Authors, American -- 19th century -- Biography; Twain, Mark, 1835-1910
Just before Mark Twain's death, he recalled, says Mr. Paine, "one of his
old subjects, Dual Personality, and discussed various instances that
flitted through his mind--Jekyll and Hyde phases in literature and
fact." One of his old subjects, Dual Personality! Could he ever have
been aware of the extent to which his writings revealed that conflict in
himself? Why was he so obsessed by journalistic facts like the Siamese
Twins and the Tichborne case, with its theme of the lost heir and the
usurper? Why is it that the idea of changelings in the cradle
perpetually haunted his mind, as we can see from "Pudd'nhead Wilson" and
"The Gilded Age" and the variation of it that constitutes "The Prince
and the Pauper"? The prince who has submerged himself in the rôle of the
beggar-boy--Mark Twain has drawn himself there, just as he has drawn
himself in the "William Wilson" theme of "The Facts Concerning the
Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut," where he ends by dramatically
slaying the conscience that torments him. And as for that pair of
incompatibles bound together in one flesh--the Extraordinary Twins, the
"good" boy; who has followed the injunctions of his mother and the "bad"
boy of whom society disapproves--how many of Mark Twain's stories and
anecdotes turn upon that; same theme, that same juxtaposition!--does he
not reveal there, in all its nakedness, as I have said, the true history
of his life?
We have observed that in Pudd'nhead's aphorisms Mark Twain was
expressing his true opinions, the opinions of the cynic he had become
owing to the suppression and the constant curdling as it were of the
poet in him. While his pioneer self was singing the praises of American
progress and writing "A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur,"
the disappointed poet kept up a refrain like this: "October 12, the
discovery. It was wonderful to find America, but it would have been more
wonderful to lose it." In all this group of writings we have been
discussing, however, we can see that while the censorship had been
sufficiently relaxed in the general confusion of his life to permit his
unconscious to rise to the surface, it was still vigilant enough to
cloak its real intentions. It is in secret that Pudd'nhead jots down his
saturnine philosophy; it is only in secret, in a private diary like
Pudd'nhead's, that young Lord Berkeley, in "The American Claimant,"
thinks of recording his views of this fraudulent democracy where
"prosperity and position constitute rank." Here, as in the malevolent,
Mephistophelian "passing stranger" of "The Man That Corrupted
Hadleyburg," Mark Twain frankly images himself. But he does so, we
perceive, only by taking cover behind a device that enables him to save
his face and make good his retreat. Pudd'nhead is only a crack-brained
fool about things in general, even if he is pretty clever with his
finger-print invention--otherwise he would find something better to do
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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