Pudd'nheah Wilson : a somber mark

Abstract EN

Pudd 'nhead Wilson (henceforth PW) is a novel which is full of pessimism and despair.

This makes it different from the other works written by Mark Twain, Most of the novels written earlier by him are full of humour and this is why he has become a well-known humourist PW introduces the other face of Twain; that is, it depicts his seriousness in treating certain social problems during his lifetime.

After the failure of the Webster Publishing Company and his subsequent bankruptcy, Susie’s death in 1896 and the final collapse of the Piage, July, 1893, the forthcoming events had apparently cast their shadow ahead.

Cox (1966: 225) thinks that “The book, Pudd'nhead Wilson, was written in a desperate effort to stave off the financial disaster engulfing him." The caustic humour of PW sets it apart from its predecessors: a dry, bleak mirth that has a despairing hopelessness about it.

The Tragedy of Puddn’haad Wilson may be said to be Twain’s way of trying to come to terms with personal tragedy, guilt and despair.

It is really the tragedy of a black mother.

In Puddnhead Wilson the aura of idyllic freedom and innocent fun in the earlier novels is replaced by an atmosphere of cynicism and distrust, deceit and betrayal.

Twain depicts the rigid attitude regarding the distinction between races.