The Prince And The Pauper Mark Twain (1835-1910) Essay, Research Paper

In 1835, when Halley’s comet streaked

across the skies, Mark Twain was born in an obscure farm town. Sevebty

five years later, when the comet reappeared, Twain died, a famous author.

He is a well-loved American writer and the inventor of the mythical epitome

of American boyhood< Tom Sawyer.

While his more famous Adventures of Hucleberry

Finn was yet unfinished, Twain wrote The Prince and the Pauper. Here we

have two people living one another’s lives for a brief, instructive time.

The reader wants to believe it could happen because he would secretly like

to see the beggar boy rise in life, while the privileged princeling is

brought down to have his nose rubbed in reality.

In this tale, Twain shares with us his

outrage at the social injustice that exists in the 1500s, 1800s – and that

even now in one form or another. By presenting a case of mistaken identity,

Twain clearly and simply potrays these injustices. Such a situation seems

immpossible, but like Twain sais, “It may have happened, it may not have

happened; but it could have happened.”