The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson
Mark Twain’s The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, taking place in the mid 1800’s, is full of prejudice’s and stereotypes that we recognize, sadly, as a social norm in a southern society at that time. One of the novel’s main characters, David Wilson, is a lawyer travelling from the North to Dawson’s Landing to start his career as a lawyer. Unfortunately, upon entering the town, he makes a joke to the locals that they don’t understand, and they instantly think him insane, calling him a “pudd’nhead”, thus labeling him “Pudd’nhead Wilson”, a nickname he would adopt from that point on and prevent him from pursuing his career as a lawyer. That is, until twenty years later, when he is given the opportunity to prove a man’s innocence against a crime Wilson believes he did not commit. While the town’s social code has labeled Wilson incompetent as a lawyer and unintelligent, the hard facts he presents to them will undeniably trump their opinions of him and prove his legitimacy.
At the beginning of the novel, Wilson makes a clever comment to a group of men in Dawson’s Landing about owning “half a dog”. The joke is beyond their understanding, so before even questioning him or getting to know the man at all, they label him a “pudd’nhead”, spreading the nickname and rumors around the town, until Wilson is thought of as stupid and incompetent, ruining his plans of pursuing his career as a lawyer. “But for an unfortunate remark of his, he would no doubt have entered at once upon a successful career at Dawson’s Landing. But he made his fatal remark at the first day he spent in the village, and it “gaged” him.” (Twain, pg. 24) He does, however, take up a hobby of collecting the townsfolk’s’ fingerprints on the side, which will prove life-saving in the future.
While Wilson takes everyone in the town’s fingerprints, the set that would prove most important are that of young Tom and Chambers. Tom is a young white heir to an expensive estate, and Chambers is the son of a 1/18th black slave. As different as the two may seem, they look nearly identical, which is why Roxy, Chamber’s mom, switches the two at a very young age to prevent her son from being sold down the river as a slave. Before she does this, however, “Wilson took the fingerprints, labeled them with the names and with he date-October the first” (Twain, pg. 51). He would periodically record everyone’s fingerprints, including the boys, from then on until adulthood. This proves useful when the Italian twin’s that comes to town twenty years later, Luigi and Angelo Capello, are accused of murdering “Tom’s” uncle, Judge Driscoll, and Wilson sets out to prove their innocence. After many night’s of plotting how to prove his theory, Wilson studies his fingerprints and discovers that the bloody fingerprint left on the murder weapon that was used to kill Judge Driscoll is identical to that of “Tom’s”. He also discovers the switch that Roxy made, and plans to use this as evidence in the court to clear the Capello twins’ names. While the townsfolk may have labeled Wilson as incompetent and stupid, the evidence he brings forth to them is undeniable, and fact always trumps opinion, no matter what the societal beliefs may be.
Wilson starts, “I have here the natal autographs of two children—thrown up to ten times the natural size by the pantograph, so that any one who can see at all can tell the markings apart at a glance. We will call the children A and B. Here are A’s finger-marks, taken at the age of five months. Here they are again, taken at seven months. They are alike, you see. Here are B’s at five months, and also at seven months. They, too, exactly copy each other, but the patterns are quite different from A’s, you observe.” (Twain, pg. 293). He continues, “May it please the court, the State has claimed, strenuously and persistently, that the blood-stained finger-prints upon that knife-handle were left there by the assassin of Judge Driscoll. You have heard us grant that claim, and welcome it.” He turned to the jury: “Compare the finger-prints of the accused with the finger-prints left by the assassin—and report.” (Twain, pg. 295). In awe, the jury states unanimously that the prints “Do not even resemble”, thus proving the Capello twins’ innocence, along with “Tom’s” guiltiness (Twain, pg. 296). Wilson’s reputation is replenished, the twin’s are set free, and “Tom” soon after confesses to his crime (Twain, pg. 297).
Unfortunately, the fate of the real Tom and Chamber’s is not such a happy ending. While Roxy made the boys’ switch hoping to save Chambers’ life, he met the same fate she feared for him and was sold down the river, and in turn grew up to be an evil, horrible man (Twain, pg. 303) “Roxy’s heart was broken. The young fellow upon whom she had inflicted twenty-three years of slavery continued the false heir’s pension of thirty-five dollars a month to her, but her hurts were too deep for money to heal” (Twain, pg. 302). As for Tom, his fate ended up being, unjustly, the saddest of all. While he was now rich and free, this meant nothing in a society with such prejudice and divided lifestyles, and he fit in nowhere, feeling utterly alone. “The poor fellow could not endure the terrors of the white man’s parlor, and felt at home and at peace nowhere but in the kitchen. The family pew was a misery to him, yet he could nevermore enter into the solacing refuge of the “nigger gallery”—that was closed to him for good and all” (Twain, pg. 302). The resonance of racism and social rank in Dawson’s Landing has left Tom, both a slave and a white man, stuck in between two completely different worlds, abandoned by both, and essentially alone. It is heartbreaking that he, the innocent one, is left with the short end of the stick throughout the novel.
The resonance in the southern society, specifically in Dawson’s Landing, strips everyone of a certain freedom. Wilson should have had the freedom to go to the town and start his career as a lawyer, being as qualified as he was, but the popular belief that he was incompetent because of a misunderstood joke and rumors spread by a few well-known townspeople, kept him from doing so, derailing his whole career and life. While slavery was and is an awful crime, even for that time, being only 1/18th black, Roxy was still forced to live her life being treated poorly as a slave, as was her son. This harsh reality is what compelled her to make the switch, altering the boys’ lives forever, and for the bad. “Tom’s” choices, as he grew up to be an immoral, selfish man, would lead to a domino effect of theft, murder and lies. Ultimately, the resonance of societal beliefs and social norms in this town had only negative effects, and proved to be unjust and immoral.
Works Cited
Twain, Mark. The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Vol. Ebook #102. Hartford: American, 1894. Print.
WRITTEN BY: GRACE RILEY
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