Chapters 20, 21 and 22

Summary

The Duke and Dauphin enquire whether Jim is a runaway, so again Huck invents an elaborate story that he is orphaned and that they are forced to travel at night because they are fed up with people asking whether Jim is a runaway.  Jim and Huck give up their beds to the “Royals” and they stand watch while the other two sleep.  Duke and Dauphin agree that it is time to perform some Shakespeare when they arrive at the next town, but the town is strangely deserted and they learn that there is a Revival Meeting in the woods.  Dauphin goes to investigate and goes onto the stage saying that he has been converted by the meeting and he will give up being a pirate and will return to the Indian Ocean as a missionary.  The crowd is overjoyed at this conversion and organizes a collection to help him in his missionary work and he received $87.75 and many kisses from pretty young women. In the meantime, the Duke in the town gains access to the local print office and earns $9.50 selling advertisements for the local paper. He also prints a handbill offering a reward for Jim to enable them to travel freely saying that they have caught Jim and are returning him into slavery.

The Duke and the Dauphin rehearse a scene from Romeo and Juliet and also the swordfight from Richard III on the raft.  The Duke also recites a speech from Hamlet, which strangely also includes lines from Macbeth, but to Huck these two appear to have great talent.

At the next town, Duke posts handbills for the Shakespearean performance. Huck witnesses the shooting of a drunken man by a man called Sherburn. The victim had insulted his daughter. A crowd gathers around the dying man and they decide to go and lynch Sherburn. The mob charges down the street after Sherburn.  When they arrive at his house he confronts them with a rifle in hand.  Sherburn makes a haughty speech hurling abuse at them, saying that they are all cowards and wouldn’t have the nerve to face him man-to-man.  Sherburn declares no one will lynch him in the daylight.  It is the southern way to wait until dark and come wearing masks.  The mob disperses.

There is a circus in town and Huck decides to have a look. He is amazed at one of the clowns telling one-line jokes, one after the other.  He is also shocked to see a drunk run from the audience and ride a horse around the ring hanging on for dear life, much to the amusement of the whole crowd except Huck, who can’t bear to watch.

Interpretation

Twain explores four interesting topics in these chapters.

One : the gullibility of people.

Two : the violence of the southern society.

Three : the cowardice of the mob, and

Four : the innocence of Huckleberry.

One : the pirate’s conversion to a missionary raises a large sum of money from the crowd, which suggests that in a mob, people do strange things and can be swept along with the tide of hysteria.  If the Dauphin had claimed conversion and asked for money to an individual, then he would likely receive nothing, but be told to go away.  However, the audacity of the Dauphin to claim conversion in front of so many is taken at face value.

Two : it seems an almost everyday occurrence that minor disputes and insults are resolved by the gun. Sherburn’s cold killing of the drunk seems an over-reaction and naturally causes the local people to organize a lynching.  Their reaction is to meet violence with violence without any recourse to the process of law.

Three : we have seen in ‘One’ above the hysteria that the mob can generate.  In the lynch mob, cowardice is present. They pursue Sherburn like a pack of dogs, but when confronted by an armed man, they scatter after receiving a few harsh words.

Four : we see another interesting aspect of Huck’s character on his visit to the circus. He thinks that the clown has made the jokes up on the spot where in fact the routine would have been well rehearsed. He is also amazed at the drunk trying to ride the horse failing to realize that this is stage-managed and part of the act.