It was a mystery who this girl with a summer dress and pink-veiled bonnet (who Wilson had … The creditors who had been only partially compensated at Percy Driscoll's (Tom's father) death reappear, however, claiming that Chambers, in reality a slave, should have been sold years ago to pay them. --Pudd'nhead Wilson's Calendar The weeks dragged along, no friend visiting the jailed twins but their counsel and Aunt Patsy Cooper, and the day of trial came at last--the heaviest day in Wilson's life; for with all his tireless diligence he had discovered no sign or trace of the missing confederate. character and … Chambers/"Tom" has passed as a white man for so many years on the basis of his "proper" speech (although he fails at Yale), and the twins have made a living on their ability to spin a yarn about themselves. They give him the nickname "Pudd'nhead" and refuse to give him their legal work. Tom stops by the house to visit and picks up the glass slide on which Roxana once put her prints. Wilson believes the killer is the woman he saw in Tom's bedroom some months before. The court adjourns for the day, and "Tom" leaves congratulating himself on his clever disguise and his care in destroying all the evidence. Despite the carefully orchestrated show he puts on before the court, Pudd'nhead has been failed by his scientific side: not only is "Tom"'s negligence required to open Pudd'nhead's eyes, but Pudd'nhead also has to overcome his own certainty, based on what he thinks is solid empirical evidence, about a female being involved. Pudd'nhead Wilson - Chapters 20-21 and Conclusion Summary & Analysis Mark Twain This Study Guide consists of approximately 35 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Pudd'nhead Wilson. Tired of the drama, they leave for Europe right away, and these questions will never be answered. The accidental nature of Pudd'nhead's discovery of the true murderer further clouds the picture. The next morning he arrives at the trial and informs the judge that he has new evidence. Pudd'nhead has apparently figured out Roxy's secret. Tom continues Roxy's stipend. Reconstruction (the attempt to reintegrate the South after the Civil War and the effort to give blacks a more secure place in society) had begun to fail noticeably by the time Twain was writing this novel; perhaps the real Tom's fate can best be read as an allegorical representation of the situation of blacks in America in the 1890s. In this novel, a slave switches her child with the child of her master in order to protect him from the darker side of slavery. Roxy begs God for mercy. All the circumstantial evidence on which Howard has based his case will be overturned when confronted with Wilson's scientific evidence. While everything in the novel, especially the overwhelming initial response of the townspeople to them, has hinted that they would be eventually unmasked as frauds, they reach the end of the novel with their reputations intact. Pudd'nhead Wilson is a novel by the classic novelist Mark Twain. The governor of Missouri agrees and pardons Chambers/"Tom," who is then immediately sold "down the river.". Chambers, formerly known as "Tom," confesses to the crime and is sentenced to life imprisonment. "Tom", or Chambers, faints, and is arrested. Twain himself built an entire alternate persona based on different types of public speech--speaking tours, witty sayings, newspaper articles. It takes random acts of chance and unexplained phenomena (i.e. It is fascinating that Tom/"Chambers" is most trapped by his speech, his most direct form of self-representation. Summary. Chapter 20's aphorism reflects that circumstantial evidence should be treated with caution. A dream suggests a reason for the discrepancy to him, and he rushes to check more of his collection. The friendless twins withdraw from public life to suffer their humiliation in solitude. "Tom" stops by to mock him, and handles a few of the slides with the prints on them, including an old one from Roxy. Having been raised as a slave, and speaking in a black dialect, he can't bring himself to inhabit "the white man's parlor." He notes that he and "Chambers" were only seven months old when that set was taken, and then asks Pudd'nhead a question about a line on Roxy's prints. We've just stumbled into a small town in early nineteenth-century Missouri called Dawson's Landing—which is totally the original Dawson's Creek. Immediately upon his arrival he alienates the townspeople, who don't understand his wit. Frightened of being discovered, this young man commits the one crime that will reveal the truth to everyone he has ever known and cause him to be sold down river, just as his mother once feared. The stage is set for the hero, Pudd'nhead Wilson, to step forward and save the day. However, none of the fingerprints match. Pudd'nhead returns home and once more looks over all the fingerprints in his collection from females. Wilson takes the knife and compares the prints to all those of every woman he has ever fingerprinted. Roxy too retreats, and no one is left on the stage. Pudd'nhead's science triumphs and objective truth seems to save the day. Perhaps it is because at the end, he has become a success in a world too debased to be worth succeeding in. Find summaries for every chapter, including a Pudd'nhead Wilson Chapter Summary Chart to help you understand the book. After "Tom" leaves, Pudd'nhead pulls "Tom"'s old prints from his collection. Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson Chapter Summary. He tells the court that their story suggests that another party is involved, who must be found in order for the twins to get a fair trial. "Tom" has been giving Roxy a substantial stipend. Wilson puts it all together, realizing that Tom was the woman he saw, dressed in female clothing, and that... (read more from the Chapters 20-21 and Conclusion Summary). She is now a meek creature who spends most of her time in church seeking to redeem herself. Even Shakespeare's darkest tragedies leave someone alive to continue on; Twain, though, leaves a mass of ambiguities and no viable characters, save Pudd'nhead Wilson.
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