Characterization in Pudd’nHead Wilson

We are continuing my series where I post my graduate school work and this time we’re going to explore a fascinating story by the one-and-only Mark Twain.

The power of characterization in Pudd’nHead Wilson by Mark Twain moves an unremarkable story and creates necessary drama in an otherwise quiet small town. 

Puddn’Head Wilson is primarily a character-driven story. The plot is relatively thin: an enslaved person swaps her white-passing baby for the baby of her Master. The whole thing falls apart when the local lawyer, who has been studying fingerprints, reveals the plot, and the “real negro” is sold down South for the murder of a local judge. The story is not complicated, but the characters involved drive the action forward. The title’s namesake in the book isn’t the main character until the end. However, he is a white-passing negro, and the town gave him this acrimonious nickname because of a small remark he made when he arrived in Dawson’s Landing. It’s shorthand for a dumb fool, but he proves that he is no fool at all by the end of the book. 

Meanwhile, Roxy, Tom Driscoll, and Chambers, the young boys in question, are the main drivers of the story. Each is unique in how they are described and how they act. Roxy is an unremarkable slave at the beginning until she is given her freedom. Tom, that is Roxy’s son, grows up as Master Tom, and Chambers, the actual heir, is his slave and all-around whipping boy. 

Roxy is a plotter. When her savings are destroyed by a bank gone bust, she plots to return to Dawson’s Landing and get money from her son, who is set to inherit. When she finds out that her plan probably won’t work, she sets about plotting again, resulting in the murder of Judge Driscoll and the revelation of her entire scheme. Her plotting and planning are set in contrast to her Methodist piety. 

Tom Driscoll is abusive toward his slave Chambers. He expects Chambers to do any hard work and doesn’t care for him with decent clothing, just ruined hand-me-downs. He even demands that Chambers fight other boys for him. Chambers is down-to-earth and pleasant enough. He bristles under the abuse but knows that nothing can help his state as a slave. Tom’s pampering and poor character manifest as a gambling problem as they grow older. This is perfect because it’s the setup for the murder and the unraveling of Tom. 

Throughout the book, the plot moves along thanks to the characters’ character flaws. Roxy’s scheming is the engine of the entire book. Tom’s poor character, spendthrift ways, and emotional charge around finding out he is not white create the dramatic ending with the murder. His ultimate punishment: hard labor in the deep South is somewhat unjust because it wasn’t his fault that he was raised in the incorrect class. Chambers isn’t free from burden either. He freely participates in the schemes of Roxy. Thanks to Tom’s debts, he inherits nothing of note. 

The reader is not invested in Puddn’Head Wilson until the back half of the book when he begins openly handling the legal battles of Tom Driscoll and newcomers to town. The reader can get invested in the story of Roxy. Chambers becomes a secondary character after the 4th section (short chapter structure). Judge Driscoll remains somewhat of a ghost as a tertiary character. His history as a sort of town fool turned VIP is a transformation. Notably, he is one of the few characters that have any progress in the story. The others tend to stay the same. His transformation is not necessarily of himself but his place in the community and finally being able to throw off his terrible nickname. It’s mentioned at the beginning of the story and takes the entire book to see a final payoff. 

The characterization gives the story many threads that weave together and move around. Their relationships with each other are what make the story possible. The effect on the reader can be part confusion and part satisfaction. It is easy to get mixed up in everything else in the story. There is always the baby switch and Wilson hanging over the other events of the story. However, Mark Twain is a masterful storyteller when he ties up all the threads and all the characters at the end, and things are seemingly put back the way they should be. 

While I think the story was confusing and ultimately resolved, it did give me some ideas about how to apply secrecy and such to my work. Secrets tend to come popping out at the most inconvenient moments. I want to use that in my thesis.