Samuel Clemens more famously known as Mark Twain was an American author and humourist, known for writing his critically acclaimed novel ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ (1876) along with his beloved masterpiece ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was the first important piece of American work to depart from European library models. Although at first it was considered inappropriate for genteel readers, it eventually found a permanent place in the canon of American literature. The sequel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is viewed, especially in the United States still today as one of the first ‘greatest American novels’. Throughout the book, laughter and comedy has been used in various ways to help convey the meaning of the text and some key themes. It could be argued that comedy is used to enhance a serious effect by demonstrating hypocrisy and irony within The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, laughter and comedy is also used by Twain in a sarcastic way to emphasise a point. You could also suggest that throughout the novel both laughter and comedy is included for actual humorous purposes. This type of entertainment is crucial when reading the story, as it allows Twain to make crucial key points about the people and social problems facing the nineteenth century.
Written in the late nineteenth century, but heavily influenced by the conventions and concerns of slavery of African Americans, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written in a very unique style. The main aim of the novel was to protest against the evil practices that were very frequent within the nineteenth century American society. To make this more attractive to readers and more effective to help change civilization, Mark Twain used humour and comedy making the audience laugh, as it was easier for him to preach his points of view. One of the most effective forms of laughter and comedy included in the novel is the use of humour to create a serious point by demonstrating hypocrisy. This is most noticeable when Miss Watson takes it upon herself to teach Finn about the values of religious matters. She has many rules on how she wants Huck to behave
Don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry—set up straight and pretty soon she would say, Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry—why don't you try to behave? (Twain, 1, 4)
Here Miss Watson demonstrates what she believes is the wrong type of behaviour and attitude, suggesting if Huck ever wants to reach heaven himself he must learn how to act appropriately. However, this is ironic because Miss Watson owns many slaves herself, and the owning of slaves is condemned in her bible. This is laughable towards the reader as slavery was a very serious thing before the civil war during the time in which the novel is set. Slave owners such as Miss Watson sought to make their slaves completely dependent on them, with a system of restrictive codes governed life among slaves. Black African Americans were prohibited from learning to read and write, while their movement and behaviour was also restricted. This inequality problem is something Twain is ruling against, as it is evident that towards the end of the novel Miss Watson realises that what she does is wrong and lets Jim go free.
Both the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons also demonstrate laughter through hypocrisy. The two families are sat in attendance at church listening to a sermon promote ‘brotherly love’, but ironically all the men are toting their guns ready to continue their feud,
Next Sunday we all went to church, about three mile, everybody a-horseback. The men took their guns along, so did Buck, and kept them between their knees or stood them handy against the wall. The Shepherdsons done the same. (Twain, 18, 106)
Here Twain uses the noun ‘church’ to metaphorically imply the hypocrisy. It is humorous towards the reader, as the families are making their effort to attend church, a place of forgiveness only to ignore the Bible and God and continue their dispute. This use of laughter and comedy through irony and hypocrisy is important, as it demonstrates how the people in the early nineteenth century behaved. Twain highlights that because the families attend church, and have a high social status with power, this automatically makes them good, honest, religious people. So the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons believe they have earned the right to ignore the religious rules and mock God by carrying guns and committing sins.
The widow who takes care of Huck also portrays a humorously two-faced figure throughout the novel. An example of this is when she forbids Huck from smoking when he asks for her permission ‘said it was a mean practice and wasn’t clean.’ (Chapter 1 pg. 4) However, Huck justifies the widow smoking herself, ‘And she took snuff too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself.’
Throughout The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain creates laughter and comedy through the use of sarcasm, this is often counted to make an important key point within the novel. Finn’s Aunt Mrs Phelps is one of the most prominent example of this type of sarcasm, when she mistakes Finn for her relative Tom Sawyer. Huck tells her of a story about a steamboat accident, he explains that the explosion was so dangerous it killed a black man. Mrs Phelps responded to Huck’s story with ‘Well, it’s lucky, because sometimes people do get hurt.’ (Twain, 32, 210) Here Twain is emphasizing the racist comment that has been made. The simple sentence highlights how Mrs Phelps assumes that because it was a black man who was killed by the explosion nobody actually got hurt. The adjective ‘lucky’ is actually a hypercritical comment, because in fact everything is the exact opposite of lucky. This is suggesting to the reader that because the man who died was black that the situation is irrelevant, Mrs Phelps refuses to even class the ‘ni**er’ as an actual human being. ‘Aunt Sally's remark "Sometimes people do get hurt" indicates that Aunt Sally needs convincing that there actually was an explosion in the first place. She is simply choosing to ignore the fact that a person has died because he was black. Moreover, if we read the remark as a realistic detail designed to make the lie more convincing (Hurt, Matthew, 2005, 41-44). This is an example of what the general opinions of white Americans had in the nineteenth century.
Towards chapter fourteen, Huck and Jim begin arguing over the French language. However, Jim is confused and cannot understand the need for different languages. After a while Huck gives up on trying to make Jim distinguish the need for another languages, he dismisses him because he is a black slave and knows that he can never understand.
Why doan’ he TALK like a man? You answer me DAT!” “Well, there you go! Darn it, then why doesn’t a Frenchman TALK like a man? Answer me THAT!” I see it warn’t no use wasting words—you can’t learn a ni**er to argue. So I quit. (Twain, 14, 78)
From the simple sentence ‘So I quit.’ we can gather how Huck is immediately suggesting that Jim will never understand because he is an uneducated black slave, whose opinion is invalid. Twain is again using this type of comedic sarcasm to highlight how black slaves in the nineteenth century where not able to voice opinions or to be even acknowledged. Even though Huck cares for Jim deeply, he stops the argument because he knows himself that Jim is only a ‘ni**er’ and claims that he does not know what he is saying. Huck knows that because he is white he is therefore automatically better equipped and educated than Jim, so assumes he will never be able to learn or understand lessons in life ‘you can’t learn a ni**er to argue.’ The noun ‘ni**er’ reinforces how Huck has once again dismissed Jim as a human being. ‘This is a parody of social pretension: Huck, the master of the colloquial style is celebrating the language of the elite, as French then was. And in turn the parody is a sick joke about Southern history: Jim, the victim of chattel-slavery is speaking "the language of culture" in "the language of sweat" about the self-evident truths of human equality. As black people of this time were not permitted education’ (Bercovitch, Sacvan, 1999, 8-28). This is an important key theme throughout the novel, as Twain uses this sarcasm to indicate the unequal rights in America at this time.
Twain also incorporates laughter and comedy into his novel, for entertainment value and to make the reader laugh. During chapter thirty three Twain demonstrates comedic humour when Tom Sawyer kisses his Aunt Sally as a joke, pretending to be someone else “Why, you born fool!” She took up the spinning stick, and it looked like it was all she could do to keep from giving him a crack with it. “What made you think I’d like it?” “Well, I don’t know. Only, they—they—told me you would.’(Twain, 33, 217) Tom indicates that the local people in the village told him to kiss her, and ends the argument by saying ‘N’m, I’m honest about it; I won’t ever do it again. Until you ask me.’ By including this type of humorous behaviour twain keeps the reader’s attention using this dialogue.
Dauphin and the Duke are also both prominent examples of two characters who constantly make the reader laugh. They are actually just two common men with a talent for lying. For example, when Huck first stumbles along the man who calls himself a Duke, Huck is suspicious but plays along anyway. The Dauphin that they also meet is an old man, however when he finds out that one of them is a Duke he immediately claims he has royalty ties alleging that he is the rightful heir to the French throne. It is important for Twain to sprinkle laughter and comedy throughout the novel because not only does it make the story itself more gripping, it also allows the brutal reality of African American slavery to seem less cruel. However, even though the two characters are included for humorous purposes there is a message behind the laughter. Twain portrays the Dauphin and Duke as two common greedy thieves, who lie to people in hope to steal money. When they are finally caught in the act, their punishment for this crime is even worse
I knowed it was the king and the duke, though they was all over tar and feathers . . . Well, it made me sick to see it; and I was sorry for them poor pitiful rascals (Twain.33, 219)
Here we can gather the cruelty of humanity during this time, Twain is reinforcing the different concepts of honour and social acceptance in the south. He emphasizes how people are still refusing to let go of social barriers.
To conclude, I feel that both laughter and comedy is an important role throughout the novel as it allows Twain to make crucial points about the people and problems facing the nineteenth century. ‘Twain, after the Civil War, must have attempted to revitalize people’s interest in the racial issues and galvanize them to act upon it to change the racial condition.’ (Kim, Bong Eun, 1992). It portrays how many faults there were in the south, and how even though the civil war had ended when the book was set, white people in particular were still refusing to let go of the social barriers and racial customs. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was a successful attempt at breaking these barriers through the use of laughter and comedy, Twain forces people to face these social difference and to adapt to the new and changed culture. This reality however, still exists and people still do not recognize without the help from writers that include comedic humour in their writing, such as Mark Twain.