A Corrupt Society Vs. a Property Obsession

Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson is one of the lesser acknowledged novels of the many he wrote during his career. However, this fact doesn't deter the book from rousing a great deal of debate, particularly about the theme and purpose of the novel. Although there are several points of view surrounding the piece, literary analysts Henry Nash Smith and George Spangler face off with two very strong views on the book: a debate of corrupt culture versus property obsession.

Henry Nash Smith's analysis of Pudd'nhead Wilson details the argument that the central theme of the book is the corruption of the dominant culture. Smith asserts that Twain worked this theme into the book using the characterization of his leading characters, and the events that unfold around them.

First and foremost, Smith explains that Tom Driscoll, the real Chambers, is used as an embodiment of "...social conventions distorting human fact" (271). By this, Smith is addressing Tom's situation of being switched at birth which makes him technically a "negro," yet also a wealthy Southern gentleman. This contradiction between what is, and what appears to be, illustrates the "arbitrary assumptions" (271) that created and upheld the institution of slavery and the class differences imposed on the slaves and their "masters." Thus, these are the assumptions that make up, and hold up, the dominant culture of Dawson's Landing, as well as Southern idealism and culture during the era in which the novel is directed. Tom "...incarnates both the tortured paradox of uncertain identity and the perversions resulting from generations of the bad training imposed by slavery" (276); the epitome of the corruption that is popular culture.

Smith furthers his argument by addressing another key character in Pudd'nhead Wilson, Roxy, who represents both a foil to the dominant culture, and tragically what seems to be the last shred of opposition. Smith himself chooses the word "tragic" to illustrate Roxy's almost contradictory pride and values that are adopted from the white aristocracy of Dawson's Landing. Clearly she sees great value in the lineage of her child born of a powerful white aristocrat, as is evident in her chiding speech to Tom on page 75, "You has disgraced yo' birth. What would yo' pa think o' you? It's enough to make him turn in his grave" (274). However, Roxy is also a strong embodiment of opposition in the novel. Smith describes Roxy as "...the last trace of unhanseled nature that has survived the perverted training of society in Dawson's Landing" (274). Her rant about killing herself and her child or her master, switching the infants Chambers and Tom, and taking charge of her future, all illustrate a nature and characterization opposite to the "slave culture" illustrated in the book. She serves to stress the corruption of the dominant culture, as well as help to assert it through her adopted ideals.

Lastly, Smith takes the title character Pudd'nhead Wilson into account. Wilson clearly contradicts both social classes in Dawson's Landing. He neither fits in with the white aristocracy, nor the enslaved "negro" population. In turn, Wilson serves to inform the reader that the "official culture, with its vaunted ideals of honor and chivalry and ancient lineage, is merely a façade for deceit, avarice, and illegitimacy" (278). Wilson is the final straw in illustrating the purpose of the novel as commentary on the corruption of the dominant culture. He reveals the inconsistency between who Tom is and his stature in the town, he reveals Roxy's cunning trick, and he frees Chambers who had all his life been held as a slave. Yet at the same time, he imprisons Tom with a mere word, a concept. A concept that illustrates the ideals that hold Dawson's Landing and slavery firmly in place. A concept of corrupt values and ideals creating a corrupt dominant culture.

In opposition to this translation of Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson is Spangler's idea that the theme of the novel is property. In fact, Spangler directly counter's Smith's work denouncing a corrupt culture as the central theme of the novel, and purports instead that this translation contains far too many inconsistencies to be considered a viable option. Spangler argues that "If Twain's purpose was to condemn slavery, racism, and miscegenation, why did he grant so much respect to the FFV gentlemen and their code of honor; and why did he allow such sympathetic figures as Wilson and Roxy to accept unquestioningly the values of these leaders of a guilty society" (295)?

In addressing this point, critics arguing for the theme of corrupt culture turn to Twain's past works for support. Smith points to Twain's ridicule of the South in such works as Life on the Mississippi. Furthermore, Twain's piece A Connecticut Yankee is cited as illustrating the idea of a corrupt society unable to be changed (272, 274). However, Smith also points out that some of the contradiction and confusion in Twain's stance on the "gentlemen" of Dawson's Landing came from Twain's personal respect for honor among men.

Further contradictions are attributed to the rather chaotic style with which Pudd'nhead Wilson is written; however, Spangler writes this explanation off as being "unsatisfactory" and leaving "too many important questions unanswered" (295). Spangler notes the racist rants of Roxy concerning Tom's behavior that go unchecked throughout the piece. Furthermore, Spangler questions the concept of Tom as being a product of society since his actions are far more villainous and unjust than that of the collective and dominant society. He asks why Twain would create Tom as a "moral monstrosity" when he is meant to be the victim of a corrupt upbringing. Instead, Spangler uses the idea of property to explain the inconsistencies that, according to him, the theme of corrupt society presents. "Written when Twain's financial condition was at its worst, Pudd'nhead Wilson is a parable dealing with the faults of the Gilded Age, faults of which Twain himself was often guilty (296). However, Spangler doesn't fail to note the moral shortcomings and corruption of society, yet he attributes these evils to the obsession with property that pervades the entire novel.

Like Smith, Spangler turns first to Tom to illustrate his point. According to Spangler, Tom is an allegorical figure for an obsession with property. He notes Tom's first words, " 'Awnt it!" as a starting, and stark, illustration of the child who was spoiled into greed and an obsession with material goods that continues into adulthood(297). Tom is fully and completely motivated by economic gain, and lacks morality, gratitude, love, even true personal connections. This is shown by Tom's continual effort toward gaining the inheritance his uncle has to offer. His sole purpose of reformation, as he continually claims he is undergoing, is in order to inherit the Driscoll estate. Additionally, he disregards and disvalues his relationship with Roxy, despite her continual help and support, by selling her down the river to settle up his accounts, and prevent his being disinherited. As if this act did not illustrate best enough his lack of compassion and gratitude, and his sole care for money and property, he sells Roxy "down the river," the worst fate for a slave and the worst betrayal.

Furthermore, the central storyline in the novel, the switching of Tom and Chambers as infants, is done with the sole motivation of preventing Tom from being "sold down the river." Early in the novel Roxy realizes that she is property, and that her son too is property and can be sold at anytime. This very first example of property, and the realization of its impact, drives the first real story line into motion and sets the stage for further development, plot twists, and consequences resulting from an obsession and heightened awareness of property. When Tom is ultimately charged with murder and thrown in prison, his status as a slave also turns him into property, and he is claimed as such by Judge Driscoll's creditors. The story comes full circle in terms of property, and the once property obsessed becomes property himself. The ironic circle which Twain creates seems to be the moral of the story, a warning for the greedy.

While these two essays vary greatly in their interpretation of Twain's novel, they do both rely on the same characters as headpieces for their arguments. Tom and Roxy are central characters, and in both arguments they epitomize the ideas being asserted. Additionally, both acknowledge the corruption of society and the consequences of this corruption. While Smith takes a very straightforward approach to this corruption, Spangler attributes it to the property obsessed individuals of Dawson's Landing; an idea that also keeps slavery in place, another similarity to Smith who argues that slavery is kept in place by the corrupt concepts and ideals embraced by the leading class. Both hold that slavery is corrupt, and that it is maintained by the corruption of the people of Dawson's Landing, although motivations are arguably different.

While both critics make strong cases, ultimately I believe it is easiest to understand the book using Tom Driscoll as an example. As Spangler puts it Tom is "Spoiled by too much as a child, threatened by too little as a man"(297). He is taught from a very young age that property is important and desirable, so it is understandable that he should grow up to have the same values. In this sense Tom is a product of society. Yet he is especially malicious in his methods of gaining it, and the motivation for all his actions is the potential for gain in the end. In this sense, Tom illustrates a complete and total lack of compassion for his fellow man, and a concern only for those things that bolster his economic position. It is property and the obsession with it that corrupts the society Tom grew up in, and thus spawned his corruption in all its extremeness. These two analyses thus turn into a "chicken or the egg" type question: which came first societal corruption or property obsession? I believe this question is best answered with property obsession. It is the obsession with property that corrupted Dawson's Landing into owning and selling slaves, it is property obsession that causes the fascination with the Twins, it is property obsession that sees Tom raised to be a spoiled and ungrateful adult, and it is property obsession that corrupts a society once held by a system of honor and chivalry.

This explanation doesn't depart from Twain's history of condemning slavery and racism through his characteristic wit and satire, but rather has Twain using the obsession with property as a means of describing the corruption of society, the very same corruption that allows the institution of slavery to exist. In this explanation we can pull from the novel a secondary theme of corruption resulting from the idolizing of property and wealth. Tom can be seen as both the epitome of property obsession and as a product of his upbringing; and slavery is seen as the corrupt institution of owning and selling people in order to bolster one's economic and social situation. As corruption resulting from society's valuing property far too much.

While my original interpretation of the novel had me siding completely with Smith, the inconsistencies asserted by Spangler, I believe, cannot solely be attributed to Twain's unorganized and chaotic style. Instead, perhaps this chaotic style was a result of Twain taking a new approach on the concepts of racism and slavery, and looking at them from a standpoint of property. A standpoint that was very close to his situation at the time, and of his era, while still maintaining an expressive and condescending stance on the two topics very dear to his writing. Just as much of the corruption in today's society is derived from the lust for power and money, the corruption of Dawson's Landing is due to the lust for property, the central theme of the novel.

Works Cited

Smith, Henry, N. Mark Twain: The Development of a Writer. Cambridge, Mass: The Bellknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1962.

Spangler, George, M. Pudd'nhead Wilson: A Parable of Property. American Literature 42 March 1970: 28 - 37.

Twain, Mark. Pudd'nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins: A Norton Critical Edition, 2^nd Ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, INC, 2005.