Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1982

Thesis Director

Charles Switzer

Abstract

The purpose of the thesis is to demonstrate that the pessimism exhibited in the themes of The Mysterious Stranger is evident in the themes of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1874-1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1877-1882), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1876-1885), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1888-1889), and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1891-1894). The thesis also demonstrates that the pessimism becomes more dominate as the novels progress chronologically through the repetition of the themes and the increasing number of themes being treated.

The introduction briefly discusses the arguments over the origins of Twain's pessimism as set forth by Van Wyck Brooks, who credits Twain's pessimism to Twain's mother, wife, and Elmira, Edward Wagenknecht, who credits Twain's pessimism to Twain's personal experiences, and E. Hudson Long, who credits Twain's pessimism to Twain's personal experiences and observation of man's history.

The body of the thesis begins by citing The Innocents Abroad and Roughing It to exhibit the seeds of Twain's pessimism in his earliest works in which he criticizes the corruption of the church, man's treatment of minorities, and man's prejudices.

Twain's pessimistic themes treated in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer are man's manipulation of man and man's self-deception.

Twain's pessimistic themes treated in The Prince and the Pauper are the effects of the multi-class system and the inequality of classes, criticism of monarchical government, man's inhumanity to man, and the benefits of death over life on earth.

Twain's pessimistic themes treated in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are man's inhumanity to man through meaningless feuding, cowardly mob violence and mob behavior, man's disregard for human life, and effects of slavery.

Twain's pessimistic themes treated in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court are the corruptive effects of monarchical government and the aristocracy, the effects of the multi-class system and slavery, man's disregard for human life, the corruptive effects of religion and the Established Church, cowardly mob behavior, and the power of laughter to destroy.

Twain's pessimistic themes treated in Pudd'nhead Wilson are the effects of slavery, determinism, the bad-seed theory, man's inferiority to other animals, the evil of money, and the benefits of death over life on earth.

All of the above themes are treated in The Mysterious Stranger in which Twain condemns man's oppressive institutions, man's behavior, man's image of himself, man's belief in life and after-life, and man's fate in life. The comparisons of the previous novels to The Mysterious Stranger are made throughout the body of the thesis as the novels are treated in chronological order.

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