The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

"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 fateful remark the first day he spent in the village, and it ‘gaged" him.’" 

Twain characterizes the residents of Dawson's Landing as narrow-minded and judgmental. David Wilson's comment about the barking dog seals his fate for two decades as the townspeople, unaccustomed to sarcasm and irony, fail to understand Wilson and characterize him a fool, a "pudd'nhead." 

"To all intents and purposes Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her which was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a Negro. She was a slave, and salable as such."

Racial identity is a recurring theme in Twain's work, and in this   description of Roxy, Twain emphasizes that the racial categories on which slavery rested were biologically meaningless yet used to absurd and horrific ends. 

"Was she bad? Was she worse than the general run of her race? No. They had an unfair show in the battle of life, and they held it no sin to take military advantage of the enemy—in a small way, but not in a large one." 

Twain discusses the temptation Roxy feels to steal two dollars from Percy Driscoll and reveals his sympathy towards the plight of enslaved people. However, Twain qualifies what is forgivable: a "small" advantage. When Roxy switches Thomas à Becket Driscoll and Valet de Chambre, there is no way the deception could be considered a "small" advantage.

"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!"

This threat, made by Percy Driscoll to his slaves, catalyzes the entire novel. Being sold down the Mississippi River to a Southern plantation, where workers labored long hours in the broiling sun and endured harsh living conditions, was the fear of many midwestern slaves. Roxy so fears this fate for herself and for her son that she switches Valet de Chambre and Tom Driscoll. 

"He knew, himself, that he had done a noble and gracious thing, and was privately well pleased with his magnanimity; and that night he set the incident down in his diary, so that his son might read it in after years, and be thereby moved to deeds of gentleness and humanity himself."

"He knew, himself, that he had done a noble and gracious thing, and was privately well pleased with his magnanimity; and that night he set the incident down in his diary, so that his son might read it in after years, and be thereby moved to deeds of gentleness and humanity himself."

"Dey ain't but one man dat I's afeard of, en dat's dat Pudd'nhead Wilson. Dey calls him a pudd'nhead, en says he's a fool. My lan, dat man ain't no mo' fool den I is! He's de smartes' man in dis town..." 

Roxy has decided to switch the two babies, and realizes that Pudd'nhead Wilson, and his odd habit of taking fingerprints, is the only person with the ability to uncover her deception. It is notable that Roxy is one of the few people in town who sees Wilson for the smart man he is and also an example of foreshadowing—since Roxy's prediction that Wilson will be her undoing comes true twenty years later.

"He was her darling, her master, and her deity all in one, and in her worship of him she forgot who she was and what he had been."

This passage describes Roxy's deferential treatment of Tom, who began life as her son Valet de Chambre. Twain suggests that the way Roxy raises Tom ensures that Tom will be an imperious, boorish, bully as a grown man.

"Tom's Eastern polish was not popular among the young people. They could have endured it, perhaps, if Tom had stopped there; but he wore gloves, and that they couldn't stand..."

Tom Driscoll, native of Dawson's Landing and descendant of its most respected citizens, has returned from two years at Yale a foreigner. Just as the townspeople judged and labelled David Wilson, so do they also judge and label Tom, who becomes a social outcast. Already an overindulged bully, ostracization sends Tom deeper into his gambling addiction, which sets off a cascade of events ending in Judge Driscoll's murder.

"Italians! How romantic! Just think, Ma—there's never been one in this town, and everybody will be dying to see them, and they're all OURS!" 

Rowena Cooper is celebrating the arrival of Angelo and Luigi Capello, who are boarders at her mother's house and will make her popular by association. While Wilson's sarcasm and Tom Driscoll's gloves make them both social outcasts in Dawson's Landing, the Capello's foreignness makes them instant celebrities. But public opinion is fickle, and the Capello's popularity will not endure.

"You ain't got no 'casion to be shame' o' yo' father, I kin tell you. He wuz de highest quality in dis whole town—ole Virginny stock. Fust famblies, he wuz. Jes as good stock as de Driscolls en de Howards, de bes' day dey ever seed." 

In dialogue, Roxy reveals to her son that his biological father was Colonel Cecil Essex and encourages him to be proud of his noble Virginia heritage. The "First Families" of Virginia were the colony's original settlers, many of whom had ties to English nobility, and it is from these settlers that the gentleman's code of conduct Judge Driscoll lives by was passed down. Roxy's concern for this heritage is ironic given that this society consigned her to a life of enslavement.

"… why is this awful difference made between white and black?" 

Tom Driscoll, having just discovered that he is the son of Roxy, also discovers a newfound concern for the issue of racial injustice. Yet as with everything else involving Tom, this concern is self-serving and short-lived. Tom lives as a white man, which means he can, and does, forget about the plight of Black people quickly. Tom supports Twain's assertion throughout the novel that human beings are capable of justifying anything that serves their purposes.

"If he met a friend, he found that the habit of a lifetime had in some mysterious ways vanished—his arm hung limp, instead of involuntarily extending the hand for a shake."

Tom is stunned by the news that he was born Valet de Chambre, and for several days, his usual boorish behavior yields to a meeker, more docile way of being in the world. Twain emphasizes that nothing about Tom has changed other than his knowledge of his racial background, thus, any changes to Tom's demeanor, or how other people react to him, is all Tom's doing and Tom's perception. Tom, then, believes in the importance of skin color as a marker of a man's character.

"For as much as a week after this, Tom imagined that his character had undergone a pretty radical change. But that was because he did not know himself." 

Fresh on the heels of discovering his true identity, Tom feels himself transformed. But the transformation is short-lived, and mostly imagined, because Tom reverts to form within a week. Tom's character cannot be changed by his skin color, nor can anyone else's. True transformation, Twain seems to suggest, requires strength of will. Tom is weak, and rather than being grateful for having been raised with advantages, Tom uses his position to belittle others. 

"Why, he'll read your wrinkles as easy as a book, and not only tell you fifty or sixty things that's going to happen to you, but fifty or sixty thousand that ain't." 

Tom taunts Pudd'nhead Wilson in front of the Capello twins, trying to embarrass Wilson by making fun of his interest in palmistry and suggesting that Wilson is not even skilled at his odd hobby. This behavior is typical of Tom, who makes a sport of belittling others. The taunt backfires, however, as Wilson is shown to be a skilled palm reader by discovering a secret about Luigi. 

"In Missouri a recognized superiority attached to any person who hailed from Old Virginia; and this superiority was exalted to supremacy when a person of such nativity could also prove descent from the First Families of that great commonwealth." 

The importance that the people of Dawson's Landing place on ties to Virginia is a comment on the irrational nature of society. Why would Virginia be important to the people of a state several hundred miles away? Virginia, as one of the original colonies and with customs, traditions, and people tied to England, represents the "Old World." Missouri, on the other hand, was the "New World," the westernmost edge of America during Twain's time, and a new state without traditions or ties to Europe. Ties to Virginia gave people in Missouri social credibility, in the same way that white skin did, but neither say anything credible about a person's character.

"He was entrusted to me by my brother on his dying bed, and I have indulged him to his hurt, instead of training him up severely, and making a man of him, I have violated my trust, and I must not add the sin of desertion to that." 

Judge Driscoll is aware that he has neglected to set limits for Tom, to Tom's detriment. Not wishing to compound the damage he has already done to Tom, Judge Driscoll feels that he cannot remove Tom from his will again, as he has done before. The decision not to bar Tom from his home and remove Tom from his will ends up costing Judge Driscoll his life.

"'Tain't wuth savin,' tain't wuth totin' out on a shovel en throwin; en de gutter." 

Roxy is berating her son Tom for his unwillingness to fight Luigi in a duel. This is cowardice, as Roxy sees it; cowardice that can only be explained by Tom’s racial background. The truth, of course, is that Tom has been indulged, coddled, and excused all his life. 

"But when he left, he left in great spirits, for he perceived that just by pure luck and no troublesome labor he had accomplished several delightful things: he has touched both men on a raw spot and seen them squirm; he had modified Wilson's sweetness for the twins with one bitter taste that he wouldn't be able to get out of his mouth right away; and, best of all, he had taken the hated twins down a peg with the community..." 

This is a vivid summation of Tom Driscoll's character. He is a person who takes great pleasure in shaming, embarrassing, discrediting, or otherwise harming his fellow man. Tom simply cannot stand for anyone else to be liked or admired, and finds it necessary to bring all others down to the low level where Tom's reprehensible character causes him to live.

"Tom went aboard one of the big transient boats that night with his heavy satchel of miscellaneous plunder, and slept the sleep of the unjust, which is serener and sounder than the other kind, as we know by the hanging-eve history of a million rascals."

Tom flees Dawson's Landing by way of the Mississippi River, as he does many times in the novel, after conducting yet another stealing raid on the people of Dawson's Landing. Lacking the kind of conscience that most people possess, Tom is untroubled by his actions. In an ironic twist, however, there is another thief aboard the same boat, and that thief robs Tom while he sleeps. 

"Ain't you my chile? En does you know anything dat a mother won't do for her chile? Day ain't nothin' a white mother won't do for her chile. Who made 'em so? De Lord made 'em … In de inside, mothers is all de same." 

Roxy wants so badly to help her son that she is willing to allow herself to be sold back into slavery in order to get Tom the money to pay off his gambling debts. Tom will exploit Roxy’s instincts, however, and betray her by selling her down the river, the fate she fought to avoid for herself and him. 

"The brothers withdrew entirely from society, and nursed their humiliation in privacy. They avoided the people, and went out for exercise only late at night, when the streets were deserted." 

The Capello twins, once the most celebrated citizens in Dawson's Landing, are social outcasts, thanks to the rumors and doubts Tom has planted about them. By subjecting the twins to this undeserved drop in social standing, Twain is making a statement about the unreliability and fickleness of society's judgments. He is also setting the reader up for yet another ironic twist. The twins take to walking at night because they have been ostracized, and it is because they are walking at night that the twins hear Judge Driscoll's calls for help when Tom kills him. Thus, Tom brings about his own downfall with his arrogance and hubris.

"His gait, his attitudes, his gestures, his bearing, his laugh –all were vulgar and uncouth; his manners were the manners of a slave." 

Due to his upbringing in slavery, Chambers no longer fits into white society despite being intrinsically white. Twain emphasizes the lie of white supremacy by showing that Chambers’ racial background did not shape his character, personality, or mannerisms: his upbringing did.

"Everybody granted that if "Tom" were white and free it would be unquestionably right to punish him—it would be no loss to anybody; but to shut up a valuable slave for life—that was quite another matter." 

In an ironic twist that emphasizes the capitalism underpinning the slavery economy, Tom's true identity makes him too valuable to be imprisoned for life. He is pardoned for his crime, but condemned to a different, more brutal form of imprisonment. Twain is also making a profound statement about slavery: a slave, as opposed to a free white man, has earning potential and should be counted as an asset on the balance sheet of his owner.