Delectable Land In The Pilgrim's Progress

“Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and above it, was green with vegetation, and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land, dreamy, reposeful, and inviting” (Twain 14). I very much enjoy this quote as it contains two unique allusions, one referring to Mark Twain’s earlier life and the other alluding to a relatively old book. Mark Twain grew up near Holiday Hill in Hannibal, Missouri; Cardiff Hill is a corresponding reference to Holiday Hill which was located just north of Twain’s hometown. The 17th-century literary writer and preacher John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress is alluded to by the phrase “Delectable Land.” This refers to the Delectable Mountains on which the Celestial City can be seen.

“Plainly here were ‘two souls with but a single thought’ ” (Twain 81). The Austrian playwright Baron von Münch-Bellinghausen wrote the

aforementioned line “two souls with but a single thought” in his popular 1842 play Ingomar the Barbarian. This could easily show that Mark Twain enjoyed other forms of literature besides just books. Performance writings played (pun intended) a large part in Twain’s work.

“And at the zenith of his fame, how he would suddenly appear at the old village and stalk into church, brown and weather-beaten, in his black velvet doublet and trunks, his great jack-boots, his crimson sash, his belt bristling with horse-pistols, his crime-rusted cutlass at his side, his slouch hat with waving plumes, his black flag unfurled, with the skull and crossbones on it, and hear with swelling ecstasy the whisperings, "It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate!— the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main!" (Twain 56) When Mark Twain was a child he read The Black Avenger of the Spanish Main or the Fiend of Blood by Ned Buntline, a story about Spanish pirating. Tom Sawyer wishes to become the “Black Avenger” as he pretends to be a pirate. Sawyer, upon reading the adventure tale, longs to become an actual pirate.

"Shucks, I only meant you'd see 'em— not hopping, of course— what do they want to hop for?— but I mean you'd just see 'em— scattered around, you know, in a kind of a general way. Like that old humpbacked Richard” (Twain 143). This quote is a well-concealed allusion to William Shakespeare’s Richard III. Richard III, in both Shakespeare’s play and in actual historic events, was brutally murdered, his remains strewn around the marshy ground at the Battle of Bosworth Field. This pertains to the quote “but I mean you'd just see 'em— scattered around” referring to Richard’s remains during the battle.

“This main avenue was not more than eight or ten feet wide.

Every few steps other lofty and still narrower crevices branched from it on either hand— for McDougal's cave was but a vast labyrinth of crooked aisles that ran into each other and out again and led nowhere” (Twain 163). Mark Twain, throughout the novel, seems to enjoy alluding to his childhood. It is almost as if Mark Twain is re-living himself through Tom Sawyer. McDougal’s cave is actually drawn after McDowell’s cave located south of Hannibal, Twain’s hometown.

“Now she heard of Painkiller for the first time. She ordered a lot at once. She tasted it and was filled with gratitude. It was simply fire in a liquid form. She dropped the water treatment and everything else, and pinned her faith to Painkiller” (Twain 77). Twain mentioned being forced in his childhood to consume patent medication, suggested here as "painkiller," even though it was purposed for application to bruises and other exterior afflictions. Tom endures the same treatment as Mark had when he was a child. This once again demonstrates Mark’s obsession with making Tom’s life similar to his

own.