necessary for his self-fulfilment. However, Greenhorn's education should be clearly distinguished from the education of the narrator in The Innocents Abroad, Comparing the two types of education, William C. Spengemann points out that whereas the illusions of the narrator of The Innocents Abroad are false, they are desire able because they make the ugly reality seem less ugly. "In Roughing It, the authorities are roinantic fiction, and although they dis­ guise reality, they are simply hindrances and have no redeeming qualities. ...In the Zuropean book illusion is preferable to reality, in Roughing I*: just the opposite 22 is true. " Again this naive character appears in "Captain Stormfield's visit to Heaven." Stormfleld, though about seventy, shares many characteristics of Twain's innocents. He is childlike, young in spirit and speaks vernacular. On earth he is guided by conventional ideas about conduct and morals. He cares more for social mores and customs than the free voice of instinct and heart. His education consists of the shattering of his wrong illusions about life and heaven. He comes to know that heaven, in this case the epitome of simple, free and instinctive life, values spirit rather than the letter of religion and that only in this kind of atmosphere complete realization of self is possible.

A complete realization of self is, however, denied to Laura Hawkins, the heroine of The Gilded Age which Twain wrote in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. The book follows the pattern of the sentimental stories because both the writers wanted to convince thQir wives of their ability to ]74 write what an average woman wanted at that time. However, the separation of Laura from the main plot shows that the writer grew interested in her character for its ovm sake.

The description of Laura, prior to her willing surrender to materialistic values, puts her in the line of Twain's other innocent characters. She is a pretty •girl with a sweet ignorance of care and has about her an atmosphere of innocence and purity ; she was a vision whick could warm everyone and bless and cheer unhappy souls. Furthermore, like Twain's other innocents she is an orphan.

However, she does not remain an Intiocent throughout the story. She is overcome by a strong desire to have wealth and a career. An additional reason for her loss of innocence is provided by her reading of romantic fiction largely written by her own sex. This gives her a very false and distorted picture of reality. As a result of her false view of life she is easily trapped and seduced by Colonel Selby who appeared to him a brilliant and bright gentleman of a romantic novel. She then goes to Washing­ ton where she pursues her materialistic goals with vigour, enercyy, r>nd without care for morals and scruples. After initial success she fails and dies a very tragic death. At 75

the end of the novel she presents a very pathetic figure and it is no wonder that before her death she aspires for a world where money does not exist.

The Gilded Age has been interpreted as "a satire on the irresponsible use of wealth by unscruplous enterpre- 23 neurs and self-seeking legislators." Another critic follows a slightly different line : "the novel's principal attack against court corruption, however, is directed toward abuse of jury system, at the time a nationally recognized disgrace."* 24 The fact is that the novel sati­ rizes the whole complex of institutions that corrupt an essentially good human being and deny the realization of her potentialities. Money does play an important part in the tragedy of Laura; but money or jury system for that matter are just some of the forces that make up the materia­ listic culture of the United States. Moreover, the novel is not merely a satire. It also records the nostalgia of Twain for the rural pre-civil war America of his youth when there was no cut-throat competition, no lust for money and no mechanized relationships.

The same materialistic values are shown triumphant in Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom is an innocent character only in a very limited sense. Twain identifies with Tom only i7G

in his satirical treatment of the restricting influence of

certain institutions of society like the Church, the school and the family. Conforming to the mores of society he

does attend the Church services but the sermons of the

clergymen simply create a feeling of boredom in him.

At school also he is interested only in practical jokes

.and not studies. Aunt Polly punishes him with 'captivity

at hard labour' by keeping him busy with whitewashing. But

Tom does not openly rebel against these institutions. He

simply seeks a temporary escape from these institutions by

running away to the forest and the river. Henry Nash Smith

aptly points out that "the Church and the school are not

truly evil, they are merely inconvenient and tedious; Tom

doesn't really intend running away for good; his playing

pirate is a child's fantasy, and can with perfect appropri- 25 at en ess have its climax in the boy's return."

Towards the end of the novel Twain lost some of his verve and enthusiasm in carrying on with Tom and became

interested in the character of Huckleberry Finn. This is

evident from the lengthy conversation that follows between

Huck and Joneses. Huck, an outcast and alienated figure,

is certainly an adequate vehicle to present the conflict between society and the free individual, something which 77

Tom's figure never generates in the novel. Twain did not wish to carry Tom beyond his boyhood because he felt that in his manhood the readers contempt for him will grow. This is because of Tom's complete identification with the dominant values of his society. He becomes rich and respec­ table as a result of his discovery of a treasure. More importantly he rejoices the approval of his sweetheart, her father and the whole society. Thomas Blues' support to Tom' s view that he can at once maintain membership in the respectable adult community and continue his career as its victimizer is disproved by Tom's willing and enthusiastic capitulation to those very institutions against which he was seeking a temporary escape. He even tries to persuade Huckleberry Finn to accept the validity of these institutions by becoming 'respectable* and 'civilized'. Tom's return to society and his new status of the hero was in Twain's view not his victoiry but moral failure.

The Prince and the Pauper has generally been dis­ missed as a children's book or at the most as an attack on the monarchy of England. It has also bean suggested by critics that the Suiropean setting of the book made it difficult for Twain to develop his thesis effectively. How- ev(2r, most of the critics have failed to see a veiled 178

American setting and a clear American perspective in the story. Tom H. Towers is perhaps the only critic to read "Tudor England as a type of post-civil war America and the rural culture as representing an idealized myth of pre-war 27 and pra-modem beatitude." Henry's rule, and for that matter Tom Canty's too, is identified with a mercantile economy and an extreme form of individualism which in its turn unleashes forces which deny the fulfilment of an individual's potentialities. The countryside, representing the traditional order, on the other hand, provides an anti­ thesis to the rule of Henry with its emphasis on a simple and instinctive life. The idea of the simple and instinctive life is illustrated most effectively through the principal characters of the novel : Tom Canty and Prince Edward. Tom Canty is bom in circumstances which deny his self-fulfilment : a cruel father, discouraging attitude of sisters and an all-perva­ ding poverty. He dreams of riches, power and freedom from his wretched lot. Then, when he is made King because of his perfect resemblance to Edward, his dream becomes a reality. With his common sense and good heart he does perform his duties effectively. It may be noted that wisdom, common sense and innocence which do not prove equal to the might of the dominant values of society in Twain's other works are 179 meaningful in this case because they are supported by the institutionalized power. However, established order leaves its pernicious influence on Tom too. He in turn gradually becomes habituated to power though, strangely enough, at the same time feeling a sense of imprisonment in his new role. This identification with power affects his indivi­ duality, his intrinsic worth and his innocence. Now the thoughts of his drunken father, poor mother, and pathetic- looking sisters simply embarrass him. Finally when he refuses to recognize his mother, the dominant values of the society have achieved a victory.

However, Tom is not entirely a failure as Tom H. Towers would like us to believe : "Tom is never truly a type o£ Huck, and the sources of his eventual failure are present in his earliest motives." 28 True that Tom lacks Huck's pure innocence and sincere motives. True that his act of refusing to recognize his mother is a repudiation of his humanity. But Tom always repents a bad act and is smitten by the pangs of conscience after his refusal to recognize his mother. Most importantly Tom himself is instrumental in the end to restore a just order unlike in Pu ddn' he ad Wi 1 son, where an unjust order is restored — by surrendering his office to its rightful owner. This suggests 180

that he was not activated by power; rather he had some of his innocence and good motives uncorrupted by the influence of society.

Edward, more than Tom Canty, typifies all the attri­ butes of an enlightened innocent. In his wanderings through his Kingdom he is made to experience all the evil effects of monarchy and its kindred institutions. He is constantly humiliated, insulted -ind made fun .of by the people who would not believe his words. However, he does not feel any hatred for these people simply because he views them sympa­ thetically with a distance, more importantly from their angle. Participating in various incidents of the novel, he succeeds, though instinctively, in keeping himself deta­ ched from the whole spectacle. Thus he is able to have a feel of everything without being a part of it. This detach­ ment is natural because he relies on his instinct and good heart whereas the mass of humanity that is presented in the novel acts according to the dictates of established codes and customs. Not with human beings, but rather with a calf, the symbol of uncorrupted innocence and purity, that Edward establishes a truly authentic bond, and a truly natural rappoirt. Unlike Tom Canty who views his power in social terms of control and a legitimate authority, Edward 181

analyzes it in relation to nature and the people of the Kingdom.

3dward's political and moral education is a necessary step towards creating a just and equitable order. It makes him more humane, and understanding. With the power at his disposal he is able to translate his ideas into action. One can agree with the view that Tom Canty and Edward both have "an utterly false picture of the world of the other" in the beginning of the novel. 29 By the end of the novel, how­ ever, both acquire a balanced view of life because of their varying experiences. Thus they are freed from their old sense of imprisonment. Edward is now fit to play his new role. Rebuking his less fortunate courtiers who did not have any such experience, he says : "What dost thou know of suffering and oppression ? I and my people know but not thou."^°

The book that celebrates the idea of primitivism in the most artistic manner is Huckleberry Finn, the univer­ sally acknowledged masterpiece of Mark Twain. Huckleberry Finn is the new Adam, a pariah, instinctively good, living close to nature and uninfluenced by the phoney civilization that the people of United States so blandly followed. The novel very subtley contrasts the values of Hack Finn with 18^

the materialistic values of the United States in the form of a very simple conflict between the individual and the society. Huck, representing the essentially good human being, not only challenges the social mores and ideals but is also in search of some values and moral truths which in Twain's opinion will provide a basis for a new society.

Huck can find these values only by running away from society. In the company of Jim, the runaway negro slave, he forms an ideal comnxinity on the raft. The values that govern this comnunity are dictated by Huck' s sound heart and Jim's intrinsic humanity. Their society is based on mutual love, understanding, care, and brotherhood. It is only here that Jim is made to realize that he is a digni­ fied human being and Huck is made to cast off his 'social self and act true to his real nature,

"The community of Huck and Jim", argues A.N. Kaul, "represents the positive half of the meaning of Huckleberry Finn, the half that Is coniplem€*nt ary to its satire." 3 1 Thus, because the novel is also a satire, the values of Huck and Jim's community are contrasted with the dominant values of society. This is made possible by Hbck' s periodic forays into the civilization of the torfn. He watches with dis­ gust the internecine feud of the Grangerfords and Shepherdsons. 183

His advanture in the house of death, his visit to Mrs Loftus* and the boarding of the Walter Scott further pre­ sent before him the image of civilized debasement. Finally he feels sick of humanity when he observes the machinations of the King and the Duke.

However, by its very nature the community of I-ijck and Jim. is very vulnerable. The dominant values of society prove too strong to be conquered by the good heart of Huck and Jim. Innocence survives in the novel only by running away from evil, or by avoiding it. In itself it is impo­ tent and as William C. Spengemann says, it is state of repose and inertia; suggesting satisfaction. It requires no action consequently, only society's invasion of the 32 innocent's freedom causes him to act." It is for this reason that Huck feels happy and free on the raft where there is no civilization. But the attack of the raft by the Duke and the King forces Huck to flee, thui> further proving the vulnerability of innocence and by extension of the ideal community that Huck had formed in the company of Jim.

The ending of Huckleberry ^inn has been a subject of a lot of critical discussion. Thus critics like Leo Marx and Henry Nash Smith think that in the end of the novel Huck makes a compromise with the dominant values of society. Leo Marx 184

accuses Twain of a "failure of nerve", and Smith talks about Twain's recognition that Huck* s and Jim's quest for freedom was only a dream. He says that "Mark Twain was obliged to admit finally to himself that Huck* s and Jim's journey down the river could not be imagined as leading to freedom for either of them... He now destroys it

(raft) symbolically, by revealing that Huck* s and Jim's 33 journey with all its anxieties, has been pointless."

However, despite Marx and Smith's view, it will be wrong to say that Twain makes a compromise in the end.

Twain does not suggest that the values of Huck and Jim are false. The vision, values and sympathies which are pre­ sented in the earlier portion o£ the novel, also govern the controversial last ten chapters. Tom,the bearer of the news of Jim's manumission loses the respect of readers because of his cruel joke. And most importantly the last sentence of the novel shows that Huck still thinks from his good heart; he still refuses to embrace the values of the dominant society represented by Aunt Sally : "But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest, because

Aunt Sally she is going to adopt me and sivilize me, and I 34 can't stand it- I been there before." ibir

IV

The discussion carried on in the preceding pages indicates that the ideas of progress and primitivism existed side by side in Twain's work. Not satisfied with material progress only, his heart craved for a life full of inno­ cence and naturalness. He was painfully aware of the might of the established values against which this innocence, exemplified by his various characters, was pitted. It flourishes only when it evades the dominant materialistic values. The narrator of The Innocents Abroad experiences it beside the river of Galilee; Huck on the raft and Captain Stormfield in heaven. Only in The Prince and the Pauper it has some power of its own but there it is identified with a benevolent monarchy.

By the last decade of the nineteenth century. Twain had almost lost faith in both these ideas. The already wavering faith in material progress was as responsible for his dark vision as the complete loss of faith in man's innate goodness.

Twain believed that the innocence of an ordinary human being was simply powerless. He desperately looked for some figures in history who could sustain his faith in 18G

some of his long cherished values. Perhaps Joan of Arc was one such figure. In her the virtues of innocence and power were blended. Innately good, living close to nature, she had none of the weaknesses of Twain's other innocents. "Jo.3n of Arc can be most firuitfully examined as a final, desperate attempt to establish values apart from the futile treadmill of sin and suffering which constituted the life 35 of man on earth." However, despite Joan's magnificient achievements she fails Twain in the final analysis. First, she needs divine help to succeed; secondly she is the lone innately qooti individual in the presence of a depraved humanity. The view of man presented in Joan of Arc is profoundly pessimistic : selfish, treacherous and untrustworthy. The condemnation of the fifteenth century in the book is there to highlight Joan's virtues rather than to affirm a theory of progress.

In Following the Equator also Twain expresses his grave misgivings about progress and primitivism. The impe­ rialistic lust of various countries convinced him of the disastrous results of civilization which he identified with progress. One very important reason behind imperialism, he came to believe, was the innate depravity of man. If he 187

was disappointed to see the exploitation of the weak and 'uncivilized' natives in Australia and Newzealand by the civilized and progressive masters, he was equally reluc­ tant to idealize the Kanakas, Maoris and other natives. Thus he associates the cult of Thuggee in India with the depravity of human nature. To his mL^d, the cold-blooded murders committed by those Thuggs have their roots in tha 'joy of killing' a man feels. At another place in the book he philosophizes : "If the desire to kill and the opportunity to kill came always together, who would escape hanging. "

The book that buries the ideas of progress and primitivism most violently is undoubtedly The Mysterious Stranger, published after his death. Satan, the mouth­ piece of Mark Twain in this book, typifies the idea of innocence. However, his innocence is different from the innocence of Twain's other characters. He is amoral, insensitive to human pain and suffering and not subject to human failings, we.aknesses and limitations. Satan presents a very negative view of history beginning with the murder of Abel by Gain to the catastrophic Wars of nations. He says :

And always we had wars, and more wars, and still other wars — all over 188

Europe, all over the world. "Sometimes in the private interest of royal fami­ lies, ..." but never a war started by the aggressor for any clean purpose. It is a remarkable progress. In five or six thousand years five or six high civilizations have risen, flourished, commanded the wonder of the world, then faded out and disappeared and not one of them except the latest ever invented any sweeping and adequate way to kill people. (pp. 718-19)

Not only does the history of civilization present spectacles of war and death, the future as predicted by Satan, also does not hold any bright hope. Giving an inkling into Twain's prophetic vision about the two V/orld Wars, Satan exhibits the future to Theodore : "He showed U3 slaughters more terribl'^ in their destruction of life, more devastating in their engines of war, than any we had seen (p. 718) ."

Satan also assigns a reason as to widespread slaughter and bloodshed. In his opinion man is a worth­ less creature, "to kill being the chief est ambition of the human race (p. 719) ." Here Twain seems to have lost all faith in the idea of the innate goodness of man. If man is innately depraved, there can never be any worth­ while progress. History also loses all its redemptive Value because of this belief. Corruption which is anterior 1813

to man, makes this life meaningless. Now all paths to the belief in the ideas of progress and primitivism were closed. There was simply a meaningless void, a profound sense of despair and a sad shattering of all illusions which make life beautiful. J [} 0

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1. An important Mark Twain-Critic Maxwell Geismar does not share this view. He points out that "far from being the embittered old man of the scholarly legend Twain was a revolutionary temperament... to the end." Maxwell Galr>mar (ed.) , Mark Twain and the Three Rs^ (Indianapolis, 1973), p.xv. Despite Geismar's asser­ tion to the contrary, it can be said that though Twain continued writing revolutionary pieces to the end of his life, he was aware that this kind of exercise did not mean much in the changed time.

2. Minnie M. Brashear, Mark Twain ; Son of Missouri (New York, 1964) , p. 223.

3. Per a detailed discussion of this article see, Roger B. Salomon, Twain and the Image of History, (New Haven, 1961), p.27. (The present work owes greatly to Salomn's insights. 4. Mark Twain as Critic, op.cit., p. 229.

5. There were two more reasons behind Twain's strong- worded criticism of the old Masters. Firstly the pictures had the halo of Roman Catholicism around them. Secondly the frontier spirit, with its virtues of independence and self-reliance, influenced him.

6. Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi (New York, 1950) , p. 325. (Page numbers of the further references to this work, also from the same edition, are mentioned in the text) . ]i}l

7. Twain's Controversy with Arnold has been discussed by many critics. See John B. Hoben, "Mark Twain's A Connecticut Ya_nkee : A Genetic Study", American Li_t2ratu_re, Vol.XVIII (1945), pp.197-218; D.M. Kckolthan, "More about Mark Twain's War with English Critics of America", Modern Language Notes, Vol.LXIII (1948), pp.22-28; and Roger B. Salomon, op.cit., McKeithan and Salorron rightly maintain that Arnold's strictures merely Intensified the j rejudices against British already held by Twain. They rather provoked him to include modem Britain also within the scope of his satire.

8. W.T. Stead, "Mark Twain's Newbook. A Satirical Attack on English Institutions", Reyi_ew of Reviews Vol.1 (1890), Feb. p.144.

9. Henry Nash Smith, Mark Twain's Fable of Progress : Political and Sconomic Ideas in A Connecticut Yankee, (New Brunswick, N.J., 19 64), p.54.

10. The use of history in A Connecticut Yankee has given rise to much controversy. The early reviewers of the book, William Thomas Stead and Andrew Lang mistook it for real history and blamed Twain for a strange mis­ reading of history. It is now almost established that Twain's attempt at historical accuracy were sporadic and he heavily depended on Lecky's History of European Morals and Malory's Morte de Arthur while writing this book. He was more interested in making an imagi­ native use of history. See James D. Williams, "The Use of History in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee", PMLA, Vol.XXC (1965), No. 1 (March), pp.102-110. wy.

11. Henry Nash Smith, Mark Twain's Fable of Progress, op.cit., p. 37.

12. "Twain's Connecticut Yankee : The Enterpreneur as a Daimonic Hero", Modern ?lctiqn Studies Vol.XXVITI ( 1982) , No.2, p.157.

13* I!!l?._^®€4£.§i[l-'^?S1' op.cit., p. 5.

14. !Sl?._?J]l§9.5.J^l History, op.cit., p. 17 .

15. yiviters like Washington Irving, Fenimore Cooper and Hawthorne turned their attention to Europe for its rich material. They bemoaned the poverty of materials in their own country and thought that works of real artistic merit could not be produced in a country which had no antiquity, mystery or picturesque su rroundings.

16. An additional reason for Twain's preoccupation with childhood in his fiction was the commeixiial value of Juvenile literature in the late nineteenth century. The enviable New England tradition had already made the Juvenile writing acceptable and had created a large audience for stories and novels with a child's fantasies and his world.

1 '^ • The .I.m ngi e _q.f _Hijs_to_ry, op.cit., p. 18. 18. William C. Spengemann, M a rk _Tw ai.n__anj[ _t he ^ ackwoods An_g_el_, op.cit., p.x.

19. The American Adam, op.cit., p).5. J13 'A

20. Mark Twain's Escape frotn Time (Columbia, 1982), p. 4.

2 1- Albert 3. Stone, Jr., The ^Inngcqnt _-i^ve (New Haven, 1961) , p.274.

2 2. Mark Twain _an3 _the Backwoods Angel, op.ci t., p. 18 .

23. Ibijd., p. 31.

24. Bryant Morey French, Mark Twain _and the Gilded Age, (Dallas, 1965) , p.99.

25. Henry Nash Smith, Mark Twain ; The Development o£ a Writer, op.cit., p.88.

26. Mark _Twaln and _the _^Community (Lexington, 1970) , p.9.

27. "Th3 Prince and the Pauper : Mark Twain's Once and Futu re King", 3_tu;di_es_ in _Aneri_can Fiction, Vol. VI (1978) Ko.2 (Autumn), p. 19 5.

28. I.bi_d., p. 19 6.

29 . The J.mag^e _qf _Hi.s to ry, op.cit., p. 158 .

30. Mark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper (New York, 1964) , p.205.

31. A.N. Kaul, Ali^r:ic_an _Vi_sion (New Hav^n, 1963), p.295.

3 2 . i^it^ _'Ewat_n_ _an_d _the_B aqkwqqds Angel, op.cit., p.72.

33. Henry Nash Smith, "A Sound Heart and a Deformed Conscience" in Mark .Twain ; A_Col lee t l^on _o f Critic al Ess_ays, op.cit., p.95. IIM

34. Mark Twain, Ad yen tu^ re s q £ ^ Hu ck 1 eb e r r^ . F i n n, in The_Fqrtabl.e Mark _Tw.^i_n, op.cit., p. 539.

3 5. The I_n]aqe qf .HJ^stqiTY/ op.cit. p.l68. CHAPTER V

TWAIN ON IMPERIALISM 1 <^'i\

The last phase of Twain's writings is especially m3rked £or its satiric vein ^nd the writer's growing distrust of humanity in the abstract. However, Twain Wr5S not content with mjrely hu-cling invectives on 'the damned human race'; rather, the great social refornnir that he was, he greatly involved himself in the political acti­ vities of his times to carry out his crusade against the forces o£ injustice, oppression an.i tyranny, A number of his writings published after 1890 highlight Twain's role as a reformer on a number of poiitiCiil issues, more impor­ tantly imperialism which reappeared at the turn of the century in four different parts of the world : China, South Africa, Diilippines md Cubu In a number of essays, pamphlets, letters and public speeches Twain discussed, analyzed and also attacked the imperialism of different countries in an effort to expose its true nature.

However, critics' response to these writings has been very lackadaisical. These works have been ignored for their crudeness, 1 --ick of artistry and their propagandist st^le. For example, Bernard De Voto, a major critic of Mark rw-iin, does not give any importance to the treatment of the theme of imperialism in Twain's writings. Charles ^jeider also completely ignores IVain's anti-imperialistic" 197 pieces. Twain's very famous essays like "United Jtates of Lync'nJom," "A wori of encouragement for our Blushing Exiles" jnd, fjuite strangely, "To the person sitting in Darkness" do not find any place in Charles Neider* s index of IWaln's autobiography. It is interesting to note that the true worth of these writings was first appreciated not by the /merican or British critics but by the Russian critics.

Nevertheless, these works are historically very valrable and hence cannot be dismissed so easily. Any worth­ while study of Mark Tw^in the writer and the reforrrer necessi at'^s a close reading of these polemic d pieces because tliey show the development of: Twiin's views on a nurber of issues, notably imperialism. In the present chap­ ter an attempt has been m-ide to present the gradual develop­ ment oP rwain's views on imperialism and also his attitude towards the major imperialist powers of his time. The :3iscussion of various theories of imperialism as implied in these wntincis and the ireadful results of irrperialist policios on the weak countries will also be analyzed during tne course of the chapter.

A cursory glance ^t the life and works of Mark 'IVain's 1 ^st ye irj would suggest th^jt he was against the policy of imperialism. .iowever he himself admitted once U)8

that he had not been an anti-imperialist all his life; at one time he had even been a red-hot imperialist himself. This admission on his part has led critics like Philip Foner to divide his life in two broad periods: the brief pro-annexation period of his early life and the later period showing his hatred for imperialism. However it would be a mistake to approach his writings on imperialism in such a simple way. The fact is that even in his late life TwTin di 1 not Viide his praise for soma of the policies of Britain which were unmistakably imperialistic. It appears that he was ready to approve of the activities of the impe­ rialist powers if they really did good to the life of the common people and not merely 'meant* good. But if the imperialist powers typified injustice, tyranny and exploi­ tation, as they did in almost all the cases. Twain spoke against them very forcefully as the great bulk of his anti- tmperiallst writings would testify.

Neithier i s it true to say that he raised his voice ag linst imperialism only in the last decade of the nineteenth century. The fact is that Tw:iin was a m

We must annex these people. We can a££lict them with our wise and beneficent government. We can introduce the novalty of thieves^ all the way up from streetcar pickpockets to municipal robbers and government defaulters and show them how amusing it is to arrest them and try them and then turn them loose — some for cash, and some for "political influence." We can make them ashamed of their simple and primitive justice... We Crin give them juritis composed oE the most simple and charming leatherheads. We can give them railway corporations who will buy their Legislatures like old clothes, and mn over their best citizens... We can give them Tweed... We can furnish them some jay Goulds who will do away with their old-time notion that stealing is not respectable... We can give them lecturers! I will go myself....!

Later Twain was to take up these ideas in Following the 2

However, the fcict remains that Twain's import'Unt works on imperialism appeared at the turn of the nineteenth century when almost all major i^uropem countries as well as thi Unites States turned imperialist. The U.S.-3panish war broke out in 1898 on the question of Cuba's independence with U.S. winning it easily and taking control of Philippines 2A)

apart from some other islands. This was a clear case of imperialism but strangely Mark Twain supported this war. At thiij Lime Twain was living in Vienna and hence he perhaps did not have any access to unprejudiced news. In a letter written to his friend Joseph Twichell he wrote thit he had "never enjoyed a war... as I am enjoying this one because it was a war fought with lofty purposes :or the liberation of a weak nation from the clutches of an imperialist power."

However, from the end of 1898 to 1900 Twain began to have second thoughts about his country's involvement in Cuba. The reason why he started viewing i.,iperialism in a new licjhf include his readin'j of unprejudiced news and also his frank discussion with friends like William De'in Howells. '•\e il so read the treaty of Paris closely and was convinced of the imperialist nature of this war.

It was this conviction about the true nature of imperialism that made Twain produce a number of articles, speeches and pamphlets on imperialism between 1900 to 1902. He also liked talking about this subject in his interviews. In an interview, given to Tne New York Herald Twain gave his well-formulatcd views on imperialism. He said : I left those shores at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I w uitfsd the American eagle to go scre^aming into the PJll

pacific. It seemed tiresome and tame for it to content itself with the Rockies. Why not spi'ead its wings over the Phili- p)5ines, I asked myself ? And I thought it would be a real good thing to do* I said to myself. Here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and. country of their own» put a miniature of the American constitu­ tion afloat in the pacific, start a brand-new republic to take i-s place among the five free nations of the world. It seemed a great task to which we addressed ourselves. But I have thought some nore, since and I have read carefully the treaty :"'arisis,, and I have seen th,ithitt wviP:e d od ono not t and to free but to subjugatsubji e the people ot tn:he E'hilipplres. We h.vh.rv e gone there to conquer-oncnu^r,. nonnt ttrto redeemr(">.df>f^m. We h-we also pledged the power of this country to maintain and protect the abominable system established in the Philippines by the Friars. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. Anci so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the Eagle put its talons on any othjr land. 3

Tw iin also gave his hearty support to that sijnifi- c ^nt minority in United St ites that was raiijing its voice against im.perialism. This group of ant i-inpert alists had in itr. ranks almost all the important men of letters of the time : William James, William Graham Sunner, Charles iiliot Biorce, Thorstoin Veblen, George Santayana, George W. Cable, 2L2

VJilliani Dean Howells and many other important writers. Twain's support to their cause was extremely import.^t because he was the most fcwious writer of the time and people were curious to know the great humorist's viewpoint on the burninq issue of the period, i.e. imperialism, Willi-JTi R. Macnaughton has rightly pointed out that though

it is impossible "to evaluate the precise influence of the statements Mgrk Twain made on a variety of issues during this period; yet it is almost certainly ture that — at least with respect to the American involvement in the Philippines — many people too tim.id to express their opinions before the publication of "To the person sitting in Darkness" gained courage after the essay appeared in the North American Review in the winter of 1901." His

articles influenced the itoerican foreign policy for the better and also helped to make the mir-sionaries do some kind of soul-searching.

The presidenti.il election of 19'^0 fresentcd before

Mirk -'w iip a real dilemn a. In this election the re;public^ns

fielded McKinely who was a piro-im.peri ilist while democrats'

candidate Bryan was also known for his active support to the

treaty of Paris. Twain did not exercise franchise in this

election as both the candidates were in favour of imperialism.

Later he talked about the formation of "Anti Doughnut Party," 2^/d

a party which will think and act independently of the Republicans and the Q'imocrats. Thus he recorded in a public speech ; "Not long ago we had two men running for the president. There was Mr McKinley on one hand and Mr Bryan on the other. If we'd have an ' Anti-Doughnut Party' neither would have been elected."

In February 1902, a large group of American citizens presented to the Congress a "petition from ounday citizens of the United States favouring the suspension of Hostilities in the Philippine Islands and a Discussion of the situation between the government and the Filipino Leaders." This petition was very enthusiastically signed by Mark Twain. However, by this time the anti-imperialist movement had fallen through mainly because of the reelection of McKinley on an openly imperialist platform. But Twain continued writing with the same fire and venom. His last published attacks on imperialism "In Defence of General Funston" and Kinc] Leopold' s_ S_oli_locjuy will convince anyone that he had not quite given up the hope to reform tne world with his 'mightier than sword' pen. Louis J. Budd aptly says that "his anti-imperialist writings alone should kill the notion that his old age was fogged with unrelieved and unralieving gloom." II The scope of Tw-iin's anti-imperialist writings is 2[A

t rcinendous. The whole subject of imperialism is viewed from diiizerent angles and the conclusion that the writer arrives at often points to the modern theories of imperialism. He finds that the state, missionary org.anisations and signi­ ficantly some individuals also are the chief agents that spread this menace in the world. Other theories of imperia­ lism as implied in his work include imperialism as the logical extension of capitalism; imperialism as a means of bringing the 'blessings' of civilization to the uncivilised people of the world and imperialism as the result of the natural urges of m in and by extension of nations as explainelby social Dirwinlsts. At times his analysis turns sciciological notinci the liLs.iStnDus results of the S'^lf-£)rocl aimed 'supe­ rior' race's contact with an 'inferior race'.

Twain was ver^' critical of the nations' efforts of manipulating the missionaries. The link between the missio­ naries and the gunboat was too obvious to be missed by a perceptive obseirver like Mark Twain. Some of the missiona­ ries like the Spanish friars who worked in Phi lippine^ were truly the secret agents of the .army. Infact Twain identified the game of Imperialism not only with missionaries or with one country' but rather with the whole of Chrietendom.

The main motive why Christendom was playing this game 2^J^ was the lust for huge profits to be gained by exploiting the we ik countries. The individual capitalists, states and various other organisations with missionaries acting as their tools most of the time were mainly interested in cheap labour, raw materials, enforceability of favourable tenrs of trade, job opportunities, coal mines and the new lands suitable for exploitation or settlement.

Analyzing the colonial process of the theft of lands. Twain feels that no country occupies even a foot of land that was not stolen. The major powers of the e?irth, England, France and Spain, have stolen each other's land so many times thit now thoy do not mind the loot of each other's territo­ ries. The territorial possession of America also consist of other people's land. Some of the lands like Af rLc j and China have been looted by Christen nations in such a manner as if they had bought them. However, all these misdeeds and crimes are forgotten over the years because the law of custom, which is decidedly the strongest, inures everyone to these crimes because "A crime preserved in a thousand centuries ceases to become a crime, and becomes a virtue. This is the law of custom, and custom supersedes all oth-)r forms of law. Christian governments are as f r ink today, as open and aboveboarJ in discussing projects for raidincj each others" clothlines as they were before the 2^ G

Golden Rule came smiling into this Inhospitabla world and 7 couli not get a night's lodging anywhere."

In a vary-powerful satiric piece "TcSthe person sitting in Darkness" Twain ta]«es tr task the whole Christendom for exploiting the poor nations relentlessly. Before the publi­ cation of this ossay in the North ^Vnerlcan Review in Feb­ ruary 1901/ Twain wrote a preface to iv entitled "A Greeting From the Nineteenth to the Twentieth Century", which appeared in the Nev\f York Herald of December 30, 1900. Twian wrote :

I bring you the stately nation named Chris­ tendom, returning bedragglerl, besmiched, and dishonoured from private raids in Kiaochou, Manchuria, South Africa and Philippines, with her soul full of meanness, her posket full of boodle, and her mouth full of hypo­ crisies. Give her soap and towel but hide the looking glass. 8

In "To the person..." Twain takes specific examples of missionaries looting In China. The texture of the essay consists of various reports taken from newspapers, quotations from members of the American Board of foreign missions and Tv/atn's own comments on the nature of the imperialistic lust. He especially dwells on the loot masteirminded by Rev. Mr. Ament of the Am3rican Boar3 of foreign missions who very cruelly collected indemnities from Chinese people for damages ^ne by the boxers. ?j:n

Twain's use o£ italics for certain details concer­ ning the glaringly crlminil activity of Mr Ament m^ikes this ess-iy all the more powerful. This is also Twiin's method of making a dull newspaper report full of ironical conno­ tations. Thus quoting from the Sun of New York Twain gives the following description :

Syerywhere he went he compelled the Chinese to pay. He says that alT his native Ghrlst'ians are now provided f6r. He had 700 of them under his charge, and 300 were killed. He has collected 300 taels for each of these murders, and has compelled full payment for all the pro­ perty belonging to Ghristj.-ans that was destroyed. He also assessed f ines amounting to THIRTSi2N TIMES the amount of indemnity. This money will be used for the propoqation of the Gospel. Mr Ament declares that the compen­ sation he has collected is moderate when compared with the amount secured by the Gatholics, who demand, in addition to money, head for head. They collect 500 taels for each murder of a Catholic. In the Wenchiu country, 680 Catholics were killed and for this the European Gatholics here demand 750,000 strings of cash and 680 heads. 9

However, Twain is not convinced by Mr Ament*s argu­ ments. To him this is simply a case of brutal exploitation of the poor. He comments :

Mr Ament's financial feat of squeezing a thirteenfold indemnity out of the pauper peasants to square other people's 2\ 8

o£ censes, thus condemning them and their women an-l innocent little children to inevitable starvation and lingering death, in order that the blood money so acquired might be "used for the propo gation of the Gospel", dot^s not flutter my serenity; although the act and the words, taken together, concrete a blas­ phemy so hideous and sr colossal that without doubt its mate is not find,able in the history oL this or of jny otlier age (p.'3 97-5 98) .

Twain is really enraged to see the greed of the Christ Uin nations in acquiring the vast wealth of China. In doing so they have been completely oblivious of the miseries of the common people of China who just c^nuot afford their high civilization. His remarks are Sail of Ironic li overtones ;

The blessings-o£-civilization Trust, wisely ^n 3 cautiously a.-lministered, is a Dairy . There is more money in it, more territory, more sovereignty and other kinds of emolument than there is in any other game that is played. But Christendom has been playing it badly of late years and must certainly suffer by it, in my opinion. She has been so eager to get -ivery stake that appeared on the green cloth that the people who sit in darkness have noticed it (p.S99) .

Tw lin Lashes ou ^ ^t lifferent cluropean nations for carrying on this 'loot business.' Thus he blames linglish colonial secretary Ch.imberl lin for starting the Boer War siir.piy to acquire the v ist w.-^alth of diamond mines 2(..n and black slave labour. "Mr Chamberlain manufactures a war out o£ materials so inadequate... and he tries hard to persuade him.self that it isn't purely a private raid for cash (pp. 500-501) ." On behalf of the person sitting in darkness Twain asks sarcastically ; "What 1 Christiain aqalnst Christian 7 And only for mone> (p. 600) ."

The German emperor Kaisar too partook of the loot after Germany lost two missionaries in a riot in Shantung. China had to pay heavy indemnities for it : a hundred thousand dollars apiece for them in money; twelve miles of territory containing several millions of inhabitants and worth twenty million dollars; and to build a monument and also a Christian Church. Twain's heart is full of sympathy for the underdog who saw this exploitation being carried out in a very helpless manner. Noting the reaction of the oppress Ji people Twain remarks : "He knows that a missionary is like any other man; he is worth merely what you can jupply his place for ^nd no more. He is useful, but so is 1 doctor, so is a sheriff, so is an editor; but a just emp'^ror io-^s not charge war prices for such (p. 602) . "

Russia is also guilty of playing the s>ajne ruthless and dishonest g>.^)ie simiily to g iin huge profits. Thus Russi i robs Japan of her hari-earned spoil; seizes Manchuria and ;:Mi

raids its villages like a vulture — all with the moral assistance o£ other European nations. . Twain very scorn­ fully records the probable reaction of the exploited people: "It is yet another civilized power, with its banner of the prince of peace in one hand and its loot basket and its butcher knife in the other (p.604) ."

Twain's portrayal of mission?irles as the tools of imperialists in their pillage and plunder of China anta­ gonised a great number of people in the United States. He' received hundreds of letters accusing him of looting the pure Christian character and condemning him for arraigning Christianity and the missionary causes. He also received a note from Rev Dr Juc^son 3. Smith, corresponding secr-^tairy of the American Board of Foreign Missions, asking him to apologise as "fines thirteen times the indemnity" was a cable error for "fines one third the indemnity."

Twain was irk ad by this unwarranted criticism and wrote "To My Missionary Critics," a defence of his attacks- on William Ament and the activities of missionary board in China. In this essay Twain repeated all those charges that he had brought against the missionaries in "To the person sitting in Darkness." He put the American Board in very embarrassing position for justifying Mr Ament* s action on 2\i

the ground that he had collected the fines only one and one third the correct amount and not thirteen times the indemnity. He very scathingly asks :

What was tjie "one third extra" ? Money due ? No. Was it a theEt then ? Putting aside the 'one third extra', what was th" remainder o£ the exacted indemnity, if ::ollected from persons not known to owe it, and without Christian and c_vilized forms of procedure ? Was it theft, it was robbery ? In America it would be that; in Christian Europe it would be that. I have great confidence in Dr. Smith's judgement concerning this detail, and he calls it "theft and exertion" — even in China; for he was talking about the "thirteen times" at the time that he gave it that when you make guilty and innocent villagers pay the appraised damages, and then make them pay thirteen times, that besides, the thirteen stand for "theft and extortion." Then what does one third extra stand for ? Will he give that one thifd a n<3me 7 Is it Modified Theft and Extortion ? Is that it ? The girl who was rebuked for having borne an illegitimate child ejcrused herself by saying "But it is such a little one. 10

With the publication of this attack the reputation of the missionary board took a real nosedive but it won Twain many admirers. Thus J^dward 3. Mertin, the noted reformer of Tis time remarked, "How great it is to feel that we have a man among us who understands the rarity of plain truth, and who delights to utter it, and has the gift of 2 ^. ''i

11 doing so without cant."

One of Twain's most trenchant ati;icks on imperialism i s ^ijig. Ji?_oj2ol.rl_V'5^ J3ql_i_l qquy ;^ A Defense of ^qn_qo__R]ij_.l_e which appeared in 1905. Aided and abetted by Belgian parliament. King Leopold of Belgium took control of Congo free state to extenninate poverty and introduce civilization and trade into tho centre o£ Africa. However he very sh.Tmelessly took in his personal possession all the vacant lands and their produce and started looting and killing the para­ llel of which can not be found in history. Twain is deeply diSfjuGtod to see the brutal exploit ition of the Congo people for the sake of money. He notes :

It seems strange to see a King destroying a nation and laying waste a country for mere sordid money' s sake, and solely and only for that. Lust of conquest is royal... ll'lt-. JLlS't-Q.^. money -— lust ^f _shil l^ln^gs — liTst of_ dirty coin, not for the nation's enrichment but for the king* s alone — this is new. It distinctly revolts us, we cannot seem to reconcile ourselves to it, W'-; re.sent. it, we despite it, we say it is sii ibby, unkingly, out of character. 12

The .analycLs of the imperialistic lust for money and the resultant exploitation of weak nations is not only to be found in Twain's prose pieces but also in his poetry written during this period. Thus in a twenty line "Battle Hymn of the Republic" Twain criticizes America's new imperialism : Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the Idunching of the sword; He is searching out the hoardings where the strang.-^r's wealth is stored; He hdth loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored; His lust is marching on. 13 III Another theory of imperialism based on moral grounds and the one emphasizing the necessity of imperialist rule for bringing the blessings of civilization to the inferior rac^s is .il.so well treated by Mark Tw

Twain describes the activities of the Snglish and French imperialist rulers in Australia in Following the jjlqu at or. The imperialist rulers apparently trying to bring light in the life of the ignorant people, make their life hell with their 'superior civilization.' Their methods are very cruoi iud they do not hove any regard for the customs, traditions ind the institutions of the natives. The net result is the race war, universal sacrifice and the extermi­ nation of tlie native population something which always 214 accompanies the colonizing process.

Twain notes the practice of slave-trading in Aust­ ralia, New Caledonia and other islands of the oouth Pacific ocear. Writing about the recruiting of Kanakas, he rails against the Queensland government for forcing them to leave their profitable plantation in Hftwaii ant" to work for them in their fields. Twain is enraged to see that the Queens­ land government exploits the cheap labour of the Kanaka by forcing him to work from dawn to dusk for a petty four shillings a week. Thus all the profit of this business goes to the white masters of the Kanaka who have gone there to civilize the native population.

With a sociologist's insight Mark Twain analyses the disastrous results of the imperialist ruler's policies on the social structure and the cultural patterns of the natives. The white im.perialists' attempts at civilizing the Kanakas, Tasmanians and Maoris, the natives of Newzea- land, have resulted in the breaking down of many of their institutions and customs. Twain feels that the close contact of the natives with their economically and milita­ rily superior rulers has changed their simple society into a stratified society .and the unfortunate natives themselves make a Ustinction between the superior white rulers and 215

the inferior natives. The imperialist master ;v)d his entire way of life is looked upon as something of immense value and he very often becomes a reference group for these natives. Their feeling of awe towards their white masters is further deepened by the ethnocentric behaviour of the latter. Moreover, Twain realizes, the willing adoption of many new ways by these natives means tiiC ab(andoning of many accepted customs. He gives the example of Kanakas who never felt ashamed of being naked feel now ashamed after they came in the contact of the white:,. Thus the adoption of many new ways has brought about a socio-cultural schism in the society of these natives. Moreover the adoption of new ways resulted in the creation of new problems the solu­ tion of which could not be perceived by the native within their culture.

In The Mysterious Stranger also Twain describes how "Christi mity and civilization march hand in hand lea­ ving famine rind death and desolation in their wake. (7 18)." The civilization that the whites are exporting looks attrac­ tive only on the surface and, as he points out in "To the person," inside "the b \le is the actual thing that the customer sitting in darkness buys with his blood and tears and land and liberty (-500) ." The result is, he continues in the same vein, that these persons are "getting too scarce — 2.1 ^3

too scarce and too shy"(599).

The results of the imperialists' efforts to civi­ lize the Boers in South Africa were also fatal. In a short piece "The Dervish and the offensive stranger," the stranger, very obviously the mouthpiece of Twain, comnents: "By help of three hundred thous.and soldiers and eight hundred million .iollars England has succeeded in her good purpose of lifting the unwilling Doers and making them better and purer and happier than they could ever have become by their own devices." Then he adds sarcastically "But there are only 14 eleven Boers left now." Twain takes to task Cecil Rhodes, the man responsible for the extermination of the Boers. He very mercilessly robbed, murdered and enslaved the whole Boer popjulation and his method of reducing the native population was a return to the old time 'slow misery* and 'lingering death system.' Twain's final portrait of Cecil Rhodes is full of ironical overtones : "There he st.ands, u^pon his dizay summit... the marvel of the time, the mystery of the age, an Archangel with wings to half of the world, Satan with a tail to the other half : "I admire him,' I frankly confess it, and when his time comes I shall buy a piece of the rope for a keepsake." 2.11

But Cecil Rhodes is no match for King Leopold of the Congo in his cruelty, brutality and mercilessness. Twain describes how King Leopold got possession of the Congo Free State by pilgrimiming among the U.S. and other Suropen powers with his mouth full of the sayings of the Bible "and his'pelt oozing piety at every pore. The reason that Leopold gives to become the agent of these powers is to "root out slavery and stop the slave raids, and lift up those twenty five millions of gentle and harmless blacks out of darkness into light, the light... that makes glorious our noble civili­ zation Cp- 2) ." But instead of bringing the blacks out of darkness, Leopold has made their life a hell and they face death in their life. Maxwell Geismer rightly considers Belgian reign in the Congo under King Leopold "as the dark rehearsal for the Nazi terror in Europe." 15 King Leopold's act of reducing the native population can not be properly described in words. With the help of many reports published in various newspapers. Twain compares Leopold with such tyrants as Attila, Torquemada, Genghis Khan and Ivan the terrible. At last. Twain feels, he has only one match in history — the flood. Twain has King Leopold speaking in person to prove his charge, Reading from a newspaper report King Leopold says i 21S

They go shuddering around brooding over the reduction of that Congo population from 25,000,000 to 15,000,000 in the twenty years of my administration; then they burst out and call me "the king with ten Million Murders on his soul." They call me a "record." Then most of them do not stop with charging merely the 10,000,000 against me. No, they reflect that but for me the population, by natural increase, would now be 90,000,000, so they charge another 5,000,000 against me and make my total death-harvest 15,000,000. (p.41)

All these examples of butchery made Twain a strong critic of the very idea of bringing the blessings of civi­ lization. He expresses his contempt for this concept in very powerful words in "To the person."

Shall we ? that is, shall we go on conferring our civilization upon the peoples that sit in darkness, or shall we give those poor things a rest ? Shall we bang right ahead in our old time, loud pious way, and commit the new century to the game; or shall sober up and sit down and think it over fist ? (p. 598)

Twain does not believe in the inferiority of the 'less civilised races.' He rather takes a dig at the whole race for adopting a superior attitude towards the non-whites : "There are many humorous things in the world ; among them the white man's notion that he is 1-^es savage than the other savages." ^' 219 IV In Twain's writings is also implied a critical dis­ cussion of the Darwinian interpretation of imperialism. Such universal human emotions as fear^ the will to power^ pride, prestige, pugnacity and predacity have been said to be instrumental in the subjugation of unoccupied and also weakly governed lands. According to this school of thought, as defined by Encyclopaedia Britannic a, nature has made men unequal, and those endowed with superior qualities are des- tined to rule all others." 18 Like men nations are also unequal in their strength, power and resources and they must try to gain control of more and more land if they want to ensure their own existence.

This social darwinism largely shaped the conscious­ ness of Americans in the last quarter of the nineteenth cen­ tury in the form of the new manifest destiny. The time when A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur was written (1889), the ideas of new manifest destiny were very much in the air. In America the adoption, of the idea of the 'sur­ vival of the fittest' to society had been first effected by Herman Spencer but was made popular by the writings of William Graham Sumner and John Piske. Twain, however, it seems, viewed this idea with his characteristic scepticism. The protagonist of the novel A Connect!ent Yankee... is an epitome of the concept of manifest destiny, yet Twian does 2'..0 not wholly approve of his values. The point needs elabo­ ration .

Hank Morgan, the Connecticut Yankee transported thirteen centuries back in tiire typifies almost all the characteristics of the new manifest destiny ; sense of nationalism in the extension of the American systan from coast to coast; the sanction of geographical predestination; individualism under the protective direction of the federal government; moral ambition delegated by the mission of expansion and finally a "irm belief in the superiority of 19 intelligence. Hank Morgan's superior intelligence is quite acci­ dental as it is a result of his birth in the nineteenth century. With the help of this intelligence, he tries to impose the technological values of the nineteenth century America on 'an inferior race.' Acting like a true social darwinist he takes recource to his intelligence to confront a hostile environment. After his initial success, he tries to extend the American systan by expanding the territorial control which brings him in conflict with the Sstablished church which enjoyed aweful power in medieval times.

Two very distinguishing characteristics of the American Anglo-saxon race were its protestant Christianity and its 221

unlimited suffrage. Hank Morgan points to both :

I had tvro schemes in my head which were the vasted of all my projects. The one was, to overthrow the catholic church and set up the protestant church on its runs — not as an Established Church, but a go-as-you-please one; and the other project was, to get a decree issued by-and-by, commanding that upon Arthur's death unlimited suffrage should be introduced, and given to men and women alike — at any rate, to all men, wise or unwise, and to all mothers who at middle age should be found to know nearly as much as their sons at twenty one. (pp. 263-64)

Hank Morgan is very conscious of the superiority of the Anglo-saxon race and he constantly tries to assert that superiority in his efforts to extend the American system. "The assertion by thinkers of the 1880s that the natural selection process had resulted in a superior race of Anglo- saxony is illustrated in Morgan's condescension toward the

6th century English who are not as yet infected with saxony 20 blood which results in the superior Anglo-saxon mixture."

He regards the Knights' the representatives of an inferior race and demolishes the institution of Knight-errantry with the advanced weaponry at his disposal.

However, as pointed out earlier. Twain does not fully approve of the reformist tendencies of the Yankee. At best,he regards him as an imperialist who wishes to translate his 222

ideas into reality without regaird to the well-being of

his subjects. Through the presentation of his character

Twain is also trying to tell as to what happens when a pre-

industrial society comes into contact with the values of

an industrialized nation even though the policies of the

latter may be well-meaning and well-intentioned. Does it

produce imperialism ? Twain's answer seons to be in the

affirmative. In . fact, as Charles S. Holmes points out, "the

extravagance of his (Hank Morgan) buffoonery suggests

that Twain, like Swift, viewed his protagonist with some

irony. The Yankee is full of missionary zeal yet he has only contempt for the people he intends •.|;o salvage." 21 He wishes to establish a republic but he was also "beginning to have a base hankering to be its first president, (p. 264) . He wants to dispel cultural darkness and bring light in the life of the common people but his methods of civilizing these people are very cruel and he never realizes his cruelty. Thus he establishes a total dictatorship; bosses the country ruthlessly; kills persons at will and ends knight»errantry in a very he-artless manner. In James W. Gargano's opinion the Yankee "with the best intentions and every modem resource at his command turns into one of the worst butchers in history

— beginning as a pacific revolutionary and a benign savior, 22 he ends as an almost sadistic annihilator of his enemies." 22^

The failure of Yankee's mission partly because of the contradictions inherent in his personality and partly because of the refusal of the human race to change also brings into focus Mark Twain's: determinism. Perhaps the redemption of the, human race is .not possible because It is not amenable to reason and progress. The same deterministic outlook characterizes another of Twain's anti-imperialist writing, "In Defense of General Funston."

"In Defense of General Punston", his last anti- imperialist writing until 1905 was published during that dark period of his life when he was working on "What is Man" and The Mysterious Stranger, Punsto.< was a very popular milit,ary figure after his capture of Aguinaldo, the Filipino leader whom Mark Twain held in high esteem. He achieved this victory by using 'forgeries and falsehoods.' However, Twain does not find fault with Punston the military general as much as with Punstons, or the human race that produces them. The disposition of man is not made by man himself and so he is morally irresponsible for his actions :

He did not make his own disposition. It was bom with him. It chose his ideals for him, he did not choose them. It chose the kind of society It liked, the kind of comrades It preferred, and imposed than upon him, rejecting the other kinds; he could not help this; It admired every­ thing that Washington did not admire, and 2^M

hospitably received and coddled every­ thing that Washington would have turned out of doors — but It, and It only, was to blame, not Funston; Its moral sense. If It had any, was' color-blind, but this was no fault of Punston's and he is not chargeable with the results; It had a native predilection for unsa­ vory conduct, but it would be in the last degree unfair to hold Funston to blame for the outcome of his infirmity; as clearly unfair as it would be to blame him because his conscience leaked out through one of his pores when he was little — a thing which he could not help, and he couldn't have raised it, anyway. 2 3 V In addition to various theories of imperialism discussed above, Twain's writings also provide an insight into the nature of some of the forces that precipitate impe­ rialism. He especially singles out patriotism as the most important activating force behind imperialism. Twain was called a traitor for his support to the Anti-Imperialist League. He replied to this charge by making a pointed distinction between a patriot and a traitor. In his essay "As Regards Patriotism" he termed patriotism "merely a religion — love of country, worship of country, devotion to the country's flag and honour and welfare. While this kind of patriotism is furnished from the throne in absolute monarchies, in England and America "it is cut and dried, 24 to the citizen by the politician and the newspaper." 2;:^ 5 The irony implied in the last sentence suggests that Twain seriously thought that the intense propaganda carried out by newspapermen — as was done by Hearts in the 25 case of i^eric an-Spanish War — could cause wars. He was particularly very sceptical of the majority patriotism of his time. "The soul and substance of what customarily ranks as patriotism is moral cowardice." The average citizen neither reasoned out matters of moral right or wrong nor cared to hear the voice of his conscience but simply followed the majority. In another essay "Glances at History" Twain points out that "each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong and which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man." Thus Twain's contemporaries who were supporting the unjust Philippines war were trailers and not patriots in the real sense of the word. Although Twain talks of acting according to one's conscience he does make one concession about it. The people must support the country, if the life of the republic is in danger. But Philippines and China did not pose any threat to America and hence the support to America's action against them meant treachery and not patriotism. It was becase Twain's type of loyalty was : 2'iG

Loyalty to one's country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. The country is the real thing... institutions are extraneous, they are its mere clothing, and clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable, cease to protect the body from winter, disease and death. To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags, to worship rags, to die for rags — that is a loyalty of unreason... under that gospel the citizen who thinks he sees that the commonwealth' s political clothes are worn out, and yet holds his peace and does not agitate for a new shirt, is disloyal; he is a traitor (p. 69) .

VI A study of Twain's views on imperialism will remain incomplete if it does not take into account his attitude towards different imperialist powers of his time. A pecu­ liar fact that emerges from his various writings is that he viewed i^erican and English imperialism in a slightly diffe­ rent light. It is not to suggest that he did not oppose England or America — he in .fact lambasted at the English and American imperialists in the most fierce language as the previous discussion suggests — rather he maintained a love-hate relationship with the imperialism of the English- speaking countries.

Twain never had any doubt about the evil nature of French imperialism, "the nation which gave us the Reign of 28 T2rror to read about." Spanish imperialism is also 2c7 analyzed in the same black and white terms. He considers Spain a nation which "drenched the New World in blood, and earned and got the name of the Nation with the Bloody Footprint... how her holy Inquisition imported hell into the earth; how she was the first to institute it and the 29 last to give it up — and then only under compulsion." Viewing German imperialism in the same terms he is of the view that Germany will oppress only weak nations like China. He very bitterly asks in "To the Person"i would Germany do like this to America, to England, to Prance, to Russia ? or only to China, the helpless — imitating the elephant's assault upon the field mice (p,603)"? Twain asks sarcasti­ cally. But American and English imperialism is not viewed in these black and white terms. When he deals with French or Spanish imperialism he dwells at length on the history of these countries giving examples of their greed and rapa­ city. But American history always served him examples of liberty, equality and justice, in fact Twain was deeply upset when he realised that his beloved country had tuimed imperialist. He very painfully parted with one very che­ rished illusion of his life t his country stood for democ­ racy and it was unaffected by the European lust of land- grabbing. What could he do in this situation ? His answer 2c^

was in the form of scathing articles. "The main task as he saw was to convince Americans that their new empire was corroding the virtues of their old republic." 30 He also had a strange and unscientific argument to account for the new' U. S, • imperialism ; America had imported the whole spirit of patriotism and imperialism from monarchial Europe. He was also of the view that his country was gradually sweeping torwards the monarchial system.

Unlike his analysis of French or Spanish Imperialism Twain's analysis of American imperialism is characterized by his constantly revised opinions. Thus in the essay "to the person..." he compares American imperialism with European imperialism and makes a distintion between the two Americas : one America conforming to Twain's ideals of equality, justice and liberty and the other America — imperialistic, oppressor and one tainted by European frenzy of land-grabbing. Supporting America's involvement in Cuba and criticizing its interference in Philippines Twain observes : "There must be two Americas, one that sets the captive free, and one that takes a once-captiva's new freedom away from him, and picks a quarrel with him with nothing to found it on, then kills him to get his land (p. 60 6) ." 2c9

Another example of Twain's revisionism is suggested by his altered views about the role of the Unites States in th2 Congo after the publication of King Leopold' s Soliloquy. At the time of writing this pamphlet Twain had thought that the United States was legally and morally bound by a treaty to help in the management of the Congo affairs. The pamphlet while criticizing King Leopold's brutalities in the Congo, accused the United States of not playing the role expected of it. However, Twain's visit to Washington to attend the state departmental conference made him see the role of his country in a new light. He realized that his country was not pledged to look after King Leopold's activities. How­ ever, this realization rendered many passages of the pamphlet pernicious as well as irrelevant.

The same ambivalence is reflected in his treatment of British imperialism. Though he could criticise Chamber­ lain and Cecil Rhodes for their manufacture of the Boer War and could lash out at the British for their extermination of •savages' in South Africa and Australia, he had a love-hate relationship with Britain and its ideals throughout his life, He somehow regarded English imperialism as lesser evil.

Following the Equator is full of passages reflecting Twain's pro-British stance. His praise of Kipling and 2:^0 approval of British raj in India will hardly convince a modern reader of the book. He compares the India under Hindu and Mohammaden irulers with British India and concludes that instead of facing many miseries as Indians did under those rulers, they now enjoy protections and humanities. The establishment of British supremacy in India has been the most fortunate thing for Indians. He regarded the British very merciful people, the best kind to bring civilization to the savage peoples by colonizing the globe.

He did not find any fault with the Indian princes or their English masters and had great praise for Clive and Warren Hastings. "He seems to have envisioned Warren Hastings, back in the previous century, as a sort of modem messiah bringing enlightened government to a benighted people." Despite his many faults. Twain thought, the best service that Hastings did to Indians was that he firmly attached India to the British' empire.

In this analysis of the mutiny of 1857 also. Twain is on the side of the British, not the Indians. He sounds almost anglophiliac in his praise of the British in suppre­ ssing this mutiny successfully :

The military history of England is old and great but I think it must be granted 2:U

that the crushing of mutiny is the greatest chapter in it,., It would take montl^to inform England and get help, but they did not falter or stop to count the odds but with English resolution and English devotion they took up their task, and went stubbornly on with it... and won it thoroughly. 32

It is true that Mark Twain fully supported the Boers in their war against British imperialists spearheaded by Cecil Rhodes. However, the voice of his intellect was telling him that England should not lose this war. When William Dean Howells wrote to him that the last chapter of Following the Equator which contained the discussion of war, will not be well received by Twain's admirers in England, Twain replied :

This is a sordid and criminal war, and in everyway shameful and excuseless. Everyday I write (in my head) bitter magazine articles about it, but I have to stop with that. For England must not fall; it would mean an inundation of Russian and German political degra­ dation which would envelop the globe and steep it in a sort of Middle-Age night and slavery which would not last until Christ comes again, Elven wrong — and she is wrong — England must be upheld. 33

In fa^t it may be conjectured from his overall response to the war, as gathered from many of his getters not meant for publication, that "had it not been for Cecil Rhodes, Mark 232

Twain might immediately have sided with the British." However, this particular Englishman did not have the tradi­ tional sense of honour, justice and f airplay which Twain associated with the British,

Mark Twain's stay in England in 1899 and 1907 when the Oxford University conferred doctorate degree upon him, and the hearty welcome accorded to him also contributed a lot to his favourable opinion of the British in the last years of his life. Thus he was very happy to see the unity of England and America as a result of the Spanish- American War, He very proudly announced that this kind of unity had always been his dream : "since England and America have been joined together in Kipling, may they not 35 be severed in Twain." In 1907 in his last trip to England, Twain praised the British Colonialistsfor their love of liberty. In his opinion England should have got its due for being the first country to free slaves. He implored the Americans to respect their honourable mother country and spoke of England as "the Venerable Mother of Liberties, the Champion and Protector of Anglo-Saxon freedom." 233

NOTES AND R2FERSNCSS

1. Quotad by Philip S. Foner, Mark .Twain .; _Social Gjritic, op.cit., pp. 241-242.

2. Quoted by William M. Gibson, "Mark Twain and Howells: Anti-imperial!St", New England Quarterly, Vol,XX (1947), No.4 (December), p.437.

3. New York Herald, October 16, 1900, reprinted in Life as I Find It, Charles Neider (ed.) , (New York, 1961) , pp. 334-335.

4. William R. Macnaughton, Mark _Twain' s Last ^Years ^as a Writer (Missouri, 1979), pp.141-42.

5» Mark Twain ; Social Critic, op.cit., p.263.

6. Louis J. Budd, Mark JIVain. ,;. Social ^Philosopher, Bloomington, 19 51) , p. 188.

7. Mark Twain, £QlJjqwi£g_the_Egy_ato^_ll_ in The Collected Works jof _Mark _Twain, 25 vols, Arthur's National Edition (New York, 1899), p.322. (Hereafter this work is referred to as Collected) .

8. Albert B. Paine, Mark Twain : A riography (New York, 1912) , III, p.1127.

9. Mark Twain, "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" in The Portable Mark Twain, op.cit., p.595. (Further references to this essay are incorporated in the text)t 234

10. Charles Eeider (ed.) , Complets Essays of Mark Twain, (New York, 19 63) , pp. 30 4-5. (Hereafter this work is called Essays) .

11, Quoted in Mark Twain ; Social Critic, op.cit., p.282.

12 Mark Twain, King Leopold* s Soliloquy ; A Defense of Congo Rule (London, n.d.), pp.69-70. (Page numbers of the further references to this work are incorpora­ ted in the text) .

13. Arthur L. Scott, On the Poetry of Mark Twain with Selection from his Verse, (Urbana, 1966), p.34.

14. Essays, p.589.

15. Following the Equator, 11, Collected, p.404.

16. Maxwell Geism.er, Mark Twain ; An American Prophet, (Boston, 1909), p.222.

1^ • Following the Equator 1, Collected, p. 216.

18. Encyclopaedia Britannic a. Vol. XI I, p.

19. Nancy S. Oliver, "New Manifest Destiny in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", MTJ, Vol.XXI (198 3) , No.4 (Pall) , p.28.

20. Nancy S. Oliver, "New Manifest Destiny in A Connec- ticu_t Yankee, op.cit., p. 28.

21. Charles S, Holmes, "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court : Mark Twain's Fable of Uncertainty", The South Atlantic Quarterly, Vol.LXI (19 62), No.4 (Autumn) , p. 4 63. 23r)

22. James W. Gargano, "Mark Twain's Changing Perspec­ tives on the Past", 3AQ, Vol.X)?:: (1981), No.4 (Autunnn) , p.461.

23. Mark Twain, "In Defence of General Punston", in Your Personal Mark Twain ; A Collection of Works, Berlin, 19 60), p.191-92.

24. Essays, p.567.

25. Mr. Hearst, printing as many as 40 editions of the New York Jouimal everyday, published false details of Spanish atrocities in Cuba and convinced the public opinion in favour of a war against' Spain.

2 6. Mark Twain's Notebooks, A.B. Paine (ed.) , (New York, 19 35), p. 394.

27. Mark Twain, "Glances at History"! in A Pen Warmed-up in Hell, Frederick Anderson, (ed.) , (New York, 197 2) , p.34, 28. Mark Twain, "A Word of Encouragement for our Blushing Exiles'* in Essays, p. 683.

29. Ibid., p.684. 30. Arthur L. Scott, Mark Twain at Large (Chicago, 19 69), p.257. 31. Ibid., p. 198.

32. Mark Twain, Following the Equator (Connecticut, 1897) , p. 550. 286

33. Quoted by William M. Gibson, "Mark Twain and Howells: Anti-imperialists". New England Quarterly, op.cit., pp.441-42.

34. Arthur L. Scott, Mark Twain at Large, op.cit,, p.221.

35. Quoted by Louis J. Budd, Mark Twain: Social Philoso­ pher, op.cit., p.175.

36. Albert B. Paine, Mark Twain ; A Biography, III, op.cit., p.1398. CHAPTER VI

CONCLUSION 2:^8

The previous chapters stressed the role of Mark Twain as a thinker and reformer on a number of issues : religion, philosophy, science and politics. His views on these subjects changed gradually and thvire is a definite watering-down of his early convictions in his later work. Many factors account for these changes. Towards the end of his literary career, he faced many personal tragedies : business failure and the death of his daughter. Moreover, the time also changed for him with many developments taking place in the world : the growth of scientific thought, menacingly growing materialism and the imperialist lust for colonies. The most important factor, however, was the intellectual maturity of Mark Twain which made him. see things in a new perspective. It is for these reasons that the mood, tone and the perspective of The Mysterious Stranger is totally different from The Innocents Abroad's.

Iri The Innocents Abroad, Twain's first literary work, the reader meets a mild but serious critic of religion. The narrator of this book is critical of the organized Church and the unchristian behaviour of Christians who follow the letter of religion rather than its spirit. In A Connecticut Yankee and Joan of Arc also he takes to task the false 2:^3

Christianity and exposes the evils of the Organized Church. He shows how the Organized Church reduced common people to a' life of misery and victimized even a perfect individual like Joan of Arc. Highly critical though Twain is In these works, his censure is mingled with his praise of the Bible and Christ. He praised the Bible eloquently in The Inno­ cents Abroad and showered encomiums on Christ calling him the 'prince of peace* and the 'saviour of all people.' In fact he sketched the character of Joan of Arc in the mould of Christ,

Significantly this element of praise is missing in his works written just before his death. "Reflections" and Letters from the Earth which were published after his death, make this point veiry clear. In these works Twain very bitterly pounces at all things religious. He denies the divinity of Christ, charges Bible of obscenity and a lack of originality, challenges the moral foundations of the Christianity and calls the real God unjust, unmerciful, vindictive and above all one who derives sadistic pleasure by inflicting torture on the innocent and helpless human beings. In a way the genial critic of The Innocents Abroad was lost somewhere in the vitriolic diatribes of the embit­ tered atheist and nihilist in these works. ;^40

Twain's writings are characterized by his ambivalent attitude towards all things in life. This ambivalence manifests itself in his treatment of the myth of progress and the theme of primitivism. Works like The Innocents Abroad, second part of Life on the Mississippi and A Connecticut Yankee suggest that he embraced the doctrine of material progress. The narrator of The Innocents Abroad who undertakes a trip to Europe and the Holy Land views everything with his materialistic yardstick and is disgusted to see dirt, decay and degradation in the Holy Land. In the Life on the Mississippi Twain is all praise for the new burgeoning civilization of America. The new face of America with its remarkable industrial progress wins him more than the worn-out institutions of the South. More than these, A Connecticut Yankee clearly shews that the nine­ teenth century America devoted to science ond technology is better than the sometimes glorified Middle Ages. Hank Morgan, the protagonist of this novel, epitomizes the spirit of the nineteenth century America.

However, in his later fiction Twain came to have doubts about this whole business of progress. Following the Equator does not present a very rosy picture of history. Joan pf Arc suggests that Twain lost belief .in the ^redemptive >:4i value of history. As if it was not enough. The Mysterious Stranger exhibits a very ghastly and heart-rending view of history. There has not been any progress but simply, wars, wars and wars.

Even when he fully believed in the myth of progress, a streak of primitivism cried out within him for expression and hence his special liking for the essentially good human beings endowed with the folk wisdom of a Huckleberry Finn and free from the cant and hypocrisy of the • sivllized* Aunt Pollys and Miss Watsons. He sketched a number of memorable characters who are innately good and virtuous but are faced with a Ixjstile environment. Tom, Laura before her seduction, Huck, King Edward and Joan are some of these characters who are pitted against a hostile society. They try to confront the world with their goodness but most of the time their goodness does not prove equal to the dominant valuesof society. By the time of writing his last important fictional work. The Mysterious Stranger, Twain lost belief even in the innate goodness of man. The most important reason why mankind is always shedding blood is the innate depravity of man.

This ambivalence leads to much complexity of meaning in some single v^jrks of Mark Twain. The criticism of the 'M2

old Masters and the praise o£ renaissance artists in The Innpcents Abroad makes it difficult for the reader to form judgement about his appreciation of art. His other important work. Life on the Mississippi is a blend of contraries. The idealization of the village society of his youth in the first section of the novel is imrrediataly followed by his strong-worded approval of the new industrial culture of the United States.

' This new industrial culture of the United States is identified with Hank Morgan the protagonist of A Connecticut Yankee,. This book presents the best example of Twain's ambivalent attitude towards man's potential and capacity in general and the nineteenth century civilization of the United States in particular. Though Twain establishes the supe­ riority of the nineteenth century civilization over the sixth century civilization, he was also aware of the destiruction that was latent in the civilization of his time. Moreover, Hank Morgan was but a man, cursed with an imperious desire for power. The awareness of Twain of the basic weaknesses of human nature coupled with his scepticism about the worth of the new culture of the nineteenth century bring about the fall of his promeathean hero and thereby of the civilization he personified. ;^43

Some of his other works are also characterized by his ambivalent attitude. Joan of .Arq is noted for Twain's sentimental love for Joan, Yet in the same book the narrator's scepticism about Joan's voices and the reasons for her death render the meaning of the novel very complex. One is not quite sure whether Joayi, of Arc is a pessimistic novel or there is an optimistic note in it. ^" The Mysteriou3_ Stryig^er, on the other hand, he presents two world-views contrary to each other : Chrsitian and Scientific. Although both these world-views are consistent in themselves. Twain judges Christianity with scientific viewpoint and the scientific world view from Christian angle.

Not confined to his fictional works, this ambiva­ lence also marks his analysis of imperialism in Following ill®^?.9y.'ito£ ^^^ some of his essays. Thus he very bitterly criticized the British imperialists in Australia and South Africa. In fact he launched a very bitter attack against Cecil Rodes, the leader of the imperialists in South Africa, But strangely Tw^in approved of the British rule in India and very glowingly praised the military might of the British and their qualities of mind in suppressing the Indian Mutiny successfully. 241

The anti-imperialistic writings produced in the last phase of his career highlight his role as a political thinker and more importantly that of a reformer. In various pamphlets like King, Leqpqld'^3_ .So_14\.9-^"-Y' Czar'_s Soliloqu^y and essays like, "lb the Person Sitting in Darkness'* Twain lambasted the imperialist powers : Germany, Russia, England, Prance and Spain. He also took to task his own country the United States for its role in Philippines, In his analysis of imperialism he sometimes clearly points out while at others implies all modern theories about imperia­ lism : imperialism as an extension of capitalism, imperia­ lism for selling civilization to the savages of the 'white man's burden' concept and finally imperialism explained in Darwinian terms. These anti-rimperialistlc writings greatly shaped the public opinion and also the foreign policy of his country.

However, a thinker and a reformer that he was, he was not a thinker and reformer in the ordinary sense of the words. He thought but did so in literary terms-in terms of metaphor, symbol, imagery and setting. He tried to reform, but not like other reformers whose ideas lose their relevance with the passage of time. As an artist he could not have expressed himself directly. He adopted many masks and experimented with various points of view to clothe the destruction of his targets. Mention may be made of at least three recurrent masks through which Twain the social critic judged various things. In his early writings he adopts the persona of a fool who is ignorant of everything going around him but comes up with very valid observation. In some of his later works — A Tramp Abroad and the anti- imperialistic writings — Twain plays a grumbler who is out to criticize anything very savagely. The third important mask that Twain adopted was that of an empowered persona­ lity, a kind of transcendent figure who rises above" the action and has a very privileged existence. Hank Morgan, Colonel Sherbum and Satan fit this category. Through this mask is expressed Twain's cynicism and despair of humanity.

Twain's humour, generally considered to be the single most important characteristic of his work, further enhances the appeal of his work. In his case humour and social criticism are fully identified. His humour also assumes different forms in different works reflecting his changing vision of life. In his earlier writings he relies on burlesque, exaggeration and his famous deadpan expre­ ssion. His later writings are, on the other hand, marked by the bleak and cynical humour which was in keeping with his 246 personal despair and cynicism. The inaxirrs of Pu_dd' nhead. Wi 1 son or the Utterances of Satan In The Myst,erious Stranger^ intended to be humorous, present a very bitter and insane brand of humour.

However, Twain's concern with art — in the field of point of view, persona or humour, — helped him in transmuting his ideas into art forms. It is for this reason that the refoorm motive that informs his writings appeals not to discursive reason but to the imagination of the reader. All great literature is propogandist and reformist in the sense that it unmi6takabl,y appeals to the imagination of the reader by distributing and then realinging sympathies in art forms. Twain's work is no exception. He talked about the life of his time but in artistic terms. He touched some universal human problems but through his varied persona. In this sense he was an artist and thinker and reformer as a result. SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 248

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