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1979 From Selflessness to Selfishness: Various Types of Deception in Four of Twain's Novels Kay L. Smith Eastern Illinois University This research is a product of the graduate program in English at Eastern Illinois University. Find out more about the program.

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Date Author

pdm From Selflessness to Selfishness:

-

Various Types of Decept ion in Four of Twain 's Novels (TITLE)

BY

Kay L. Smith - -

THESIS

SUBMITIED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS

FOR THE DEGREE OF

Ma ster of Arts in English

IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL, EASTERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY

CHARLESTON, ILLINOIS

1979 YEAR

I HEREBY RECOMMEND THIS THESIS BE ACCEPTED AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE GRADUATE DEGREE CITED ABOVE

ADVISER

DEIARit'Ml'lT HBIU> From Selflessness to Selfishness :

Various Types of Deception in Four of Twain 's Novels

Thes is Abstract

An interes�ing feature of �ark Twain's The Prince and the

Pauper, The Ad ventures of Huckleberry Finn , A Connecticut Yan­ . kee in King Arthur 's Court , and Th e Tragedy of Pudd 'nhead 1,·/ilson

is the use of disguise and deception. The basis of much of the novels' act ions concerns people who , for varied reasons , set out to fool other people. Other individuals or groups of people 2re self-deceived .

Mot ivations for the decept ion vary. Some ent2il selfl ess concerns of protecting a loved one. Some illustrate des ires

to maintain one 's own safety and wel l-being. Still others in­ volve negative , base qualities such as greed , lust for power

or glory , revenge, or a false sense of tradit ion.

In Tw ain's earl iest novel , The Prince and the Pauoer, the main deception occurs when two boys , curious about each other's

lifestyles and desirous to be rid of their seemingly confining

existences , change places . Though neither c�n completely ad­

just to his new mode of life, because of the reversal-deception

the prince becomes initiated into the injust ices thrust upon

the poor. So when he is reinstated as royalty, he demonstrates

a humane kindness to such unfortun�te victims. The pauper lea rns

of the burdens of power. Thus , the deception serves to enlighten

:!8l!.:]8<) the participants and render them more cApable of understanding

their fellow men. Other decept ions in the novel include a greed-based one · perpetrated by Hugh Hendon and a self-preser­ vative one, deal ing with thieves forced to wear foreign garments

so . they will not be detected and impri·soned for their poverty. In Huckleberry Finn deceit can be seen in Huck , who wears

various disguises 2nd dons different names in order to protect

either himself or Jim. Decept ion is depicted in the pseudo­

royal duke and king , who swindle townsfolk and ultimately sell

the black man for forty dollars. A striking deception is dis­

played by the Grangerfords 2nd Shepherdsons. The ir outward

gentility masks an inner corruption and brutality based on an

irrational be1ief in trad ition.· Huck 's companion, Tom Sawyer ,

exemplifies a .person self-deceived. His unfeeling attitude

toward Jim , whose life he playful ly puts in danger, comes

from a glory-seeking mind which can no longer distinguish fact

from fiction.

In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur 's Court Hank Mor­

gan 's personal ity contains a mixture of deceptions. First he

prevaricates and produces the eclipse "miracle" in order to

preserve his own life. As time passes , he. becomes more inter­

ested in maintaining the deception of being "Boss" in order to

heighten his power. Ultimately in conceiving that his nineteenth­

century technology will overrule the Arthurians ' superstitions ,

he is self-deceived. Other deceptions in the work include the

facade of the knights in shining armor and Arthur 's wearing of

peasant attire. In the latter the king , unlike the prince and the pauper, seems relatively unaffected by the plight of the poor.

In the last novel examined , Pudd 'nhead Wilson , there is a reversal in identities between Tom Driscoll and Valet de

Chambre. But unlike the switch in The Prince and the Pauper, this reversal is long-termed and is done without the knowledge of the ones involved . No insightful awareness or und erstand ing comes as a result of the revelation of the two young men 's true identities. Rather, a totally negative sense of injustice reigns. Roxy, the instigator of the deception , acts mainly out of selfless motives but is finally self-deceived nonetheless.

Her son employs various disguises to hide his greed. Like the

Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons , the townsfolk of Dawson 's

Landing wear a giant mask of respectability under which lurks corruption. Pudd 'nhead Wilson must suffer from the denizens ' plac ing of a "disguise" upon him as the town dunce. But unfor- tunately he lives up to the rol e.

In the first three novels there seems to be some wee small cry of hope for man to escape from the negative dis- guises 2nd deceptions which surround him. In the last novel , however, no candle lights the way to human und erstand ing and sympathy.

Kay L. Smith Engl ish Department August 3, 1979 Table of Contents

• • • • • • • 1 Introduction • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Chapter

I. Decept ion in The Prince and the PauEer • • • • • • • 12

II. Decept ion in The Ad ventures of Huckleberry Finn • • 27

III. Deception in A Connecticut Yankee in ' King Arthur s Court • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 41

IV. Deception in The Tragedy of Pudd 'nhead Wilson • • • 53

Conclusion • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 73

Bibliography • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 77 From Selflessness to Selfishness :

Various Types of Deception in Four of Twain's Novels

Introduction

An interesting feature of Mark Twain's The Prince and

� Pauper, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut

Yankee 1n King Arthur's Court, and The Trage dy of Pudd 'nhead

Wilson is the use of disguise and deception. The basis of much of the novels' actions concerns people who, for varied reasons, set out to fool other people. Some of the deceit takes on the form of pretended identities in which the deceiver acts and/or dresses the role of someone he is not. In The

Prince and the Pauper two boys, curious about each other's lifestyles and desirous to be rid of their confining exis­ tences, change clothing and before they know it are whisked into worlds of which they are totally unaccustomed. Neither is aware of what far-reaching consequences their transaction will bring. Though neither can completely adjust to his new mode of life, the prince becomes initiated into the injustices thrust upon the poor and when reinstated as royalty, he demon­ strates a humane kindness to such unfortunate victims. The pauper, though he enjoys being waited upon, dislikes the "more 1 formidable requirements of his royal office11 and sees no 2

significance to the Royal Seal other than its use as a tool with which to crack nuts. �oth boys end up attesting to their true identities and are rel ieved to rel inquish their pre- tended ones .

A similar reversal of characters ' lifestyles occurs in

Pudd 'nhead Wilson with a different twist. In this novel the two children , Tom Driscoll and Valet de Chambre , are purposely switched by Roxana , the nurse, when the youngsters are infants too young to be aware of the consequences of the act. The difference between this deception and that instigated by the prince and the paupe� is that the babies have no way of knowing about Roxy 's deception and thus grow up bel ieving they are of the social class Roxy pretends they are. Her motivation has little to do with curiosity or boredom but rather is based upon a motherly instinct to save the one she loves. Having 2 been threatened with being "sold down the river ,11 she is willing to do anything to keep her child from this awful fate.

So, this primary desire to protect her child coupled with a sense of the injustice of one infant 's receiving all of life's advantages just because he is white and wealthy, Roxy places the false identities upon the children. Little does she know that her own son , who will be given all the advantages accorded to one of the upper class, will ultimately murder his "uncle" and betray his mother.

The prince and the pauper 's disguises are temporary and short lived. However, the disguises of the two boys in the 3

second novel are almost permanent and long l �ved. In the former novel the participants in the deception learn something of the sorrows as well as the joys associated with a way of life different from their own. When the prince is once more a prince and the pauper is a "ward" of the prince, all order is restored . The reader feels that the prince will be a better ruler having experienced the hardships of poverty.

He feels pleased that the pauper had the opportunity to live out his fantasy as royalty and that as ward of the king, Tom

Canty will be much better off than he was when he was first introduced . Thus, the reader concludes that the novel 's basic deception serves to enlighten those involved.

In Pudd 'nhead Wilson the unwitting part icipants in the deception instead of becoming enl ightened by their experience become victims . The son of Roxy, who has been misnamed Tom

Driscoll .all his life , has lived up to the extravagant , spoiled demeanor of his supposed . rich white inheritance, and when he . is reinstated into his "proper" servile identity, he is sold down the river. When true identities are revealed , one would at first think it delightful that the real Tom Driscoll, alias

Chambers , can now establish himself in his proper domain and not be bel ittled any longer. aut one must also remember that his shackles are not thrown off so easily; ignorance, illit­ eracy , and feelings of inferiority are not simple to remedy.

So in the earlier (1882) novel , the idea of reversal of life­ styles as an example of purposeful deception proves to be 4

enl ightening to both participants in the actions and to the reader , generating an "all's well that ends well" atti­ tude. �ut the reversal in modes of life in the latter (1894) book prove disastrous for all participants and produce a negative notion that one may not be able to ov ercome one 's training and prejudice.

Also in Pudd 'nhead Wilson is another deception, that which is �erpetuated by the townspeople of Dawson 's Landing on the first day of David tvilson's arrival in the village.

Unable to fathom Wilson 's sardonic wit, the townspeople dub him a "pudd 'nhead" when he wryly speaks of shooting his half of a dog. This identity imposed by those outside the princi­ pals labeled is akin to that which Rox y places upon the look­ alike youngsters . However , the·motives of the prime movers ,

Roxy and the citizenry, are quite different. Roxy wishes to protect her son and somehow mete out some justice concerning her claim to aristocracy since the father of her son had been one of the village's respected gentry. In minutes the denizens of Dawson 's Landing verbally ind ict, try, and find guilty the. young New York lawyer, David Wilson. They regard him as a dunce for the next twenty years . To them , this is a reasonable assessment. The reader detects a stultification in their judgment , an attitude of closemindedness which infests their village. Receptiveness to any new ideas ou tside the realm of their time-honored traditions is �eyond their ken. Traditions such as honor and notions such as white supremacy have rendered 5

the townsfolk insensitive to their fellow men. To them , race deals with black and white. They have. forgotten there is a human race. Their outer appearance of respectability and gentility masks an inner evil. Ultimately there is no sign that the community's guise will be penetrated. There appears to be no one , not even Pudd 'nhead Wilson, who even attempts to lift the mask to expose their corrupt countenances .

There seems to be no hope offered toward man 's awareness of his stagnation and a desire to change his ways.

Twain's use of characters who don the clothing and the names of those they are not is readily apparent in another of his nove�s; The. Ad ventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book• s main character , Huc k, does so countless times but basically for only two clos ely-associated reasons. His motives for doing so originate as a means of either self-preservation or as a desire to protect someone else. Wh ile both the prince and the pauper think it would be fun and adventuresome to be what they are not , Huck Finn's taking on various disguises and false appellations has nothing to do with rel ief of ennui.

People are after him--his father, Miss Watson , the Widow Doug­ las, and who knows how many others . Because he has vowed not 3 to returrt to "sivilization," he wishes to dofi his old self, which includes his name , and not be found. Not really knowing if strangers he encounters are friends or enemies , Huck plays it safe and lies about his name and background .

By making up phony names not only is he protecting himself 6

but once he has met up with Jim, Huck deceives others who wish to do the black man harm. This type of deception--to protect a loved one--is reminiscent of that done by Roxy.

Yet Roxy 's initial deception sets the lifestyles of the children in motion, and unless she confesses her lie, the . results are pretty much out of her control. Huck, on the other hand , has to maintain his deception as he and Jim drift down the river into slave territory and unless he continually makes up tales about who the black man is , Jim will be returned to slavery. Jim 's life is totally in Hu ck's hands; the danger of

Huc k's revealing his and Jim 's true identities is constant and immense. Despite the fact that at times Huck is unsure if he is doing what is "right ," the reader recognizes the boy's instinct toward helping unfortunate people as being based upon humane kindness. Thus , one can accept this type of deception.

In Huckleberry Finn juxtaposed with deceptions which are inspired by self-preservation or the desire to protect a loved one are those which reveal negative motivations and results.

There are the confidence men , the duke and the king, who pre­ tend to be ministers , dentists , reformed pirates , actors--on toe selfish grounds of making money without working for it.

This type of deception is tolerated by both Huck and the reader for awhile because it _is somewhat humorous. But when the falsity involves deception that hurts innocent victims , we can no longer endure it. Deception that harms those who are not in the pos ition to defend themselves because they are 7

virtuous , trusting , downright nice people is contemptible.

The pseudoroyal pair goes too far when they attempt to cheat the Wilks girls and when they put a price on a human life by selling Jim.

Yet another type of disguise in the hierarchy of decep­ tions present in Huckleberry Finn is that represented by a group of people who are so immersed in their deceit that they hardly realize that their lives are hypocritical. The Shep­ herdsons and the Grangerfords at first appear to be examples of Southern hospitality and graciousness. However, their violent involvement in a nonsensical, traditional feud makes

Huck 's pretenses and some of those of the duke and king seem amateurish. The bloodbath that Huck witnesses between the two seemingly genteel families reveals not only the stupid ity of feuds but implies the inner corruption which "nice white"

Southerners possessed . Such learned hatred and prejud ice surface ugain at the end of the novel in the persons of a minister and his family, the Phelpses , seemingly nice wh ite folks who do not think twice about going after a fellow human being with a shotgun or about being relieved that a blown-up steamboat killed only a "nigger" and not any "people" (p. 216 ).

Still a fourth level of deception in the novel rests in the personage of Huck 's boyhood companion , Tom Sawyer. Whether he is pretending that he is a pirate ransoming captives or raiding a Sunday School picnic as he is at the onset of the book , or whether he is plotting Jim 's "evasion" at the end of 8

the work , Tom remains one who is always living in a world of fantasy. Though his deception appears at first to be mere child 's play, at the end his antics are no longer funny. It is not that the boy has ch anged at all, for he has not , but it is that the situation around him has altered . Tom has become so engulfed in the roma nt ic tales of Edgar Al lan Poe ,

Alexandre Dumas, and Sir Wa lter Scott that he has become the embod iment of the heroes of his romances. His deceptions do not actually hurt anyone physically, but they could very well have at the end . One recalls that Tom tells the neigh­ boring farmers in advance that Jim is going to escape and that these men come after the black man shooting wildly. Tom 's joy in acquiring a bullet in his ca lf and his astounding revelation that the slave is really a free man are illustrative of his depth of self-deception. In co ntrast to Huck , who desires

Jim 's escape because he cares about the man 's fate, Tom sees the event as just another of the exciting adventures of wh ich he has become so involved. The youngster practices total self­ deception in which the real world no longer ex ists; thus , he is void of any sense of humanity, seeing life as a series of games . Such deception inspires only contempt.

If some of Twain's cha racters ' deceptions stem from dreams of how the other ha lf lives ; some from. wishes to protect them­ selves or others they care about ; some from selfish desires for money, revenge, or glory; then Hank Morgan in A Connecticut

Yankee in King Arthur 's Court demonstrates an intermingling of 9

several types of deception. The Connecticut foreman, having been foisted into the world of chivalry, must first consider how to save himself from imminent death by being burned at the stake. So his first thought , and certainly a vital one, is of self-preservation. However, as time passes , his grandiose, though at times admirable, plans to re-educate Arthurian England become overpowering. His desire to help the ignorant populace be democratic and egal itarian is coupled with an opposing one to rule the lot of them himself: "I would boss the whole 4 country inside of three months , 11 he determines early in his stay. Yet at this time he justifies his leadership of the people by reasoning that he is the natural choice for this undertaking since his own education is "thirteen hurx:Jred years and upwards" (pp. 23-24) further along than theirs. It is not until some four years later that he concludes that "Unl imited power is the ideal thing when it is in safe hands" (p. 64).

And he finds himself to be the one in whose hands such a task would be safe.

Later Hank 's motives of preserving his powerful appella­ tion of "Boss" by performing various technological spectacles become very reminiscent of Tom-Sawyer's ostentatious displays with similar result--the delight in contriving an "effect" outweighs the initial purpose in undertaking it and erases any thought of possible harm done to any of its participants. In trying to deter a group of knights approaching him, Hank throws a bomb in their midst: "Yes , it was a neat thing , very neat 10

and pretty to see •••d uring.the next fifteen minutes we stood under a steady drizzle of micros�opic fragments of knights and hardware and horseflesh" (p. 199). How sad that

Torn Sawyer could not have been there to see this bully showl

Like Torn Sawyer, Hank Morgan finally becomes sel f-deceived , living in his "dream" world. He assumes that his advanced knowledge of machinery can overcome the deeply-ingrained super­ stitution and training people have nurtured since birth. This idea of the difficulty or even imposs ibility of overcoming one's early education echoes earl ier Twain works and would reappear later in Pudd 'nhead Wilson.

Thus , the use of disguise and deception in the four Twain novels is widespread and takes on several forms. Some deceit involves characters ' reversals of lifestyles which inadver- tently leads to the participants acquiring a better under­ standing of their fellow men. Other such reversals end tragically.

Deception which is based upon purely selfless motives generally results in the deceiver 's safety and happiness. However, deception performed for selfish reasons such as greed , revenge, or lust for power or glory ultimately ends in, at best, chas­ tisement or, at worst , destruction to the perpetrators of such deeds. In the latter case, even if Torn Sawyer is not punished by those around him, he is nonetheless shunned by Huck and held in immense disrepute by the reader. And the townsfolk of

Dawson's Landing are left to wallow in their wickedness. 11

Notes from Introduct ion

1 Y.ark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper (New York: Harper &

Br�thers , 1931 ), p. 130. All further references to this work appear in the text. 2 Mark Twa in, The Tragedy of Pudd 'nhead 'dilson (New York :

Bantam Books , 1971) , p. 12. All further references to this work appear in the text. 3 Mark Twa in, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (New York :

Signet Classics , 19 59) , p. 11. All further references to this work appear in the text. 4 Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur 's Court

(New York : Signet Classics, 1963), p. 23. All further refer­ ences to this work appear in the text. 12

Chapter I

Deception in The Prince and the Pauper

The Prince and the Pauper centers around one main decep­ tion--that of the conscious reverscl of roles of two young boys of totally different social backgrounds. Tom Canty, born to parents "who did not want him" in "a foul little pocket 1 called Offal Court11 becomes accustomed to a life of constant hunger, ragged clothes , and begging. Thrashings by his dere­ lict father and drunken grandmother are commonplace to him.

Indeed , the little urchin is surrounded by violence so much that when he witnesses men being burned at the stake one day, the narrator relates no horror in the young boy 's reaction but rather focuses upon a minister .who preaches a "sermon to them \::!he victim� which did not interest" Tom and then con­ cludes that the youngster's life "was varied and pleasant enough , on the whole" (p. 6). Yet the boy's daily privation proves to be too much for him to bear, and he escapes into a dream world. Like Tom Sawyer, Tom Canty is an avid reader of

romances; and like Tom Sawyer, Tom Canty begins pretend ing that his own life should parallel that of those he reads about. We are told that "�y and by Tom's reading and dreaming about princely life wrought such a strong effect upon him that he began to act the prince , unconsciously" (p. 6). His language 13

and manners become "curiously ceremonious and courtly" (p. 6) and to his playmates he becomes "a superior being " (p. 7).

Like Tom Sawyer, Tom Canty's "performances " seem very convincing to those around him. He organizes a "royal court" of his own in which he is the »mock prince'' (p. 7). But unlike Tom Sawyer,

Tom Canty assumes the role of the Offal Court prince to counter­ act the real ity of "the wretchedness about him" Cp. 9). Also unlike Tom Sawyer, who continually lives in a dream world ,

Tom Canty frequently awakens from his romantic fantasy, bitterly and heartbreakingly facing the actual ity of the awful court in �hich he lives .

Tom 's one wish is to someday catch a glimpse of real royalty, and one day he is granted this wish. He happens to arrive at the royal palace at the same time that the Tudor prince, Edward , makes an appearance. The peasant boy drools in awe of the prince's splendor and pomp. And to his abs olute surprise, the heir to the throne of England chides a guard who attempts to shoo the "you ng beggar" away. Though Edward has been reared in splendor, he does not appear arrogant and condescend ing. Rather, he · invites the lad in , tries to make him feel at home , and inquires about his family. The prince, who lives in a palace with "golden bars ," obviously becomes enraptured with his guest 's seemingly more free lifestyle.

The violence-based Punch-and-Judy shows , the cudgel fights, the reces , the dancing and singing, and "wallowing in the mud'' (p. 16) which Tom tells him about hold an especial attraction 14

for the prince. He dreams aloud , "Oh , prithee , say no more,

'tis glorious! If that I could but clothe me in ra iment like to thine and strip my feet , and revel in the mud once, just once, with none to rebuke me or forbid , meseemeth I could forego the crown !" (p. 16) And his excited visitor says ,

"And if that I could clothe me once, sweet sir, as thou art clad--just once--" (p. 16 ). This kind les the sparks of what begins as seemingly harmless desires which would eventually flame into a conflagration which rages out of control.

After the two have switched attire , they realize suddenly that their physical features are very similar, and "there is none could say which was you' and which the Prince of Wa les" . · (p. 17). The im plication is that given the physical likenesses , all one need do to be prince or be pauper is to look so on the outs ide. This premise is to be repeated in Twain's later

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur 's Court when Arthur dons the clothing of a peasant. �ut this notion is thwarted in both works. For it is shortly thereafter that the raggedly-dressed

Prince of Wa les is throw n out of th� castle to fend for himself while the regally-arrayed "Prince of Pauperdom" (p. 17 ) is mis­ takenly allowed to remain in the palace. Neither deceiver becomes entirely comfortable in or recon ciled to his new role.

That one's cultural heritage is difficult to change or overcome seems apparent. Yet , that one can benefit from living outside the realm of one's usual environment is brought to

1 ight in the novel 's course of event.s . Young Edward , "the 15

sacred person of the heir to the throne'' (p. 21) soon re�l izes

that being a pauper is not all excitement and freedom. Having been "torn by dogs" (p. 21) he is tracked down ·by his drunken "father" who threatens to "pound [his] bones to a pudding" (p. 79). In peasant rags the young boy quips that he is the

Prince of Wa les, and the surprised John Canty laughingly calls him "Tom o' Bed lam" (p. 23). The prince gets dragged "up a

front court" to be inspected by a "delighted and noisy swarm

of human vermin" (p. 23). Meanwh ile Tom Canty as a "patri­

cian" Cp. 24) glances at his image in a mirror--an instrument which can only reflect reality just as the pauper can only

imitate the real prince but can never be him. Interestingly

enough , when the would-be prince displays his lack of know­

ledge of royal affairs , those surrounding him also label him

mad (p. 26). He is willing to immed iately state his true

id entity as Tom Canty, but none around him will hear of such

a thing. They accept him for what he appears to be. After

even the prince's father, King Henry VIII, does not recognize

that the impos ter is not his son , Tom bemoans the fact that

he might rema in in the respons ibility-ridden kingdom forever.

Certainly the imagined enchantment of the imperial life had

been more delightful tha.n the "gilded cage" where the "cap­

tive" now sits in misery. "His old dreams had been so pleasant;

but this reality was so dreary· !" Cp. 33)

If both boys find their new surroundings shocking and

,w ish at first to escape back to their old lives , in time they 16

both begin to learn the expectations of their new cultures.

Tom Canty learns that others do not sit in the presence of royalty. He learns that servants bring him his food and drink as well as dress and undress him. The donning of regal ap­ parel is a cumbersome ordeal : "In the beginning a shirt was taken up by the Chief Eq uerry in Wa iting , who passed it to the

First Lord of the Buckhound s, who p�s sed it to the Second

Gentleman of the Bedchamber, who passed it to the Third Groom of the Stole, who passed it to the Chancel lor Royal of the

Duchy of Lancaster, who passed it to the Master of the �ard­ robe, who passed it to Norroy, King-at-Arms , who passed it to •••the First Lord of the Bedchamber, who took what was left · of it and put it on Tom. Poor little wondering chap , it reminded him of passing buckets at a fire" (pp. 99-100 ). The hilarity of this unexpected part of being royalty is delight- ful. Only Edmund Purcell would rebuke Twain's "exaggeration" of the "ceremonies of the bedchamber" saying , "There is no 2 excuse for this libel on the English Court. 11 After all of this to-do, the frustrated pretender mutters , "Beshrew me, but I marvel they do not require to breathe for me also! " (p. 41)

Such a remark by the awe-stricken youngster leads the reader to smile but also to see how foolish it is to kowtow to a title and take part in . upper class bureaucracy. Twa in 's desire 3 to ·�satirize kingcraft11 comes through at full force.

Even though the courtiers whisper of the prince 's madness , still they revere him. After all , they reason, would anyone 17

who was called prince "by all" (p. 43 ) dare refer to himself as not being royalty? Only a madman would do such a thing.

So when Tom makes a series of soci2l faux-pas at a banquet , those around him pretend that all is normal. One must humor a madman if that madman is socially prominent. And always the avid reader, Tom finds a book on court eti�uette and peruses it with dil igence. It is not long before Tom gets very caught up in his new life, wears the satin fineries of his "station," and basks in his newfound reverence and splendor.

If the thought-to-be prince's "madness" is tolerated by those of the royal court , the real prince 's "madness" is mocked and punished by father �nd grandmother at Offal Court :

"!Setween them they belabored the boy right soundly, and then gave the girls [!om 's sisters] and their mother a beating for showing sympathy for the victim" (p. 60 ). If the reader detects the shallowness of courtly existence, he also e�pathizes with

the desperation and struggle of poverty. He notices that des­ pite the savagery of the Canty father that pauperism does not

necessarily equate with barbarism. The Canty mother and sisters

are kind to the lad: "• •• the young girls crept to where

the prinI ce lay, and covered him tenderly from the cold with straw and rags; and their mother crept to him also, and stroked

his hair , and cried over him, whispering broken words of com­

fort and compassion in his ear all the while" (p. 61 ).

Once awakened from his slumber, the battered youth thinks

he has only dreamed the dreadful experience but soon discovers 18

the lifestyle he had dreamed of was in reality a nightmare.

" •••he was no longer a petted prince in a palace, with the adoring eyes of a nation upon him, but a pauper , an outcast , clothed in rags , prisoner in a den fit only for beasts , and

consorting with beggars and thieves" C.pp. 64-65). He has · "high hopes of escape" (p. 66) from the dastardly group of hovel dwel lers . When the opportunity arises , the prince runs

off from the beggars and determines to make for the palace where , he feels, Tom Canty "had del iberately taken advantage . of his stupendous opportunity and become a usurper" (p. 68).

As if he has momentarily forgotten the origin of the deception

and its mutual consent , the prince falls back on his "tra ining"

and states that upon his return to the castle, Tom the imposter would be "hanged , drawn , and_ qu2rtered , according to the law

�nd usage of the day, in cases of high treason" (p. 68). And ,

ironically, just as Edward is declaring this harsh statement ,

Tom Canty has learned that since Henry VIII has just died that

he now is the leader of the nation. His first act as king is

in marked contrast to the words uttered just before by the

·real king , Edward. They illustr2te a point Twa in was to make

through the youngster Huck Finn later--that uneducated , naive

people can pos sess the concern for their fellow man which

more sophisticated , wealthy people sometimes lack. As the

new king , Tom declares , "Then shall the king 's law be law of

mercy, from this day, and never more be law of blood !" (pp. 74-75)

He insists that the Duke of Norfolk, who in the Tower of London 19

is soon slated to die, be set free. Later Tom frees a poor man who has been sentenced to be boiled alive for supposedly having poisoned someone and a woman and child accused of witchcraft. Perhaps , as �radford Smith posits , "The com�on man with his sufferings , his ability to work and endure, is 3 not only equal to kings but superior to them" at times.

One can conclude that the brutality perpetrated by im­ poverished people who may have no other course to survival except crime is at least based upon a desire for self­ preservation. The band of thieves who hide their true iden­ tities by disguising themselves with bandaged arms , wooden legs , patched eyes and the like are truly grotesque as they chant their villainous ditties in unison. Some of the miscreants sing of once having been prosperous , with joyous families which are now gone. Their lyrics are of bla�eless mothers accused of sorcery and burned , wailing infant onlookers , men thrown into prison for begging crusts of bread for their starving children. Such disguises are mandatory so that they can protect themselves from the law which has marked an S (for SLAVE) upon their cheeks with a red-hot brand ing iron or which has lopped off their ears for mendicance. Such disguises based on motives of self-preservation would later be prevalent in Huck Finn when the youngster is in danger of being tracked down by his father and others from St. Petersburg. Though the prince as well as the reader has an initial aversion to the group, when the plight of the unfortunate thieves is brought forth, 20

the young boy blurts out th?.t as king, he will certainly do away with unjust laws which condemn men for their poverty.

Compared to the vagrancy of the tramps, is not the action of the supposedly civil ized court which murders any who do not bend to its ways simply a disguise for a worse deception--a justification for savagery based upon tradit ion and power similar to that displayed by the Shepherdsons and the Granger­ fords in Twain 's later novel Huckleberry Finn?

When the escaped prince ma kes his way back to Gu ildhall and proclaims his identity as the real pr ince , he is met with jeers , laughter, and yells of "K ill him!" by an angry mob of peopl e. And they probably would have done just that had it not been for the prince 's savior, a stranger named Miles Hendon.

Hendon takes the "homeless little ragamuffin" (p. 87) into his humble dwelling, and Edward usurps the deliverer 's bed and orders him about much as he no doubt had his servants when he was the prince of the palace. In much the same way that Hank

Morgan takes King Arthur under his wing, protects him from the street ruffians because he continually tries to proclaim his authority, Hendon guards little King Edward. Because Hen­ don is so charitable and protective of him, Edward even allows

Hendon the privilege granted to no one else--to sit in the presence of the king. Hendon is wi�ling to go along with what he thinks is the youngster 's disguise as royalty because he likes the boy and admires his spunk. Moreover, Hendon impl ies that sometimes the world of deception and non-reality may be 21

preferable to the real, " •••for I think it is more honor to be held worthy to be a specter-knight in his C-Edwarct• ;j

Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows , than to be held base enough to be an earl to some of the real kingdoms of this world''

(p. 187). Later in captivity Hendon uses the deception of saying the prince is "mad" to prevent his having to be whipped and put in the stocks.

In the midst of adventures which befall two boys whose deception runs amuck , we are told the tale of Miles Hendon's own unfortunate circumstances. His story is one which entails his father 's having been deceived by a w�cked son , Hugh , who many years before had said that Miles had disobeyed his father's will and planned to elope with a woman promised to' Miles ' brother , Arthur. It is interesting to note that greed for money is the basis of this deception , just as it was to be for the duke and the king in Huckleberry Finn. "Hugh loved the

Lady Edith 's fortune , though in truth he said it was herself he loved--but then 'tw�s his wa y, alway, to say one thing and mean the other • • • he could deceive my father, but none else " (p. 85), Hendon tells the prince . Like the two con men

in Huck Finn , Hugh "had a smooth persuasive tongue , with an admirable gift of lying •••" (p. 85 ). In both novels the dece ivers are exposed by youngsters who care very deeply about the victims of the frauds. And just as the pretended roya lty

in the later novel would receive their come-uppance , so too does brother Hugh finally rece ive his. When , after having been 22

banished for many years , �iles returns to Hendon Hall to re­ claim his fortune, he is called an imposter by his brother , a tyrant whom everyone fears , vnd he is thrown into ja il. Wh ile

Hendon is imprisoned , he becomes more and more cynical about the treachery of his fellow man until a servant he had known as a youngster plans to help him. The way the servant does so is not to earnestly or forcefully enter the cell and grab the man out but rather to pretend that he despises Miles in order to get close to him and s�ve him. Like Huck Finn was to later lie and deceive for the sake of those he cared about , the ser­ vant , a1ake Andrews , does so for the woebegone Hendon. Ul ti­ mately Hendon regains his fortune, and Hugh is forced to flee.

If Torn Sawyer is content in a dream world of fantasy in which he glorifies in his role as chivalric leader, Tom Canty

is not. Despite the grandeur of the imperial castle, he longs for his old life back at Offal Court. "Tom sighed pathetically and murmured to himself, 'In wha t have I offended , that the good God should take me awa y from the fields and the free air and the sunshine, to shut me up here and make me a king and afflict me so?'" {pp. 104-05) Meanwhile his double, Edward ,

is out in the sunshine but not so free as one would imagine.

Having escaped the troupe of disguised rabble, he is recap­ tured , and when the boisterous group hears the prince 's further attestations of his imperial station, they ridicule him. They

impose upon him a disguise which is extremely revealing. Dub­ bing him "Foo-foo the First , King of the Mooncalves" (p. 143), 23

" they pl�ce mock regal attire upon him: • • • he wa s crowned with a tin basin, robed in a tattered blanket , throned upon a barrel , and sceptered with the tinker's soldering-iron.

Then all flung themselves upon their knees about him and sent up a chorus of ironical wailings , and mocking suppl ications , \ wh ile they swabbed their eyes with their soiled and ragged sleeves and aprons" (p. 143 ). ::/hat follows is a series of pointed , ex aggerated outbursts which pierce Edward 's heart and make him ashamed of the government 's injustice towards the poor. The masqueraders ' ejaculations of "Pity thy slaves , and comfort them with a royal kick!" and "Deign to sp it upon us , O sire, that our children 's children may tell of thy princely condescension and be proud and happy forever !"

(pp. 143-44 ) do indeed cut deeply. Sinc e the tramps refer to themselves as ''slaves ," one also may interpret their protesta- tions of injustice as transcending the England of Henry VIII and including the slaves of nineteenth-century America as well.

Though the scalliwags proceed to pick pockets and steal food and we are told that one of them killed a priest , their brutal ity is not dwelled upon and we tend to almost condone their actions much as we do those of Huck or of Roxy because these people who have been so mistreated are trying to sustain themselves in the only way they can.

Later, like King Arthur, young King Edward begins to realize the fruitlessness of his royal appellation when he is dressed as a common beggar. "I, the very source of . power in 24 this broad realm, am helpless to protect them [those he sees merciles sly hanged or burned before his ey.es] " (p. 221 ). Yet in spite of all the horror he witnesses , he does at least gain insight into such injuries , feels responsible for them , and vows th�t when he returns to the throne, he will right the. wrongs. " •••th e tale of their woes wrung his heart • • • •

The king was furious over these inhumanit ies " (p. 223}. Unlike

Tom Canty, who had been hr.rdened to such suffering , the king cannot take it in his stride: "The world is made wrong , kings should go to school to their own laws at times , and so learn mercy" (p. 224), he concludes. 4 Not "four hundred pages of careful tediousness11 and more 5 than a "book full of pictures Ghic� will amuse the children ,11 The Prince and the P2uoer is a work which reveals that there are dangers in all walks of life. To be born of lowly back- ground endangers one to becoming calloused to the daily suffer­ ing surrounding him . To be of higher birth may result in walling oneself away from calamity and , therefore, preventing one from feeling compassion toward one's fellow man. But despite one 's upbringing , it may be concluded that a sense of humanity can transcend social levels. As Bradford Smith points out , "The clt:isse� man has set up and rigidified by custom and prerogative go against nature and result in false id entifica- tions. Good men and bad are found in all walks of life. The mystery of identity therefore becomes a matter of seeking out 6 the true cha racter beneath the social disguise. 11 What Smith 25

fails to mention , however, is that labels such as "good" men and "bad" men are too clear cut. For are not both boys as well as others in the novel a mixture of the two? The young man who denies his o;.:n mother is t.h e one who as false king banishes some of the kingdom 's unjust laws. The one who begins to luxuriate in the arrogance of power , wishing his former comrades could recognize their "mock king of the · slums and back alleys" (p. 239) becomes "champion of all that were oppcess�d'' (p. 234). And the youth who mDkes others wait on him hand and foot and refuses to work is the one who ultim2tely as king is a "s ingularly merciful one for those harsh times" (p. 274), for "The outcast boy king , living with the lowest of the low, lea rns compassion for those who suffer and are oppressed."7 There is left the hope, then , that at least some of the patterns of behavior one learns in his social envi ronment can be unlearned , that it is possible for a person to be different from what he appears to be. It seems that one must penetrate social disguises and get to know the person behind the mask on an individual basis. 26

Notes from Chapter I

1 Mark Twa in, The Prince and the Pauper (New Yo rk : Harper & grothers , 1931), p. 1. All further references to this work appear in the text. 2 Edmund Purcell, "Review of The Prince and the Pauper,"

Academy (December 1881 ), in Mark Twa in: The Critical Heritage , ed . Frederick Anderson (New York : Barnes & Nobl e, Inc. , 1971), p. 90 .

3Brad ford Smith , "Mark Twa in and the Mys tery of Identity,"

College Engl ish 24 (March 1963): 425. 4 "Uns igned Review of The Prince and the Pauper," Athenaeum

(December 1881 ), in Mark Twa in: The Critical Heritage, ed .

Frederick Anderson (New York : Barnes & Noble, Inc. , 1971) , p. 92.

5 Purcell , p. 91.

6smith , p. 425. 7 Robert L. Gale, "� Prince and the Pa uper and King Lear,"

�ark Twain Journal 12 (Spring 1963): 17. 27

Chapter II

Deception in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn there are four levels of deception which are practiced. Th ese include decept ions by

Huck which are selflessly-motivated , those by the duke and king which are derived from mercenary appetites , those by th�_ _f£yglng families who mask their corruption by an outer ------..._ -. appearance of gentility, and those by Tom Sawyer which are inhuman games wrought with fantasies of glory.

When Huck Finn practices deception , his motive for doing so originates as a means of either sel f-preservation or as a desire to protect someone else. For instance, when he leaves 1 Miss Watson 's ''sivilization" to live with Pap in the cabin, he at first enjoys the "lazy and jolly" Cp. 32 ) time he �as smoking, fishing , cussing , and not having to attend school.

However, later when Pap gets drunk "yelling about snakes ••• and [saying) he would rest a minute and then kill me" (p. 36 ), Huck , to protect himself, must flee. He is forced to deceive both Pap and , inadvertently, others into think�ng he is dead.

One recalls that Huck has been schooled somewhat by Tom Sawyer · in the art of "correct" procedures whether in attending one 's own funeral , as in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, or in forming a gang, with its secret oaths , signatures in blood , and severe punishments, as in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Thus , 28

it is no great surprise that the young orphan devises an elabor­

C'lte plan for his ov:n demise. vlh en Huck imitates his idol 's way of doing things , it a�pears that the youngster gets more caught up in the joy of tomfoolery and the impending danger becomes secondary.

Huck does not merely run off from Pap but rather he ha�ks into a wild pig and leaks its blood around the cabin to simu­ late his own blood. Then he smashes in the door and ransacks the place, removing all the supplies to look as if robbers have broken in. He yanks some hair from his head and sticks it to some blood on . an ax to concoct a means of his murder.

Finally he drags a huge sack full of rocks across the ground to the water 's edge to suggest how the so-called robbers got rid of his body. Yet 4espite all these Tom Sawyer-l ike touches , Huck always seems to have an uncanny knack not to

et so excessively sidetracked with means that he forgets the 9.. basic ends of his actions. Edward J. Piacentino faults Huck 's elemental "practical" way of viewing the world and prefers

Tom 's quixotic impracticality, which he says ultimately 2 "triumphs." Yet , in the types of adventures that Huck becomes involved in , it would seem that Huck 's methods are not only greatly preferable to Tom 's but also necessary to his self- preserv0tion and his humane desire to protect those he cares about . ·

Following Huck 's esca�e from his father , there are many other times when the ingenius youth. practices deception , most 29

of which involve his taking on the identity of another person, real or imagined. Though Huck is not always highly successful in playing the role of someone he· is not and the reader may get totally wrapped up in the comedy of Huck 's disguises , one must remember that young Huck is not acting like a normal child would who tramps around awkwardly in adult clothing just as a game. One chuckles as he visualizes

Huck painstakingly practicing the female graces and then being detected as he hurls a brick at a rat in a most unlady-

1 ike manner and threads a needle as a man does. However, one must not forget that his main purpose in dressing in such clothing and going to see Mrs . Judith Loftus is to find out information about his own "murder" as well as what action has been taken to hunt for Jim , who has run away from Miss Watson.

And even when Mrs . Loftus exposes his charade, Huck still has a certain intuition which tells him that to tell the truth would be perilous . He composed ly recovers and admits he is really George Peters . In casual conversation with the lady,

Huck is able to learn that men intend to go after Jim. So he decides to build a fire on Jackson's Island and "play it low down" (p. 69) , throwing off the trackers to protect Jim.

Thereafter, Huck assumes various false personalities , and each time he does so to save or help himself or others. After

Jim and he have encountered three murderers on the Walter Scott , they could merely have just run away and left the cutthroats to destroy each other. Yet Huck 's sense of morality will not 30

allow him to ignore them. "I hegun to worry about the men--

I reckon I hadn't had time to before. I begun to think how

I dreadful it was , even for murderers , to be in such a fix • • • •

I'll go and fix up some kind of a yarn , and get . somebody to go for that gang and get them out of their scrape •••" (p.

So Huck pretends to be an orphaned child from the ship , some- how astutely knowing that simply telling the truth to the captain he meets will not suve the men and the ment ioning of a relative who will "foot the bill" (p. · 80 ) if the captain will capture the runaway ship will save them.

Later after Huck has had a chance to grow fond of Jim and battles his conscience to the point of deciding to row ashore and turn Jim in , Huck meets up with the white bounty hunters. In a brilliant display of reverse psychology he convinces them that he is not harboring a black man but rather enl ists their aid in helping his sick Pap. Huck 's comment that "Everybody goes away when I want them to help me tow the raft ashore •••" (p. 94 ) produces the desired effect. The hunters conclude the disease to be smallpox and hastily retreat. And this deception nets Huck forty dollars as well as temporary safety for Jim.

Shortly thereafter a large steamboat approaches Huck and

Jim 's raft and smashes it in half. The two dive into the river and when they surface , they have lost each other.

Swimming to shore , Huck arrives at a large log house belonging to the Grangerfords. Surrounded by howl ing dogs and looking 31

down the ba rrels of the family 's guns , Huck does not think twice before he refers to himself as "George Jackson" (p. 99 ).

He wisely reasons , "I knowed better than to move another peg'' (p. 99). Might this gun-bearing lot be after Huck Finn? hssuming a fictitious name seems to be the safest thing to do.

Yet while Huck deceives the Grangerfords about his back- ground , he becomes involved in their much worse decept ion.

This "mighty nice family" (p. 103) whose hospitality appears genuine [ " . • • they said I could have a home there as long as I wanted i� (p. 103 ) masks a slaughterous nature which has no motive save a traditiona l feud , the origin of which no one recalls precisely. After the Grangerfords and their enemies the Shepherdsons attend a "good sermon" on the sub-

ject of brotherly love, their debacle is rekind led when the daughter of one family runs off with the son of the other.

A bloody battle between the two families ensues , and from his vantage point an astounded young Huck becomes " ��c� -6!1!1, � .fell out of the tree" (p. 117). It would seem , then, ..------•-...... , /\ f' I • I that outward pretense of gentility and kindness can sometimes C' hide groundless het red and prejud ice. Such hypocrisy ends

in death to the deceivers.

After the Shepherdson-Grangerford fiasco , Huck and Jim have but a bFief respite on the raft before they encounter

two other deceivers , the duke and the king. Huck again is

forced to lie to insure the safety of Jim. 'I/hen asked if Jim

is a runaway slave, Huck instantly repl ies , "Would a runaway 32

nigger run south?" (p. 127) Then he proceeds to tell another

tale of wo� to cement the idea that after the rest of his

"family" had been drowned under the wheel of a steamboat,

other people questioned whether the black man was a runaway

and that Huck was forced to travel on the raft by night only. And it is the "uncommon bright" (p. 157) duke who comes u9 with the way they can travel by day without being afra id f someone will ask about Jim--paint the man "a dead , dull blue, like a man that 's been drownded nine days" and place a sign in l front of him reading, "Sick Arab--but harmless when not out \! of his head" (p. 157). This disguise which serves the duo- ' ' I purpose of both protecting the runaway and diverting attention ; ' from the two con men works very well.

The duke and the king admit to their confidence games ,

their "doing lots of things--most anything that comes handy,

so it ain't work" (p. 123). In comparing the types of evil

perpetrated by the feuding families and that by the duke and

king , w. R. Moses views the worst of the two kinds to be the

fraud rendered by the latter pair. Seeing the novel as Huck 's

Dantesque journey through hell, Moses lists the three main

sins of the Inferno 's circles in order of their severity:

incontinence, violence and , worst of all , fraud . He signifies

Pap as exemplary of the first , the Shepherdsons and Granger- 3 fords of the second , and the duke and king of the third.

Though the parallel is striking , one must first be willing to

accept Dante 's assessment that fraud is worse than violence. 33

Some may not concede this basic point. One could argue that it would be less painful to be swindled , even though the emotional anguish might be present , than to be murdered .

Granted , the duke 's and king's antics become less acceptable whE;n they enter the level of "complex fraud , involving ••• the treatment of a human being • • • as though he were non­ human. "4 If in contrast to the feuding families' deception about their true selves , the duke 's and king 's earlier chicaneries seem less injurious , it is perhaps because, as

Elizabeth McMahan points out , "They wer_� _ _!aking advantage of - - ....�· ·� - ·-· "_._... _ .______..._ .. ' -----· the gull ibility, v�nJ� �r lecherousness of stxangers... " 5

We do not exactly condone the behavior of the treacherous thespians , but we also consider the character of those deceived.

We note the two frauds bandying. back and forth to try to outdo each other in deceit in order to ga in a certain power: "I am a duke !" spouts one. "I am the late Dauphin!" upstages the other. One recalls that the victims of the deceit of the Royal

Nonesuch show themselves become deceivers. They declare the show a success to their fellow townsfolk in order to preserve their own pride. Not wanting to be the only fools around , they make bigger fools of themselves. The third night of the per- f ormance they come prep a red to prey upon the ·con men: ". • • every man that went in had his pockets bulging , or something muffled up under his coat--and I [Hue� see it warn 't no perfumery , neither •••" (p. 152). But the bevy of rotten eggs , putrid cabbages , and dead cats never reach their destination, for 34

obviously the duke and king have been through such a con- spiracy before, and the gullible townspeople are left with egg on their faces. Ironically, "!y agreeing to cheat others , 6 the audience becomes the 2ccomplice of thieves , 11 suggests

Robert L. Vales.

Of course, the deception of this pseudoroyal pair becomes unbearable when they get too avaricious and try to swindle the Wilks girls out of their money. It is here that Huck , who had been going along with their deceit up to then because he knew their "kind of people" (p. 127) could be dangerous , steps in and unmasks them. A Juliet who would "bray like a jackass" (p. 136) in what could only have been the most out- landish Balcony Scene ever performed is tolerated by the young boy from St. Petersburg. �ut the pair 's asinine portrayal of the long-lost brothers of Peter Wilks , who communicate in

"idiotic signs" (p. 162 }, disgusts him . It is interesting to note that while Huck seems to have an aversion to being civilized under the roof of Miss Watson and the Widow Douglas , he has a soft sp

...... ____ she did not obey him ; shortly thereafter the black man had 35

discovered that the child was deaf. Huck sympathizes with ------

the slave, saying , "• ••he was low and homesick •••I

do bel ieve he cared just as much for his people as white folks

does for their 'n" (p. 155).

Eric Solomon points out that much of Huck 's deception

concerns telling lies which deal with family disasters he las supposedly suffered. Five times the youngster "invents I

elaborate family patterns for himself •••fami lies coming I J I 7 I to death and destruction." The critic states that these

prevarications "are only one indication that a substantial basis for the novel is the boy 's search for a family. "�.1This could be the ca se, but Solomon 's contention that finally Huck

finds the object of his sea rch in the Phelps family is debatable.

Solomon refers to the Phelpses as "one of the few favorable --- - -·-·-- ... - ..... -·- .·--- . 9 portraits of the family institut:_�-�l!_._in Mark Twain. " He goes _ so far as to strongly imply that when Huck says that he will

"light out for the territory" (p. 283) and not be adopted back

into civ ilization by the Phelpses , that he eventually intends

to come back. This conclusion seems rather tenuous. The

youngster 's final words seem to echo his previous sentiment

about remaining free· of society 's shackles. His declaration that he has "been there f]n 'sivilization:J before" (p. 283 ) appears to link his life with the older sisters to that with

the Phelpses , leaving no impression that he prefers the latter.

The decisive tone of Huck 's final statement carries little

evidence of a desire to return to the Phelpses. 36

When Huck comes ?cross the three sweet daughters of the

�ilks household whom the duke and king intend to defraud , he at first goes olong with the con men 's scheme , portraying the men 's "valley" (p. 169), though he bungles the ro le as he has several others p reviously. · But finally he cannot allow -··- ---...... ··- ·----..-�- the duping of innocent victims . "Huck never lets a desire for ---....--· ------_ .. 10 money come before sympathy for fellow human beings , 11

McMahan concludes . The money-minded rapscallions whose

deception eventually involves hurting innocent people "finally 11 receive belated retribut ion11 and are run out of to·.·m on a

rail. Ironically but not surprisingly, Huck 's last comments

about the duke and king are ones of sympathy : "Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful

rascals. • • • Human beings can be awful ·cruel to one

2nother" (p. 225). But the tarred and feathered counterfeiters would probubly trick and deceive again. One remembers that

when the pair is first introduced , they are "tearing up the

path as tight as they could foot it" (p. 122), no doubt to

escape the wrath of victims of one of their escapades.

It is noteworthy th2t these rogues seem monstrous ,

especially when they sell Jim; yet thei r deception appears much

less severe probably because the reader never witnesses the

sale directly. Also when compared to the absolute destruction

of human lives caused by the Shepherdson and Grangerford de-

ceit , some of the faults of the duke and the king appear less

damaging. One might observe, then , that deception for the 37

purpose of hurt ing innocent people generally results in the deceiver's.being dealt with ha rshly.

�'.'hen Huck discovers that Jim is being held at the Phelps farm , he again doffs his true identity and is thrust into being the expected relative, Tom Sawyer. The identity process is further confused when the real Tom Sawyer arrives and takes on the role of his step brother , Sid. Anyone who has read The Adventures of Tom Sawye r knows how different the imaginative and adventuresome romant ic Tom is from his sissified , tattletale brother, Sid, and this becomes at first a comic situation. But only the Phelpses are duped , not the reader.

For Tom Sawyer can only be Tom Sawyer no matter what appella- tion he dons.

Besides selflessly preserving safety or innocence of people or selfishly desiring profit or power or revenge , the role of deception takes on another facet in the personal ity of Tom Sawyer. Tom 's deceit seems to stem from a negative mot ivation yet one quite unlike those already mentioned. He is the roma nt ic whose theatrics in the early part of the novel are endurable, but when they impinge upon the safety of an innocent victim , they become intolerable. "Tom.�§. �elfish reason for stealing (}im is] he wants an adventure, "12 posits Robert Vales. Tom 's deceiving the Phelpses and being obl ivious of the fact that he is- putting the black man's life in jeopardy needlessly perhaps illustrate the worst kind of deception-- self-deception. Tom is void of human compassion and feels 38

he can justify his toying with Jim 's life as "elegant • • • you can 't think half the fun it was •••wa sn't it bully!" (pp. 278- 79) One cannot accept Edward Piacentino 's explanation of Tom 's appearance at the end as a re-establ ishment 13 of the book 's overall "comic tone. " Tom holds to the strict book-begotten romantic code of adventure--desire for moats , pretense that case knives are picks, inclusion of a coat of arms , "mournful inscriptions ," "nonnamous letters ," and pictures of coffins and skulls--in his escape plans for Jim.

These may be humorous , but they come at an inappropriate time.

The key here is that Tom refuses to see a difference between the make-bel ieve world of books and the suffering and danger he is putti�g a real person through. He continues to impose his romantic principles upon re�lity and this leads unwittingly to his inhum2nity. Tom 's delight in putting the good , digni- fied black man, who has already been through so much, through further anguish renders Tom despicable and sel f-deceived .

As ff,cMahan concludes, "Tom is hyper-alert to fiscal obl igations ( giving Jim forty dollars for being a good sport in the ad­ venture] but unconscious of moral ones. 1114 The deception practiced by the Shepherdsons and Granger- fords , hiding hatred and prejud ice, is indeed hideous , but at least we know that such hypocrisy can be broken. One member of each household does so by joining together in love and escaping the evil. Tom Sawyer's delus ions , however, have no seeming redemption. It is not unexoected that Tom 's 39

benavior is not condemned by thos e around him; for , after all , they are among the "good white" folks who believe some men are more equal than others . Even Huck seems mesmerized by Tom 's finesse and critic izes his methods only a little.

Yet Huck finally does leave. Tom and intends to "light out ------.. for the territory ahead of the rest" (p. 283). To� remains a hero in search of a romance, and not being of this world , he can only rescue vict ims by sawing off their legs to remove their chains. 40

Notes from Chapter II

1 Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (New York :

Signet Classics, 195 9) , p. 11. All further references to this work appear in the text. 2 Edward J. Piacentino , "The Ubiquitous Tom Sawyer: Another

View of the Conclusion of Huckleberry Finn ," Cimarron Review 37

(October 1976): 40. 3 w. R. Moses , "The Pattern of Evil in The Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn," The Georgia Review 13 (Summer 1959): 163-65. 4 Ibid. , p. 165. 5 Elizabeth E. fv!cMahan, "The Money Mot if: Economic Impl ica- tions in Huckleberry Finn," Murk Twa in Journctl 15 (Summer 1971): 8. 6 Robert L. Vales , "Thief and Theft �n Huckleberry Finn,"

American Literature 37 (January 1966): 424. 7 Eric Sol om on , "Huekl eberry Finn Once r-·:ore ," Col 1 ege

Engl ish 22 (December 1960): 173. 8 . Ibid. , p. 1 74. 9 Ibid. , p. 176. lO .McMahan, p. 9. 11 stewart Rodnon , "Mark Twain 's Get-Rich-Quick Schemes :

A Ba lance Sheet ," Mark Twa in Journal 12 (Winter 1964-65): 4. 12 Vales , p. 427. 13 Piacentino, p. 40 . 14 McMahan, p. 9. 41

Chapter III

Deception in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur 's Court

Deception plays a vital rol e not only in The Prince 2.!l2.

the Pauper and Huckleberry Finn but also in A Connecticut

Yankee in King Arthur 's Court. However, whereas motives seem

more clearly defined in the former novels, they are more

muddled in the latter. Hank Morgan, the Connecticut Yankee,

describes himself as "a Yankee of the Yankees .111 This

description is an intriguing one, for , as Twa in might have

>.cnown , the term "Yankee" has had , in various periods of his-

tory, many--and opposite--connotations. H. L. Mencken in

� American La ngu age , Supplement I, notes that the term can

mean anything from "the English settler of Connecticut , who ["was] regarded at the time as a person whose commercial enterprise ran far beyond his moral scruples" or more simply 2 "a cheater" to "a good or superior person." Just as the

term "Yankee" might imply divergent motives , the Connecticut

Yankee is certainly motivated by divergent elements.

Some critics have viel,tfed Hank in his guise as "!oss" of

Arthurian England as a kind of one-sided figure. Judith Fet-

terley and William Spofford see Hank as an egotistical man

bent on violence. Fetterley implies that Hank is somehow

innately violent. She writes : "It is no accident that Hank 42

through a enters the world of King Arthur brawl ; he is a f 3 violent man. " Of his f�rst deception in the Camelot realm--

the "magical" act of taking away the sun , she states : "His

relish for the destructive capacity of his power is already

evident. 114 Fetterley even views Hank 's playing the "showman"

as part of his violent personality. "Clearly, aggress ion is 5 part of the personality of the showman," she alleges. Spof- 6 ford labels Hank the deceiver as "egotistical and brutal ."

While one cannot deny that Hank in the role of the Boss

at times does violent acts , he cannot deduce that the desire

to do violence is his primary or sole motivation. In the

eclipse episode one is more hard-pressed to · f�nd Hank motiva-

ted by Fetterley 's "relish" for destruction than by a drive

for self-preservation. Arriving in Camelot within a day of

a total eclipse of the sun , A.O. 528, Hank Morgan 's first

desire is not to overwhelm the populace with his "m�gic" but

to view the phenomenon as a . means of determining the year. The idea of using the eclipse to his advantage does not truly gel until he is personally threatened : "He (!rthutl ended by condemning me to die at noon on the twenty-first. I was in

a dismal state by this time" (p. 33). When Hank real izes that

he is in "deadly danger" (p. 40 ) and is to burn to death the

following day, he says , "The shock went through me ••••

I now began to reason that my situation was in the last degree

serious and •••was a thing to be avoided , by any means ,

fair or foul , that I could contrive" (pp. 35-36 ). Like Huck , 43

who is faced with possible bod ily harm or re-placement back

in civilization, Hank must employ deception in order to save his own life.

Disguises such as Huck used are out of the qu�stion

for Hank. Neither will sorrowful familial tales guarantee his safety. The means by which Hank counteracts the threat

to his life occurs to him as he notices what is hcppening around him. He has viewed the Knights of the Table Round

''telling lies of the stateliest pattern" (p. 26 ), Merlin's

exaggerated and cumbersome tale, nnd Sir Kay 's contention

that the Yankee is a "horrible sky-towering monster" whose

clothes are "enchanted". (p. 33). He notes that all these

fantastic falsities are very impressive and even fear-producing

to the listeners. It is at this time that the Yankee con­ cludes , " •••certainly a superior man like me ought to

be shrewd enough to contrive some way to take advantage of such

a state of things" (p. 37).

Cleverly noticing the awe that the appellation "magician"

produces on the crowd ready to execute him, Hank declares

that he himself is a "magician" (p. 37). Yet the reasoning

Yankee fears he has made two mistakes : First, why should

a magician need the help of a page, Clarence, to help him

escape? Second , what calamity could he invent to work his

"magic" powers on? It is not until this moment that the idea

of the eclipse-miracle occurs and simultaneously that he

draws the conclusion that the people are too ignorant to find 44

holes in his arguments. If, as Gerald Allen states , "there is something unfa ir or sinister about the way the Yankee seizes power • • • not so much by absolute ability as by 7 the mere fact of his cultural superiority, 11 one must also include the underlying motive of sel f-preservation.

It is shortly thereafter that Hank notices that being a miracle-worker is not . a one-time thing and that in order to maintain his power and ima ge, he must effect more miracles or else be dubbed a "humbug" (p. 49). And instinctively

Hank seems to know the danger inherent in such an appellation.

A similar label , "pudd 'nhead ," would later be inflicted upon

David Wilson with disastrous results. Hank also realizes that in gaining his reputation, he has won enemies , namely

Merl in, the "old numskull" (p. 147) whose "pretended magic"

(p. 37) must be dealt with. Again , one sees the Yankee not purely 2s the "showman" desiring power but also as a man only too aware of the imminent danger he would be in if his "magic" failed or was challenged by someone else's.

In a position similar to pauper Tom canty ' s--that of suddenly-awed leader who is unsure how to proceed--Hank does not have the youngster 's choice of denying his power. When

Canty does so, he is sympathized with and called "mad "; had

Hank introduced himself as chief of the Colt arms factory in

Hartford , Connecticut, the Arthurians would no doubt have gone further than accusing him of lunacy. So, still ±hreatened by the superstitious lot who su rround him, Hank plans a second 45

act of theatricality. Equipped with lightning rod and blasting powder, he proceeds _to bl ow up t-ie rl in•s tower.

Dramatically, the Yankee makes "about three passes in the air" with "a vast volcanic fountain of fire that turned night to noonday," and the ed ifice falls amid "human beings groveling on the ground in a general c.ollaps e of consternation" (p. 51). And it is for several reasons that Hank concludes that "it was an effect ive miracle" (p. 51) . Fetterley is no doubt correct that the Yankee is satisfied both with the enjoyment of himself as center of attention and with the realization 8 that his rival Merlin is temporarily humiliated.

If clothes make the man, then Hank 's appel lation "Boss" makes him. This gaining of a title becomes a focal point in the ma intenance of his power , for he employs it to inspire fear and awe as wel l as to force others to yield to his wishes. And it is this title which also saves him from danger; thus , it is a device used for sel f-preservation. This twofold utility of title is readily apparent when Hank and

Sandy visit Morgan le Fay 's castle. His first words to the beautiful but deadly lady are in praise of her brother, King

Arthur. Too late he remembers that she despises the king.

When Hank is threatened with being sent to the dungeons because of this error, the ever-obed ient Alisande uses Hank 's title "Boss" to save him: "God 's wownds, dost thou covet destruction, thou maniac? It is The Boss!" (p. 103) Though at that time Hank seems surprised at Sandy's move , he calls 46

it "a happy idea" Cp. 103). Twice more at the royal castle

Sandy uses the name to terrorize the people into obed ience, and the third time she does this , the Yankee seems pleased with the tool : "It was certainly a good word to conjure with: you could see it by the squirming" (p. 110) of the castle courtiers.

Tom Sawyer would have been shocked to discover that

the chivalric , romantic notions he lived from by the books • were not altogether accurate. Hank makes the discovery that the general notion of a knight in shining armor is but a deception. Such outer glittering appearances hide inner stupidity based on nonsensical tradition. Hank makes this detection as he observes the activities of 'the famous knights.

"The boys all took a flier at the Holy Grail now and then," he says , " •••Every year exped itions went out holy grailing, and next year expeditions went out to hunt for them. There was worlds of reputation in it , but no money" (pp. 62-63).

And much to his chagrin, because he constantly has to prove himself to the rabble in ord er to maintain his esteem and not risk putting his life in jeop� rd y, Hank Morgan is forced to don armor and set out in search of adventures.

The falsity of the knights ' expeditions has to be toler­ ated by Hank who knows the wayfarers are "wandering liars"

(p. 67), but because it is expected of him in this society, he satisfies the "iron dudes of the Round Table" Cp. 76) and sets off. The first thing that Hank notices about the romantic 47

image of being a gallant knight is that his attire is cumber­ some and idiotic. Dressed in the "correct" fashion--armor-­ he encounters numerous problems. First , he cannot get onto his horse without help. Then he finds that dust and grime settle in his visor and make him sneeze. The suit is hot.

It has no pockets. 9ugs , ants , and worms make it their nightly habitation. One cannot even smoke a pipe with such an outfit on ! In short, outer appearances are again shown to be deceptive as Twain once more takes a pot shot at the chivalric ideal of Sir Walter: "Great Scott ," reacts the disbelieving Hank Eorgan, knight errant.

This outer decept ion of glory- in-knighthood is further disclaimed as Hank ventures to a castle where princesses have supposedly been enchanted into pigs . But like a proper knight , Hank gathers up the royal hogs and leads them back to their castle: "• ••we ll, I never saw anything like it!

Nor ever heard anything like it. And never smelt anything like it. It was like an insurrection in a gasometer" (p. 132 ).

The conclus ion Hank draws from this posturing is that training is everything, one which Pudd 'nhead Wilson would draw later.

Training "can bring a body up to believe anything. I hud to put myself in Sandy 's place to realize that she was not a lunatic. Yes , and put her in mine, to demonstrate how easy

it is to seem a lunatic to a person who has not been taught as you have been taught" (p. 132), Hank says . This ins ight is remarkable but though Hank remembers the first part , he forgets the latter. For wh2t does he intend to do but impose 48

his culture upon that of another time 2nd place and peo�le?

And he ful ly expects his dream to mDterialize: gradual changing of the knightly vestments , such as a stove­ pipe hat to replace a viso� was another of my surreptitious schemes for extinguishing knighthood by making it grotesque and absurd" (p. 142 ).

r.ater Hank decides to hide his identity as Boss, dressing as a peasant and roaming the land. With Arthur as his com­ panion , he sees and becomes involved in injustice after in­ justice done to the poor. Like the prince in The Prince and the Pauper who has extreme difficulty in overcoming his regal background when he is in peasant attire, so too does King

/\rthur. Enraged at not having peOiJle around him bow and show deference to him, Arthur must be constantly tempered by Hank just as the prince is by Miles Hendon.

And just as the prince becomes more understanding of the suffering of his subjects, to an extent King Arthur does likewise. Arthur is not pl2ying a role when he pities the poor , emaciated , hollow-eyed woman whos e house has been ran­ sacked and emptied by the Church. She calls her husband 's death a "triumph�' because "He is in heaven , now, and happy; or if not there , he bides in hell and is content ; for in that place he will find neither abbot nor yet bishop" (p. 206 ).

This pathetic revelation makes Arthur aware of the harsh treatment afforded the poor and weak , and when she mentions her state as being a result of "the heavy hand of the Church 49

and the king" (p. 207) , Arthur "winces " (p. 207). Yet seconds later when they come across escaped serfs , Arthur thinks they should be returned to their cruel masters . Hank concludes , "There it was again. He could see only one side of it. He was born so, educated so, his veins were full of ancestral blood that was rotten with this sort of unconscious brutality , brought down by inheritance from a long procession of hearts that had each done its share toward poisoning the stream" (p. 211 ).

Not only does the pair encounter injustices and acts of desperation such as the Church confiscating property, serfs being forced to betray their kind in order to save �hemselves , men being assumed guilty until proven innocent , slaves in a snowstorm burning a witch to keep warm , a teenage girl hanged for stealing linen for her baby , but they both are sold into slavery and get first-hand knowledge of slavery's debasement. Being beaten , ill-fed , and jeered at as a serf,

King Arthur comes to regard the institution of slavery as

II abominable. • • • from being the most ind i fferent (!bout slaveri) he was become the most interested. He was become the bitterest hater of the institution I had ever heard talk" (p. 255), Hank states.

On the verge of wriggling at the end of a rope which has already hanged several other slaves , King Arthur and

Hank are miraculous ly saved by five hundred knights on bicycles

led by the ever-faithful Clarence. Missing in the information so

thereafter when both men are safely back in Camelot is any scene where the king displays any type of human compassion to his subjects as a result of what he had experienced in his disguise as a pauper. Indeed , there is very little

Arthur does cfter this except wage war on Launcelot for becoming enamored of the Lady Guenever , the king 's wife.

As a matter of fact, it would appear that Arthur 's earlier viewing of the tortured slave woman being burned alive had little effect upon him since he orders Guenever to be burned at the stake. The last we hear of the king is an offhand report by Clarence that he and Mordred have slain each other , fight ing over who is the rightful ruler of Camelot.

Ul timately, Hank Morgan the deceiver becomes Hank �organ the deceived . Like the duke and king , he knows the importance of gaining people's confidence. Yet unl ike the phony royal couple's motives , his are not purely mercenary. Mixed with a delight for power E:.My power was colossal •••I was a giant among pigmies " (pp. 53, Sn)=i , Hank realizes the Church to be more powerful (p. 53). He seems at times to be truly des irous of wanting to rid the Arthurian kingdom of poverty and inequality. His methods, however, are the wrong ones .

Deceiving himself that "material progress necessarily means 9 cultural progress,11 he imposes nineteenth-century technology upon sixth-century England , and the result is disastrous .

The Sa ttle of the Sand 3elt is Hank 's desperate attempt to save a remnant of Camelot society and himself, for , as 51

Clarence tells h im, "The Interd ict included you with Mordred : it is not to be removed while you rema in alive" Cp. 299).

Just as the king and duke are turned upon after having ga ined people's confidence, so is Hank. The ultimate irony , however, is that Eerlin, "disguised as a woma n" {p. 31 7) , deceives the deceiver. Not having the awareness 0£ the duke and king, who know when to stay and when to run, Hank is fooled by

"a magician who believed in his own magic; and no magician can thrive who is hand icapped with a superstition like that" {p. 147) . The Yankee 's motives are a combination of self-preservation and self-seeking. Finally, his actions register in his mind , so Clarence says , as "a trap of our own making •••• We had - conq uered ; i n turn we were conquered" {p. 318). 52

Notes from Chapter III

1 Mark Twa in , A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

(New York : Signet Classics , 1963), p. 14. All further refer- ences to this work appear in the text. 2 Henry Louis Mencken , The American Language , Supple- ment I (New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1960), pp. 192-93. 3 Jud ith Fetterley, "Yankee Showman and Reformer: The

Character of Mark Twain's Hank Morgan," Texas Stud ies in

Literature and Languaqe 14 (Winter 1973): 672. 4 Ibid. , P• 667. 5 rbid., p. 674. . 6 william K. Spofford , "Mark Twa in's Connecticut Yankee :

An Ignoramous Nevertheless," Mark Twain Journal 15 (Summer

1970): 15. 7 Gerald Allen, "Mark Twain's Yankee ," The New Engl and

Quarterly 39 (December 196 6): 438. 8 Fetterley, p. 674. 53

Chapter IV

Decept ion in Pudd ' nhead �ilson

Mark Twain's fourth novel , The Tragedy of Pudd 'nhead

Wilson , contains many examples of disguises and decept ion.

The slave woman, Roxana , is mot ivated , like Huck Finn , by a

sense of self-preservation and a desperation to protect a loved

1 one. Those who have called Roxy "the cause of all the trouble11

and "less Madonna than Witch, a figure from the outer dark , 2 pres id ing at an unholy ceremony of changel ings ," forget that

the woman was very distraught , facing the worst possible abuse.

She had been threatened to be "sold down the river"--"It was

the equivalent to condemning them [the Negroeu to hell"--by

Percy Driscol l, a "fairly humane man toward slaves and other

animals."3 How can one not sympathize with Roxy•·s pathetic

motherly anguish? "'Oh , I got to kill my chile, dey ain't

no yuther way--killin' him Eir iscolij wouldn't save de chile .

furn goin ' down the river ' •••she gathered her baby to her

bosom now , and began to smother it with caresses-- 'Mammy's

got to kill you •••'" (p. 14).

Yet we also not ice that Roxy feels great resentment toward

her "master" and , in turn , toward the innocent child who by a

stroke of luck has been born white and rich. And though it is

true that Roxy "strips (!om] of his birthright , denies him his 54

4 very ent itlement to be To� ," she does so under the pressure

of time, and when she must choose between the hell of being

sold and the heaven of being reared a Driscol l, she seemingly has no real choice but the latter. As Langston Hughes posits ,

"Her crimes grow out of the greater cr�mes of the slave sys- 5 tern. " And if, after the threat of being sold down the river

is lifted , Roxy d�es not switch the infants back , it is probably

for mixed reasons. First, she is a mother and as such is proud

of her son and wishes the best for him. "I never knowed you was so lovely," she purrs to her bcby. "Marse Tommy ain't a

bit puttier--not a �ingle bit" (p. 15). Second , there is a

sense of Roxy 's feel ing that her son is just as ent itled to

patrician ways as is the Driscol l boy. After all, the father

of her son was Colonel Cecil �url eigh Essex , a white aristo-

crat. The son was only one thirty-second black and looked .as white as Tom Driscoll. And using the same logic that the prince and the pauper had in Twa in's earl ier novel--that people

are judged by what they look like on the outs ide--she maintains

the deception. But unlike the earl ier pair, she d9es so not

out of curiosity or adventure but out of protective love and what she thinks is justice. Ultimately when she calls what

she did a "sin ," we cannot totally agree that she has been a

demon , especially if we compare her deception to that of others

in the novel . Frank c. Cronin concludes of the slave woman ,

"Al l of the novel 's contradictions of identity are most power-

fully realized in Roxy. Neither black nor wh ite, a moving 55

figure of tragedy who is somet imes simply comic , the slave girl is Twa in's most spiritually and physically vital woman and the novel 's most authentic human being. Her acknowledged

'sin, ' the switching of the babies , is neither premed itated nor malicious ; it is the instinctive act of a mother made 6 semi-irrational by despair over her child."

Wh en Hank Morgan was given the title "Boss ," he began to live up to it and enjoy the feel ing of power associated with it. So too do the babies "grow into" the roles associa- ted with their names . People treated Hank Morgan as "!oss " with awe and fear; people begin treating the babies in certain ways because of the feelings they associated with their names and , therefore , their supposed backgrounds. "Tom got all the petting , Chambers got none. Tom got all the delicacies ,

Chambers got mush and milk. • • • Torn was a sickly child and

Chambers wasn 't. Torn was 'fractious ' • • • and overbea ring;

Chambers was meek and docile" (p. 20 ). All the way through their growing up years , the false Torn "cuffed and banged and scratched Chambers unrebuked •••" (pp. 20-21).- The real

Tom acts as the imposter's bodyguard , fighting all of his battles with no hope of gratitude. The false slave is "Tom 's patient target whe� Torn wanted to do some snowba lling, but the target couldn 't fire back" (p. 21). Chambers does Tom 's stealing for him. Tom would taunt and play tricks on the child partly out of "native viciousness" (p. 22 } and partly out of jealousy of the slave child 's superior physical prowess. 56

After so long a time Roxy 's pretense has to �ush onwa rd , not mainly out of her own sense of justice, but because if she reveals the deception , both she and her son would be in jeopardy. It is not long , however, before Roxy's dece9tion and good intentions , like those of Hank Morgan, backfire. Her own son, who has been coddled all his life, becomes a mis- creant , totally insensitive to anyone except himself. Roxy, perhaps not entirely to blame , had created a monster. She had erred in thinking that a person given the advant�ges of white upper class society would necessarily live a better life and turn out to be a better person than one reared in slavery. This notion seems reasonable. But perhaps , as

Bradford Smith points out , " •••she cannot change the characters they were born with. The false Tom grows up to be a crook and a murderer. A man 's true identity has nothing to do with crowns and class and wealth. It is a mystery-­ 7 something rooted deep in the unknown past."

But it is not so much the revelation that people are more than their social class that bothers Roxy the most. The slave woman has a very strong sense of blood ties. Even though she has placed her son in a pos ition of supposed "white supremacy ," which includes lording over the black slaves , she is appalled when he does not want to have anything to do with her after he becomes a young man. "Didn't I change you off, en give you a good fambly en a good name, en made you a white gen'l'man . 57

and rich , wid store clothes on--en what did I git for it?

You despised me all de time, en was al 'ays sayin' mean hard

things to me befo ' folks , en wouldn 't ever let me forgit l's

a nigger--en--en--" (pp. 51-52 ) Sut Roxy cannot continue •

. "She fell to sobbing , and broke down" (p. 52). When she

proudly refers to her son as the town 's "high �stjbawn

nigger" (p. 52 ), the deflated son is forced to meekly but dis­

gustedly bow down before his mother. When Roxy identifies

herself to her son and learns of his debts and thieveries,

she feels she has at last won the upper hand , put her son in

his place, �o to speak--as a son-- , and has "somebody to rule

over" (p. 55).

Roxy's ogre son dons various disguises in the course of

events. Like Huck Finn , he dresses up as a young woman; later

he poses as an old man with a beard and a younger one with a

beard; then he arrays himself in the garments of a hobo . But

there the similarity between Huck 's false garments and Tom 's

ends. �.. :hereas Huck 's clothing had hidden a boy whose first

concern was the protection of a dear friend , Tom 's hide a thief

who seeks money. Nenl Go lstien commented on Hank Morga n's

ethics in a manner that might just as well pertain to Tom's:

He "operates in terms of profit and loss and not in terms of 8 principl e.11 Similar also to the duke and king whose petty

thievery eventually goes too far, the unscrupulous gambler

murders his "uncle" and then "put [s ]on a disguise proper for

a tramp" (p. 119). Ironically, Tom is in reality still playing 58

a false part. A tramp may be a low creature but his down­ and-out situation may be circumstances of poverty , as illus­ trated in those thrust into pauperdom in The Prince and the

Pauper. However , Tom 's lowness does not stem from lack of financial adv�ntages but from his own vile act ions .

The novel goes beyond a "deceiver deceived ," for the deception between Roxy and her son alterna tes several times .

The original pretense of Roxy 's leads to Tom 's becoming a pretender in more than just his disguises as he robs the townspeople. And Roxy is self-deceived because of her son.

Two key scenes illustrating this dllo-deception are when the mother and son meet after Roxy 's experience as a chambermaid on a Cinc innati ship and when she returns after having escaped from the plantation where she worked .

At the first meet�ng Roxy is self-deceived when she feels that Tom will remember his "mammy" G revea ling pun] who had reared him .from infancy. Later, to

Cp. 99) when she again feels that emotional ties , espec ially familial ones , should be enough to bind her and her son to­ gether. Tom , however, has heeded Pudd 'nhead Wilson 's calendar­ truth , one which the Connecticut Yankee also had ' concluded :

"Tra ining is everything" (p. 26 ). He has learned contempt for

Roxy the "nigger wench" of the "despised race" (pp. 48 , 100 ).

Yet knowing that Roxy can expose him, he plays the sycophant .

Later when Roxy offers to sacrifice herself by ensl avement so he can get money, he pretends to be grateful , "It's lovely 59

of you , mammy" (p. 100), he chokes. Roxy "poured out endear- ments upon him" (p. 99). He counters by secretly sell ing her down the river to suffer the agonies of phys ical labor and beatings which are so gross that they make slaves ' backs

"welted like a washboard" (p. 107). Tom concludes , "Yes , the little decept ion could do no harm [and] Roxy was ent irely deceived" (p. 101 ).

Twa in adds an ironic coda which ex?oses Tom , the confident lad who thought he had the upper hand . Pudd 'nhead �ilson 's newfangled fingerprinting machine works and unmasks the scoun- drel . The deceiver receives his come-uppance and is himself sold down the river. Though we may feel that "the false heir"

(p. 143 ) has gotten his just deserts , still there is his mother whose original deception instigated the problems which ensued.

Roxy , whose "heart was broken" (p. 142), had good intent ions which inadvertently pave the way to hell for her son. Also not to be forgotten is the third person hurt by both the original reversal and by the revelation of "true" identities-­ the real Tom Driscoll who had been reared as a slave. "The real heir suddenly found himself rich and free, but in a most embarrassing situation. He could neither read nor write , and his speech was the basest dialect of the negro quarter. His gait , his attitudes , his gestures , his bearing , his laugh-- all were vulgar and uncouth ; his manners were the manners of a slave. Money and fine clothes could not mend these defects or cover them up ; they only made them the more glaring and the 60

more pathetic. The poor fellow could not endure the terrors of the wh ite man's parlor, and felt at home and at peace nowhere but in the kitchen" (pp. 142-43) . Certainly, one does not feel any enlightenment or sense of positive accomplish- ment or educa tion at the end of this novel as one did at the end of the earlier novel of reversals and mistaken identity,

The Prince and the Paupe r. One is left with a bad taste in one 's mouth , with a feel ing of pity for all of the victims , perhaps even the false Tom , as they are brought to "order and justice" by Pudd 'nhead Wilson 's discl osure at court.

And what are we to make of the frustrated lawyer himself,

Pudd ' nhead Wilson? He , too, can be viewed as having been the victim of a deception but in a different way. It is not one woman who , for protect ive reasons , makes him into something he is not ; but it is the townsfolk as a whole who impose a mistaken ident ity upon the New York lawyer , a "d isguise" which lasts for over twenty yea rs. As helpless a victim as the prince and the pauper who wanted their true identities to come to light , Pudd 'nhead �ilson fights throughout his life to change the minds of those around him who label him a "pudd 'n- head." If, as Ma rio L. D'Avanzo says , Mark Twa in once remarked 9 that "One doesn't name his cha racters haphazard ," certainly

Twa in kept this in mind when choosing the name of the lawyer.

Of his character Twa in once remarked to Albert aigelow Paine :

"Pudd 'nhead Wilson came into my mind as an example of that unfortunate type of human being wh o, misund erstood at the moment 6 1

of entering a new community, may spend a lifetime trying to live down that blunder , especially if he gets catalogued by . lO some ridiculous nickname. ,,

And so it is that David Wilson , bright "young fellow of

Scotch parentage" (p. 4) , gets falsely labeled a dunce for making "his fatal remark the first day he spent in the village" (p. 4)--a joke about shoot ing his half of a dog.

II "Well , he 's a lummox , anyway ," says one villager. • • • he 's a labrick--just a Simon-pure labrick ," concludes another.

"Yes , sir he 's a dam fool ," puts in another. "Perfect jack- ass--yes , and it ain't going too far to say he is a pudd 'n- head. • • • That first day's verd ict made him a fool ••• for twenty long yea rs" (p. 5). These conclus ions tell as much about the citizens of Dawson 's Landing as they do about the newcomer. As James �. Haines states , "The townspeople's literal response to Wilson 's comment--their unfl inching and humorless consternation-- is an expres sion of their accustomed tendency to look at the world in prosaic and absolute terms.

Things are white or black , all or nothing , even with respect

11 to a joke. 11 James Gargano concurs , "• •• the community cannot penetrate disguises ; it is ready to find innocent men as murderers : and in its self-gl orying stupid ity, it singles 12 Wilson out as the village idiot .11 This certainly seems to be the case in their estimation of David Wilson--whom they conclude not "'pears" to be a fool but "is" a fool (p. 4) .

If the appellation "Boss" made Hank .Morgan an important 62

and feared personage in Arthurian England , the nickname

"Pudd 'nhead" makes young l:.'ilson a ridiculed and amusingly tolerated village'r of Dawson •s Landing. Whether Pudd 'nhead . lives up to his name is a question deb2ted among the critics.

Of the town dunce David Vanderwerken says , "Instead of re­ 13 forming the town , the town reforms him.11 Richard Cha se 14 calls Pudd 'nhead "Tom Sawyer grown up , 11 and Leslie Fiedler 15 agrees. Although Chase sees �ilson as ''finally able to vindicate his Tom Sawyer-like fantasies •••by putting them 16. to d i rect, soc i ally approved use," F i ed ler contends that

Pudd 'nhead enjoys his Tom Sawyer-like theatrics to the end as he cries out in showmanship fashion at the trial : "Valet de

Charnbre, Negro and slave •••make upon the window the finger- 17 prints that will hang you!" Philip Kol in faults Wilson for not having been "obj ective enough to see through the grotesque mask and moral facade of Dawson 's Landing •••• He befriends

Torn more than once and he is the warm and close friend of the

Judge , the one character most representing the corrupt values 18 of the community. "

Other critics argue that Pudd 'nhead is more admirable.

Robert Regan calls him a "hero-leader whose dis interested honesty and personal effectiveness in combating his and 19 society's enemies capture the common imagination. 11 Mario D'Avanzo calls him the "most substantial intellect in the town , producing true 'pudd ing ' Genius , intelligence, industry, stud iousness� from his labors all those years , 'pudding ' that leads to his 20 final triumph and redernption. 11 63

If one is looking for a savior in Pudd 'nhead �ilson, one will be disappointed. For though he seems to be the one-eyed man in the Country of the Bl ind , he falls short of becoming the king. Indeed , the reader feels as if ':Jilson

is rather two men, not one. The young man with "a rich abundance of idle time" (p. 6) circles the village label ing thousands of fingerprints over the years , read ing countless palms , and playing amateur detective. One gets the impression that Judge Driscoll and some of the other townsfolk feel rather sorry for the pudd 'nhead who also works on a "whimsical alman- ac •••a calendar� with a little dab of o�tensible philosophy, usually in ironical form. • •" (p. 28) • The Pudd 'nhead Wilson who may be vi ewed as a bit odd because of his unusual hobbies

is the man who when asked to run for mayor is "deep ly grati-

II /. f i ed (Pe 81 ) e He cons iders the act as a "debut into the town 's life and activities • • • a step upward " (p. 81 ). He enjoys the company of the judge, ·the twins , and the imposter

Tom Driscoll. Neither does he balk at being both legal coun- sel and dueling second for Luigi Cappello. In short , he seems to· embrace rather than reject the actions and values of Daw-

son 's Landing.

Twa in himself referred to '11ilson as "only a piece of machinery--a button o� a crank or a lever with a useful

function to perform in a machine, but with no dignity above 21 that. 11 Though his intell igence leads him to the rightful murderer of Judge Driscoll, he seems unconcerned with any 64 humane motive one might have for switching the two babies . in the first place: "For a purpose unknown to us , but probably a selfish one, somebody changed those children in the cradle" (p. 140), he purp·orts. Seing the bright fellow he is, he must have known that Roxy is c reasonable suspect.

But he does not go to her with · his guesses; rather , he chooses to wait until the entire town is present at the trial so that he can win more admiration. "In the final courtroom scene he serves as protector and supporter of the town 's most cherished values and institutions--includ ing the system of 2 slavery," 2 state Marvin Fisher and Michael Elliott. It would appear that Pudd 'nhead "'sees ' well enough to distinguish the true white man from the false , but not well enough • • • to perceive that the distinction itself is insane. • • • Wil- son exemplifies Twain's growing conviction that every man 's need of communal respect is so great that the individual will

necessarily be as fool ish and shortsighted as the society

that surrounds him. 11 23 Thus , ·:Jilson 's victory seems at best

to be pyrrhic.

It seems incongruous thut thi� smug , communa l-oriented man could be the same person who constructs the witty and provocative maxims of the calendar. These proverbs are some-

times mildly humorous , more times cynical and biting. Many point out man 's foibles and foolishness; many stress death as preferable to life. The clever insights about human ex istence

and experience could only have come from a man who has thought 65

long and hard about man 's fate. Pudd 'nhead either recognizes man 's shortcomings and, as no more th2n a man himselfl can do

little else than be part of such flaws . Or else he is a hypocrite who inwardly detests men 's frailties but outwardly

seeks their esteem. Whatever the case may be , one seriously wonders whether the townspeople 's original judgment of the

lawyer was so far afield , though not for the reasons they thought.

We have seen that Roxy 's decept ion is based upon selfless mot ives which arise from her emot ional ties to her son and

her concern for her own safety. Tom 's decept ions and dis-

guises are employed for sel fish reasons of greed and criminality.

Pudd 'nhead Wilson 's "disguise" is imposed upon him by the people

of the town and , as they see it, is based upon their immed iate

estim2t ion of his character and his further infantile games of

fingerprint taking and palmistry. But a more subtle and pro­

found kind of decept ion , one having its roots deeply planted

in tradition, is that which is practiced by the whole of the

Dawson 's Landing community itself.

The very initial description of the village is a deception.

Like the outer appearance of the Shepherdsons and Grangerfords

in Huckleberry Finn , the outside tableau of Dawson 's Land ing

presents a pleasant picture. Its abundance of lovely flowers

and trees , every household 's cat with "furry belly to the sun

and paw curved over her nose" (p. 1), quaint little shops and

houses , "candy-striped" barber 's pole, and clean streets are

merel y a fccade for a deeper evil which lurks below the surface 66

of the idyll: "Dawson 's La nd ing was a slaveholding town •••"

(p. 2). The horror of this statement , nonchalantly aprearing after the reader has been lulled to sl eep by the blissful town description , serves to exemp lify the giant mask wh ich covers the whole community. It tends to warn the reader that false surfaces must be penetrated in order to find the real. One must seek beyond titles and respected pillars of the community, such as Judge Driscoll, to investigate "the true character 24 beneath the social disguise. 11

Jud ge Driscoll is ultimately self-deceived as are most of the townsfolk about the tradition of slavery. �hen some of his slaves cower at his feet because he decides to sell them loca lly instead of down the river , he actually tninks of him- self as "noble and gracious'' (p. 12). He "stretched forth his mighty hand • • • like a god" (p. 12) to his creatures.

He even records the instance of his "magnaminity" so that in future years his son "might read it •••and be thereby moved to deeds of gentleness and humn nity himself" (pp. 12-13 ). Th is sham mirrors the attitude of the "nice white folks " in Huckle- berry Finn. Erring in much the snme way as do many of Haw- thorne 's characters who try to supplant God , Driscoll too commits the "Unpardonable Sin" of viewing himself outside the realm of life and is in�ensitive to man 's common huma�ity.

"The values of Percy Driscoll," writes I. M. \·Jalker, "a re bound 25 up with property, money, and power, which distort his humanity. 11

Later on the town 's preference to a duel rather than a 67

court decision to settle Tom 's dis�ute with Luigi Cappello underscores their decept ion. Like the Shepherdsons and

Grangerfords whose genteel , aristocratic demeanor masked a corrupt evil based upon a pseudorational sense of tradition, so too does the demeanor of the respected gentry of Dawson 's

Land ing hide a bloodthirsty inhumanity. Judge Driscol l, who by his very calling as a judge of a court and his membership in the society of freethinkers , would seem to be one who ·would be fair and not prone to violence, is the very one who berates his "nephew" for not fighting for his honor. This Colonel

Grangerford-like judge is "proud of his old Virginia ancestry, and in his hospital ities and his rather formal and stately manners he kept up its traditions" (p. 3).· One of those

"gentlemanly" traditions is evidentally that "Honor stood first" (p. 71 ). And this tradition is to be defended by physi­ cal combat , not verbal agreement . The judge's mask of gent ility falls when he screams at Tom , "You cur t You scum ! You ver- min! Do you mean to tell me that blood of my race has suffered a blow and crawled to a court of law about it?" Cp. 73 ) Ul­ timately the town cannot see beyond its fixed values. As

Vanderwerken points out , "The town had raised the drawbridges to its mind long ago, and they had rusted shut. • • • Dawson's

Land ing is only an American version of a walled town in the 26 Dark Ages."

If this last of the four Twain novels examined seems to be the most negative indictment of the human race, perhaps it 68

is because no individual in the novel dares to combat the traditions of .society. No wee small voice intrudes upon the complacent people to tell them to wake up and reconsider their ways . No one even approaches trying to remove the monstrous disguise which society wears and feels comfortable in. No prince and pauper realize that impoverished people are not animals to be brutalized . No Huck Finn flees civili- zation 's stagnation and breaks through the racial barrier to accept one black ma n. No Harney Shepherdson and Sophia Granger­ ford demonstrate the idiocy of basing murder of one 's fellow man upon trad ition. And no little Cl?.rence finally realizes that progress is not measured in sticks of dynamite and elec­ tric fences. Pudd 'nhead Wilson might have held the one candle of hope which would spa rk the way to some kind of enlighten­ ment for some member of society. But all he does is prove that his fingerprinting stud ies are not a fluke, and thus he endears himself to those in the community. He melts into the society.

His candle flickers and dies. Philip Kolin concludes ,

''Pudd'nhead Wilson is a tragic masterpiece. It fits Twain's description of the form : Everyone's hopes are bitterly denied . Tom is sold down the river. Roxy loses her son she hoped to save and with him her security. The Driscoll name perishes. • • • The town and its citizens retreat into the ignominy brought about by their callous attitude toward human life. Even Pudd 'nhead suffers defeat, for his victory 27 is a fruitless one. It only underscores his deception. 11 69

Fisher and Elliot summarize the upshot of the novel succinctly

as "a bitter _burl esque of what America was supposed to be and a painful depiction of what it had come to be--one nation, under God , infinitely divisible, with mockery of justice for 28 a11. 11 70

Notes from Chapter IV

1 11unsigned Rev iew of Pudd 'nhead 'd i lson," Athenaeum (Jan- uary 1895), in Mark Twa in: The Critical Heritage , ed . Frederick

Anderson (New York : Barnes & Noble, Inc. , 1971), p. 183. 2 c1ark Griffith , "Pudd 'nhead ;:i il son as Dark Comedy,"

Engl ish Literary History 43 (Summer 1976): 210.

3 Mark Twa in, � Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (New York :

Bantam Books , 1971), p. 10. Al l further references to this work appear in the text.

4 Griffith , p. 209. 5 Langston Hughes , Introd. , Pudd 'nhead Wilson , by �ark Twa in

(New York : Bantam Books , 1971), p. x. 6 Frank c. Cronin , "The Ul timate Perspective in Pudd 'nhead

Wilson ," Mark Twa in Journal 16 (Winter 1971-72): 15. 7 Bradford Smith , "Mark Twa in and the Mystery of Identity ,"

College Engl ish 24 (March 1963): 426. 8 Neal Golstien , "Mark Twa in's Money Problems ," Bucknell

Review 19 (Spring 1971): 48. 9 Ma rio L. D'Avanzo , "In the Name of Pudd 'nhead ," Mark Twa in

Journal 16 (Summer 1972): 13. lO Joseph B. McCullough , "Pudd 'nhead 'll ilson: A Search for

Identity," Mark Twa in Journal 18 (Summer 1977) : 1. 71

11 James s. Hain�s , "Of Dogs and Men : A Symbolic Variation on the Twin Motif in Pudd 'nhead Wilson ," t-:a rk Twain Journal 18

(Winter 1976-77) : 15. 12 James Ga rgano , "Pudd 'nhead Wilson : Mark Twa in as Genial

Satan ," South At lantic Quarterly 74 (Summer 1975): 370. 13 oavid Vanderwerken, "The Triumph of Med ieval ism in

Pudd 'nhead ·.·:ilson," t-:ark Twa in Journal 18 (Summer 1977) : 7. 14 Richard Chase , The American Novel and . its Trad ition

(New York : Doubleday & Company, Inc. , 1957), p. 150. 15 Leslie Fiedler, "'As Free as Any Cretur ••• ,'" The

� Republ ic , August 15, 1955, p. 18. 16 Chase, p. 152. 17 Fiedler, p. 18. 18 Phil fp Kol in , "Mark Twa in , Aristotle, and Pudd • nhead

Wilson ," Mark Twa in Journal 15 (Summer 1970): 4. 19 Robert Regan, Unpromis ing Heroes : Mark Twain and His

Characters (Berkeley: University of California , 1966), p. 210. 20 o•Avanzo, p. 14. 21 Henry Nash Smith , Mark Twain: The Developm ent of a ':Jr iter

(Cambridge: Harvard University Press , 1962 ), p. 181 . 22 Marvin Fisher and Michael Elliott, "Pudd 'nhead ':lilson :

Half a Dog is Worse than None," Southern Review 8 (Summer 1972):

540. 23 Mark D. Coburn , "'Training Is Everything ': Communal Opinion and the Individual in Pudd 'nhead l.·J ilson," Modern Langu age Quar- terly 31 (June 1970): 219. 72

24 sradford Smith, p. 425 . 2 5 r. M. Walker, Mark Twa in (New York : Humanities Press,

1970) , p. 88. 26 Vand erwerken , p. 8. 27 Kolin, p. 4. 28 Fisher and Elliott , p. 547. 73

Conclusion

Disguise and deception are prevalent throughout the four novels I.hit Prince §.n2.. �Pauper , The Ad ventures of Huckle­ berry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur 's Court , and

The Tragedy of Pudd 'nhead Wilson. At times the deception is ba sed upon selfless motivations, espec ially a desire to secure safety or happiness for a loved one. Sometimes reasons for deceit include preservation of the deceiver's own life. In general when these types of deception occur , one tends to accept them as necessary for the immediate situation. Such deception usually happens when the perpetrator is under great st ress and when time does not allow for calculation or re­ flection. This type of deceit is expressed by Huck Finn as he journeys down the Mississippi, never knowing_ who might be after his close companion Jim. Huck is always in danger of being punished for harboring a sl ave and under threat of being returned to "sivilization." It is mainly this kind of decep­ tion which Roxy practices as she faces the menace of being

sold down the river. 8oth she and her infant son become in peril of physical abuse and unknown terrors that await them at their master 's godlike discretion. The thieves in � Prince

!.!:!.£ � Pauper don false attire to keep from being imprisoned

for not paying their debts. Hank Morgan 's deception begins as 74

a means of self-preservation. �eing sentenced to death within

twenty-four hours , he must rapidly come up with a way to save

.his life. Deception employed for purely sel fless purposes

usually is rewarded by escape from disaster. Such is the

case with Huck .

In Roxy and Hank , however , other motives are co-mingled

with positive ones . 5oth characters are ultimately destroyed

spiritually; both are finally self-deceived. Roxy is mistaken

in her belief that race is the determining factor in one 's

character and that blood is necessarily thicker than water.

Hank errs in thinking that progress in technology necessitates

progress in men 's attitudes and bel iefs.

Mot ives of curiosity and adventure gu ide the prince and

the pauper to trade clothes and lifestyles for a time. Th is

"putting ones elf in someone else's shoes" serves to enl ighten

both participants in the deception , making each aware of the

pastures and the deserts on the other side of the fence and

causing both to be more sympathetic toward their fellow men •

. When King Arthur dresses in peasant 's attire, however, results

are not so successful. Though he attacks the injustice done

to the poor, when he returns to the throne, there is no evi­

dence that he makes any changes in the system.

In some of the works decept ion also stems from more

negative roots. Tom Driscoll 's numerous disguises conceal

his desire to steal and not be recognized . The duke and king

swindle citizens of their money and sell a man for forty dollars. 75

Because he desired financial gains , Miles Hendon 's brother deceives their father into thinking the son is disobed ient.

Tom Sawyer 's fantasy games provice a deception to those around him as he unfeelingly plays havoc with a man 's life.

Totally self-deceived and glory seeking, Tom cannot finally distinguish between what is real and what is not. Hank

Morgan progressively uses deception to mask a relish for power.

The Shepherdsons and Grangerfords as well as the Dawson 's

Land ing citizenry deceive outsiders into feel ing admiration for their surface hospitality and loveliness. They hold to time-worn traditions of honor, social class and racial supremacy , and violent revenge, which hid� below their gent ility. David

Wilson suffers from a label placed upon him by the towns folk of Dawson 's Land ing. Considered a "pudd'nhead" for making what was thought to be an idiotic remark , the young man ulti­ mately lives up to his name , incorporating himself into the village's corrupt system.

In general , deception built upon bad foundation crumbles and causes the deceiver's downfall. Outcomes of such vile­ based deceits include enslavement , banishment , physical abuse, and continued stagnation. Wh ile in the first three novels there rests some hope of people's escaping from the negative, deeply-rooted deceptions--ones based upon greed , lust for. power and glory , and tradition--there rema ins none in the last work.

One concludes that it may sometimes be fitting to use 76

disguises and deception if motives are directed toward the safety of oneself or the �ell-be ing of others . Stepping out of one 's customary environment to another can be educat ive and beneficial , causing an ind ividual to grow in awareness of others. Deceit which is selfish , on the other hand , is harmful and a�fords no positive result. Such deceit is not based upon human sympathy and understand ing. Rather, it springs from diseased souls who are out to take instead of give , out to gloat superiority , wealth, power , and a false sense of tradition. Such deception serves only to cause men to forget that they ultimately share a similar fate. And knowledge of that fate is better endured through common sympathy. 77

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