Puddn'Head Wilson

Did anything in your life happen that has ever seemed to be both tragic and comic at the same time? This may be an unusual question to ask, but the truth is, many things happen that are both tragic and comic in everyday life. To a teenager growing up today, maybe a teacher falling down a flight of stairs may be comic to him, but it is definitely a tragedy for the teacher. Not in all cases however, does a comedy have to involve somebody being hurt, nor involve direct comedy, such as jokes that are shared. Tragedy is most of the time, an event resulting in great loss and misfortune. Comedy is basically, a humorous occurrence. In the novel "Pudd'nhead Wilson", by Mark Twain, the author makes the story both tragic and comic, through the use of the literary element irony.

In the novel, Mark Twain uses various things about society in tragic ways. He uses numerous issues, but one of the issues in the novel, which was also an important issue during Twain's time, was slavery. Slavery is actually one of the topics that may be seen most as a tragedy in the novel, much more than any other topic. It reflects something that was not just a tragedy in the novel, but a real life tragedy. Addressing slavery and the cruel acts against blacks during the 1800's, was clearly one of the authors aims when writing this novel. The town in the novel named Dawson's Landing, believe in the "one drop rule". The one drop rule assumes that once you are part black, even if it is a very small percentage because of black ancestors, then you are automatically a slave. This rule applied especially to Chambers because he was part black. It didn't matter that he had almost no black in him, but the fact was that he did because of his mother Roxy. Roxy was also only part black and was considered a slave. Slaves such as Chambers and Roxy, were treated very unfairly. An example of how unfairly they were treated may be how the more superior Tom, treated his mother and Chambers. He was very disrespectful to both, and also made Chambers fight his battles, basically using him. Slaves were automatically blamed for crimes such as, stealing. There is an incident when Percy Driscoll's money is stolen and the slaves are blamed and threatened. Percy Driscoll threatened the slaves by saying , "I give you one minute. If at the end of that time, you have not confessed, I will not only sell all four of you, but - I will sell you DOWN THE RIVER!"(p.33). The slaves automatically confessed to the crime because they were scared to be sold down the river. Being sold down the river was such a great fear to slaves because conditions in the South were worse than the conditions in the North.

The author uses comedy in some instances of the story. One instance at which Twain uses comedy in the novel, is when Luigi kicks Tom off of the stage. Luigi's actions were a result of Tom's comment stating, "Boys, I move that he keeps still and lets this human philopena snip you out a speech."(p.89). Luigi was clearly offended by Tom's drunken witticism and left Tom flying into the audience. Tom's comment towards Luigi was funny itself, but the effect of Tom's comment was even funnier. This incident is directly related to Mark Twain's quote, "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear."(p.92). Tom is very fearful of honoring the Judge's name and dueling Luigi, after the scene when Luigi kicks Tom off of the stage. Instead, he embarrasses the Judge's name by being cowardly and taking Luigi to court for a trial. Everybody has a fear. A person cannot be brave, rather can just master and control his or her fears, which Tom clearly couldn't do. The resistance to fear is courage, something that Tom lacked, in this case. Tom wasn't able to disregard the consequences of what his duel with Luigi would be, and let his fears get the best of him. The whole comedy in this; is that Tom took a highly different approach when dealing with Roxy and Chambers. He felt highly superior to them, and therefore was able to mistreat the both of them. When dealing with Luigi however, Tom and his state of mind had shrank so much, that he should have been considered almost invisible. It may also be interpreted as Luigi being the more superior human being in this case, and Tom maybe even taking the role of Roxy and Chambers, in a sense. It is funny that not too long ago Tom was a big and bad character, but when confronted by Luigi, was merely nothing.

The novel gives an example of how something can be both tragic and comic at the same time, through irony. In the beginning of the novel, David Wilson makes a remark about a dog stating, " I wish I owned half of that dog because I would kill my half"(P25). This remark damages Wilson's reputation, portraying him as a very ignorant person by the people in Dawson's Landing, and also earning him the nickname "Pudd'nhead Wilson." Pudd'nhead Wilson is also seen as a very weird person because of his unique hobby of collecting people's