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题目
The Analysis of The Prince and The
Pauper
专业班级
学
号
学生姓名
指导教师
成
绩
二
O
一一
年
十二月
?
?
?
I. Introduction
Rich
with
surprise
and
hilarious
adventure,
The
Prince
and
the
Pauper
is
a
delightful
satire of England's romantic past and a joyful
boyhood romp filled with the
same
tongue-in-cheek irony that sparks the best of Mark
Twain's tall tales.
It was
first published in 1881 in Canada before its 1882
publication in the United
States. The
book represents Twain's first attempt at
historical fiction. Set in 1547, the
novel tells the story of two young boys
who are identical in appearance: Tom Canty, a
pauper
who
lives
with
his
abusive
father
in
Offal
Court
off
Pudding
Lane
in
London,and Edward VI of England, son of
Henry VIII of England.
Mark
Twain
(pseudonym
of
Samuel
Langhorne
Clemens,
1835-1910),
was
an
American
writer,
journalist
and
humorist,
who
won
a
worldwide
audience
for
his
stories of the youthful adventures of
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Clemens was
born on November 30, 1835 in Florida,
Missouri, of a Virginian family. In 1864 Twain
left for California, and worked in San
Francisco as a reporter. He visited Hawaii as a
correspondent
for
The
Sacramento
Union,
publishing
letters
on
his
trip
and
giving
lectures. He set out on a world tour,
traveling in France and Italy. Between 1876 and
1884 he published several masterpieces,
Tom Sawyer
(1881) and
The Prince and The
Pauper
(1881).
Life on the Mississippi
appeared in 1883 and
Huckleberry Finn
in 1884.
In the 1890s Twain lost most of his
earnings in financial speculations and in the
failure
of
his
own
publishing
firm.
Twain
toured
New
Zealand,
Australia,
India,
and
South
Africa. H During his long writing
career, Twain also produced a considerable number
of essays.
II. A
Summary of the Book
The
Prince
and
the
Pauper
attracted
my
eyes
because
of
its
funny
plot
and
its
impressed methods that
educated many people.
The
Prince
and
the
Pauper
tells
the
tale
of
two
boys
who
trade
clothing
in
one
afternoon
and,
as
a
result,
they
trade
lives
at
last.
One
is
the
heir
to
the
throne
of
England,
Edward
Tudor.
The
other
boy
is
Tom
Canty,
the
son
of
a
beggar
and
thief.
Coincidentally, Tom Canty and Edward
Tudor were born in London on the same day.
Tom
Canty
is
forced
by
his
father
to
beg,
and
he
is
beaten
severely
if
he
returns
empty-handed. Father Andrew provides
him some respite from this life by telling him
tales about the nobility.
One day, Tom and Edward
come across by accident. They exchange clothing
and
discover
that
they
look
very
much
alike.
Then
the
prince
rushes
out
of
the
palace.
Edward is mocked by
the crowd, all the while asserting that he is the
son of the king.
Then Edward wanders
around until he is collared by John Canty. In the
meantime, young
Tom Cant
y
has been left in the prince’s royal apartment in
the palace.
During that time,
Tom adapted to this kind of life
quickly.
When Tom enjoyed his life, the
real prince tried to get in the palace. The mob
beat
him. Miles Hendon appeared and
protected him. The prince and Hendon are
struggling
with the crowd. After the
death of Henry VIII, Tom Canty is elevated from
prince to
king.
In
Hendon’s
rooms,
the
prince
acts
as
usual
and
expects
Hendon
to
serve
him;
Hendon
does so without a protest. Hendon leaves to buy
new clothes for him while the
prince is
still sleeping. When he returns, the prince is
lured away by a boy who is a
friend of
Tom’s father’s.
Tom makes good use of
an interview with Humphrey Marlow
to
learn things; Tom uses opportunities to learn and
remember important royal matters.
The
prince falls asleep on straw, he hears many tales
of injustice. He declares such
laws
should be abolished and he was mocked by people.
He tried to escape and finally
he succeeded. Through this period he
met a woman and two girls who helped him and
believed him. And on the way
Hendon never stopped to
find
him. Unfortunately, he
was
caught
by
Tom’s
father
again
and
he
was
forced
to
go
out
to
steal
and
Hugo
wanted him to be
caught. Hendon appeared and saved the prince
again.
When they got
Hendon’s home, Miles’s brother put them
into prison.
The prince
discovers
the
poor
conditions
and
injustice
in
the
law.
Finally,
they
are
released
and
they
turn
back
toward
the
prince
is
returning
to
London,
Tom
Canty
is
preparing for his
coronationThe ceremony begins, just as the
Archbishop of Canterbury
is about to
place the crown on Tom’s head, the real prince
steps forward and forbids it.
And it
turns out that Edward is the real prince.
At last Miles Hendon
receives all his rights that Edward had promised
to him. And
so are Tom and his mother
and sister. Edward amply rewards those who were
land to
him, punishes those who were
not, and makes reparations to those who suffered
from
the cruel injustice of English
laws.
III. Comments on the Book
I was deeply fall in love with this
book and the main roles of this book. I think
there are many perfect aspects and
parts that had been written very well and it
deserved
us to analysis it.
The Prince and the Pauper
is
unlike Twain’s greater nove
ls, where
there is a great
deal of character
development, in this novel the characters are
scarcely developed. It is
on Twain’s
ingenious plot devices. In this first chapter, the
plot begins with the birth of
two boys
on the same day in the same town. One is very poor
and unwanted, and the
other is very
rich and very much desired.
Edward Tudor spent his life in the
confines of the
position he has
daydreamed
about the
freedom experienced by boys such as Tom Canty. He
is very innocent and
kindhearted. When
he saw his people under the pressure, he would
save them without
thinking. He is also
very obstinate, no matter how other people laughed
at him, he still
persisted
he
was
the
King.
He
is
very
brave
and
talented,
and
during
his
legendary
experience, he
saved and helped many poor people. He had done
many things that he
had never done
before. During the life in prison, he learned how
to tolerant and stand.
Tom
Canty has been brought up in one of the most
disreputable parts of London
and
had
spent
much
time
daydreaming
about
living
the
life
of
royalty.
Under
the
pressure of his father and grandmother,
he had to go out to beg for life, but he never try
to
steal
something. When he became the King,
he done many things to
solve
people
problems and made many laws to
people. At last, he gave the position back to
Edward.
Miles
Hendon
is
a
good
friend
of
Edward
Tudor,
and
he
represents
the
best
of
Englishmen;
he
becomes
his
protector.
He
is
also
very
kindhearted,
justice
and
intelligent.
Because of his
kindhearted,
he
forgave
his
brother, because
of his
justice
and intelligent, he
saved and helped little prince. And at last, he
realized little Edward
is a real
prince, and he received what he had done for his
kindhearted.
The
Prince
and
the
Pauper
is
one
of
Twain's
most
tightly
plotted
novels.
In
addition,
this
novel
is
strongly
thematic.
Mark
Twain
is
particularly
interested
in
contrasting the lives of
the rich with the lives of the poor, the lives of
the nobility with
the lives of the
lower classes. However, Mark Twain is also
interested in showing that a
person of
noble birth is not different from a person of
common birth.
It is really
an enlightened book. It showed us many life
methods and reveals social
reality. It
shows the social reality in America at that time.
Mark Twain use irony ably
to critic the
discrimination according to wealth, social
position and so on. In this people
eat
people world, no one cares for others except for
themselves, people don
’
t
believe in