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| Novel
– Pudd’nhead Wilson
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It’s a common fact that the majority of literary critics
state that a “black” line of serious financial
problems was the only reason which caused the writing of Twain
to become dark and pessimistic. The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead
Wilson was one of the books written in this so-known period
of darkness.
We should also note here that Pudd’nhead Wilson was
created in a special period of time when it had become obvious
that Reconstruction – the process of reintegration of
the confederate states of America to the United States of
America and of numerous attempts to create a definite place
for freed people, former slaves, in the society – hadn’t
been a great success, but vice versa had entirely failed.
The only things that could characterize and define race relations
were the Ku Klux Klan gatherings and the laws of Jim Crow.
Although Twain continued to write about South, he had not
lived there anymore.
What’s curious is that nearly all of his works were
set in the years when Twain was a little boy, that’s
before the Civil War. I do think that’s because his
great desire was to write about everything he brought to the
life of the grown-up from his childhood; or probably he set
the majority of his works in the past because of his having
sought not an exposition of the present but a view at its
reasons or alternatives – the eternal question “what
could have been”, “had things changed a little”.
For instance, Huckleberry Finn suggests a fantasy of what
could have been, and Pudd’nhead Wilson states that there
was no way out of the situation, no way to escape the current
disorder, mess. By its nature the structure of Pudd’nhead
Wilson is itself a little bit messy.
In his “Author’s notes to Those Extraordinary
Twins” Mark Twain states that from the very beginning
the novel was thought to be about the twins Luigi and Angelo,
whom he had presented as Siamese twins. He was sure that could
make their sideshow past more explicit and clear, and it could
also explain the definite awkwardness of the text. As the
story went away from its initial course and aim, and on the
whole had greatly changed, Mark Twain had to do something
to make the new plot work. We shouldn’t pay attention
to the fact that many people consider Twain to be a rather
sloppy writer, we should note here that the greater part of
these so-called “awkward places” really contribute
to the whole story, they just bring the breath of life to
it.
I do think that Mark Twain might have been doing everything
to escape rewriting, usually even leaving some coarse, rough
edges, but in spite of all these he was a talented, intelligent
and perceptive author.
Now I would like to turn to my thoughts about Pudd’nhead
Wilson. This novel is rather unusual for me, it simultaneously
presents a mixture of numerous incompatible ingredients: vulgar
and high-class, new and old, farcical and serious. On the
whole a perfect, known to all of us microcosm of Mark Twain’s
works. We also can’t without mentioning about Twain’s
nod to tradition and history.
As the title of the novel claims, Pudd'nhead Wilson is to
be a serious tragedy, and we all note something essential,
important and critical is at stake.
By making a frivolous attempt to dispose himself in an older
and larger tradition, Twain states that his novel depicts
a set of problems crucial not only for America, but for the
whole world.
Pudd’nhead Wilson occupies a remarkable position among
the great works of the eighteenth century and these of our
times, because of its sharing the characteristic features
of both groups. A story told in dramatic episodes by an omniscient
author with a special ironic approach to the material.
To all these, mentioned above Pudd’nhead Wilson depicts
a bizarre, freakish world, the characters of which are diligently
playing their roles in what can only be defined as a severe
Joke.
We can trace three main plot lines in this tragedy of Pudd'nhead
Wilson. All of them come together at the end of the novel,
in a murder trial.
...The main character is Pudd'nhead Wilson, a Northerner coming
to the small town of Dawson's Landing with the only desire
to set up a law practice. But he isn’t a success, and
nearly all of his time is devoted to such hobbies as fingerprinting
and palmistry. Having only one true friend, he devotes himself
to science and self-development, writing a calendar full of
dark proverbs and clever sayings (by the way these sayings
provide epigraphs for every chapter of the novel). Wilson
is an outsider, he thinks differently from all the other people.
I should say, that’s what I like about him. I don’t
think it’s good when all people are alike and similar,
it’s a great problem, but the even a greater problem
is when other people don’t understand the person who
differs from them, differs in all kinds of this word. Such
person becomes the odd one out. That’s the most difficult
cross the man can carry, misunderstanding is even worse than
treachery. A person who overcomes all these becomes stronger
several times.
...Roxana, a beautiful slave, she can pass for white. In order
to save her little son from being sold away from her, she
changes him with the son of her master. The only thing that
she gained is that her son grew up a very severe, cruel, immoral
person, ready to sell his real mother as a thing.
There have been a lot of disputes about this image. What one
critic deplores, another admires. I’ve read Henry Nash
Smith’s words: “I do believe that Roxy is the
only fully developed character, in the novelistic sense, in
the book”, and along with this I would like to refer
to the words of Arthur Pettit who said: “Roxy is another
example of the “tragic mulatto” type and not a
very good example at that for she is really two persons –
a black and a white – and is neither black nor white
long enough at a stretch to be entirely convincing”.
If to speak about my own attitude to this character, I should
say that it is very close to the image of a common woman,
though it changes with the flow of the years. Every woman
thinks at first about her family which always presents a great
part of her soul, and only then about herself. Everything
a woman does is for the sake of her child, and it’s
not her blame that sometimes everything she does turns not
as it has been planned before.
...The third plot line traces the life of Italian twins Luigi
and Angelo, the former performers of numerous sideshows. One
of the things that interests and intrigues me most of all
is the history of creation of these personages. In 1892, being
inspired by seeing the Siamese twins in Europe, Mark Twain
wrote his “Those Extraordinary Twins”. But in
1893 the author changed this title to “Pudd’nhead
Wilson”. As he wrote later he wanted to focus on several
characters simultaneously. He wrote: “I finished the
story, and there appeared other characters I wanted to focus
on. It’s like a string of a skein – noone knows
where it can lead you.”
...What I love most of all in this novel is that all the
characters are different and each of them brings a certain
part of feelings and emotions inside themselves, it doesn’t
even matter whether they are positive or negative, together
they make an unforgettable impression.
Literature used:
1. Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson: The Development
and Design (Bowling Green, Ohio: Bowling Green Univesity Popular
Press, 1971);
2. Mark Twain, The Development of a Writer (Cambridge: Harvard
University Press, 1998);
3. The American Novel and Its Tradition (Garden City, New
York: Doublday, 1991).
eferences:
1. “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson.” <http://www.sparknotes.com>
(December 21);
2. “Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain.” <http://www.mtwain.com>
(January 13);
3. “The Main Characters and Their Features.” <http://www.users.telerama.com>
(January 15);
4. “Pudd’nhead Wilson by Mark Twain.” <http://www.americanliterature.com>
(January 22);
5. “A Whisper to The Reader by Mark Twain.” <http://www.pagebypagebooks.com>
(February 12);
6. “Pudd’nhead Wilson.” <http://www.geocities.com>
(February 16);
7. “Mark Twain and His Main Works.” <http://www.gutenberg.org>
(February 26);
8. “Mark Twain: His Life and Works.” <http://www.imdb.com>
(March 1);
9. “Pudd’nhead Wilson as one of the Best Works
of Mark Twain.” <http://www.whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au>
(March 3);
10. “Mark Twain. His Best Works.” <http://www.liquotes.com>(March
13).
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