INTRODUCTION TO PUDD’NHEAD WILSON

BY MARK TWAIN

BACKGROUND

• HIS REAL NAME WAS SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS

• “MARK TWAIN” IS A STEAMBOATING TERM THAT IS USED TO MEASURE WATER DEPTH.

• BORN IN A YEAR WHEN HALLEY’S COMET CAME AROUND (1835) AND DIED 75 YEARS LATER WHEN IT AGAIN APPEARED (1910).

• HE IS ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS AMERICAN WRITERS.

• HUCKLEBERRY FINN IS STILL CONSIDERED ONE OF THE GREATEST AMERICAN NOVELS.

• HEMINGWAY SAID OF HIM THAT “ALL MODERN AMERICAN LITERATURE COMES FROM [TWAIN].”

• MANY OF HIS STORIES FOCUS ON THE AMERICAN SOUTH WHERE HE USES HIS HUMOR AND MORALS TO CRITIQUE SOCIAL INJUSTICE

• HE IS WELL KNOWN FOR HIS USE OF REGIONAL DIALECT THAT SHOWS THE TRUE PATTERNS OF SPEECH HIS CHARACTERS WOULD HAVE. THIS TYPE OF WRITING IS OFTEN REFERRED TO AS “LOCAL COLOR” WRITING. USED SATIRE AND HUMOR TO POINT OUT HUMANITY’S FAULTS.

• MUCH OF HIS SATIRE RELIES ON IRONIC SITUATIONS INVOLVING RACE AND MISTAKEN IDENTITIES.

• TWAIN WAS BORN IN A SOUTHERN SLAVE STATE BUT TRAVELED EXTENSIVELY.

• HE LIVED MOST OF HIS LIFE IN SAN FRANCISCO AND VISITED EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST.

• HE SAID OF TRAVEL THAT IT WAS “FATAL TO PREJUDICE, BIGOTRY AND NARROW-MINDEDNESS.”

• WHAT DOES THE ABOVE QUOTE MEAN? WHAT DOES IT TELL US ABOUT TWAIN?

Motifs to annotate for in Pudd’nhead Wilson:• Racial

inequality • Nature vs.

Nurture• The power of

entitlement• Public vs.

Private personas

• Importance of Social Status

SETTING AND TIME FRAME • DAWSON’S LANDING IN MISSOURI ALONG THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

• SLAVERY IN THE PRE-CIVIL WAR SOUTH (THOUGH TWAIN WAS WRITING IT DURING THE TIME OF THE MOSTLY FAILING RECONSTRUCTION OF THE SOUTH)

• WHITE AND THE WEALTHY RULED BUT NEEDED TO BE MORAL AND UPRIGHT CITIZENS TO KEEP UP THEIR REPUTATION IN TACT AND OUT OF TOWN GOSSIP.

CHARACTERS

DAVID WILSON (PUDD’N HEAD)

• TOWN ECCENTRIC

• COMES TO DAWSON'S LANDING INTENDING TO SET UP A LAW PRACTICE, WHICH GOES NOWHERE.

• MISUNDERSTOOD SENSE OF HUMOR

• WRITES A CALENDAR FULL OF CLEVER SAYINGS AND DARK PROVERBS, WHICH PROVIDES THE EPIGRAPHS FOR EACH CHAPTER OF THE TEXT.

• AN OUTSIDER WHO THINKS A LITTLE DIFFERENTLY FROM THE REST OF THE TOWNSPEOPLE.

• HOBBIES INCLUDE: PALMISTRY, FINGERPRINTING, PHILOSOPHY.

ROXANA (ROXY)  - 

• BEGINS AS A SLAVE OWNED BY PERCY DRISCOLL.

• ONLY ONE-SIXTEENTH BLACK, SHE LOOKS WHITE.

• GIVES BIRTH TO A SON, CHAMBERS, WHO WILL LATER BE KNOWN AS "TOM" WHEN SHE SWITCHES HIM WITH ANOTHER INFANT.

• TOUGH, INTELLIGENT, AND RESOURCEFUL

• FREED WHEN PERCY DRISCOLL DIES, SHE IS THE CHARACTER MOST THREATENED BY SLAVERY.

JUDGE DRISCOLL

• A MEMBER OF A PROMINENT VIRGINIA FAMILY, THE JUDGE IS A LEADING CITIZEN OF DAWSON'S LANDING

• HE ADOPTS THOMAS WHEN PERCY, HIS BROTHER, DIES SINCE HIS WIFE AND HE CANNOT HAVE CHILDREN.

• VALUES ABOVE ALL THINGS HONOR

CHARACTERS• THOMAS DRISCOLL (ACTUAL NAME) IS THE SON OF PERCY DRISCOLL BORN INTO WHITE PRIVILEGE.

• TOM IS SWITCHED WITH ROXY'S BABY CHAMBERS WHEN HE IS ONLY A FEW MONTHS OLD, AND IS CALLED "CHAMBERS" FROM THEN ON.

• RAISED, IN OTHER WORDS, AS A SLAVE.

• SO WHEN REFERRING TO THOMAS FROM HERE ON OUT WE ARE ACTUALLY REFERRING TO . . .

• VALET DE CHAMBRE OR CHAMBERS (ACTUAL NAME) ROXY'S SON.

• SWITCHED BY HIS MOTHER WITH THOMAS DRISCOLL, A WHITE CHILD WHO SHARES HIS BIRTHDAY AND LOOKS JUST LIKE HIM.

• FROM THEN ON HE IS KNOWN AS "TOM.“

• RAISED AS A WHITE HEIR TO A SUBSTANTIAL ESTATE, "TOM" IS SPOILED, VICIOUS, AND DISSOLUTE. HIS PENCHANT FOR GAMBLING LEADS HIM INTO DEBT, AND HIS "UNCLE," JUDGE DRISCOLL, FREQUENTLY DISINHERITS HIM, ONLY TO REWRITE HIS WILL AGAIN.

• NOTE: THE TERM “VALET DE CHAMBRE” IS FRENCH FOR MANSERVANT. SO ROXY NAMED HER KID BUTLER.

LUIGI AND ANGELO  -  LUIGI AND ANGELO CAPELLO, A SET OF NEAR-IDENTICAL TWINS, APPEAR IN DAWSON'S LANDING IN REPLY TO AN AD PLACED BY AUNT PATSY, WHO IS LOOKING FOR A BOARDER.

• THEY CLAIM TO BE THE CHILDREN OF AN ITALIAN NOBLEMAN WHO WAS FORCED TO FLEE ITALY AFTER A REVOLUTION AND DIED SOON AFTERWARD.

• THE TWINS ARE GOOD-LOOKING AND SMOOTH-TALKING, AND THE TOWNSPEOPLE FALL OVER THEMSELVES TRYING TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THEM.

• LUIGI'S TEMPER GETS HIM INTO TROUBLE IN DAWSON'S LANDING, TOO: HE ASSAULTS "TOM" AFTER "TOM" INSULTS HIM.

• WHILE THEY SEEM SUSPICIOUS, THE TWINS ARE NEVER UNMASKED AS CONMEN

EPIGRAMS• A FANCY WORD FOR ADVICE OR CLEVER SAYINGS.

• PUDD’NHEAD WILSON HAS A WHOLE CALENDAR HE MADE OF THEM.

• EACH CHAPTER IN THE NOVEL IS ACCOMPANIED WITH ONE, THEY WILL HELP SET THE TONE AND GIVE ADVICE TO CHARACTERS IN THAT CHAPTER.

• “THERE IS NO CHARACTER, HOWSOEVER GOOD AND FINE, BUT IT CAN BE DESTROYED BY RIDICULE, HOWSOEVER POOR AND WITLESS. OBSERVE THE ASS, FOR INSTANCE: HIS CHARACTER IS ABOUT PERFECT, HE IS THE CHOICEST SPIRIT AMONG ALL THE HUMBLER ANIMALS, YET SEE WHAT RIDICULE HAS BROUGHT HIM TO. INSTEAD OF FEELING COMPLIMENTED WHEN WE ARE CALLED AN ASS, WE ARE LEFT IN DOUBT.”