puddn head wilson Essay -- essays research papers

Pudd’nhead Wilson   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson juggles three plot lines, which all come together in a murder trial at the novel’s end. Pudd’nhead Wilson is a Northerner who comes to the small Missouri town of Dawson’s Landing to build a career as a lawyer. Immediately upon his arrival he alienates the townspeople, who don’t understand his wit. They give him the nickname â€Å"Pudd’nhead† and refuse to give him their legal work. He scrapes by on odd work and spends most of his time dabbling in scientific hobbies, most notably, fingerprinting.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Roxana, or Roxy, is a beautiful slave who can pass for white, though she is one- sixteenth black. To save her infant son from ever being sold away from her, she switches him with the child of her white master, who looks just like her son and was born on the same day. Her son Chambers, now called â€Å"Tom† grows up as a white man and heir to an estate. Her master’s child Tom, now called â€Å" Chambers†, grows up a slave. â€Å"Tom† grows into a cruel, cowardly man. His gambling debts lead him, under Roxy’s guidance, to rob houses, sell the now-freed Roxy as a slave, and finally to murder his uncle, Judge Driscoll, in a botched robbery attempt.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Luigi and Angelo are former sideshow performers. Good-looking and charming, they claim to be Italian twins, heirs of a deposed nobleman. They arrive in Dawson’s Landing to rent a room in Widow Cooper’s house, claiming the...