Examples Of Hypocrisy In Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain was a social critic as well as a novelist. He observed a society filled with arrogant, racial hypocrisy. Twain’s fictional novel, “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” is far more than just an adventurous tale. Bringing criticism to the culture in which Twain has residence, Twain argues that society was covered in a veil of self-deception and religious leaders preached hypocritical and absurd religious values. Twain includes characters like the Widow Douglas, Miss Watson and Silas Phelps; all well-intentioned Christians, but their religion has deceived them into thinking that slavery is perfectly acceptable, and that slaves are something less than people. This arrogant and hypocritical belief system was something that Twain vigorously opposed—and he had a right to. Mark Twain includes supremely religious characters who are viewed as “morally correct” to expose the rawness of religious hypocrisy in a slave owning society.

The Watson sisters are the most prominent examples of hypocrisy in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.” Early in the novel, Huck Finn observes that the sisters represent two

different versions of heaven “...I could see that there was two Provinces...” The fact that Huck observes and notes this indicates that his awareness of the religious hypocrisy around him is increasing. It is not long before he realizes that both places seem dull and undesirable. The Widow Douglas’s version of heaven, Huck observes, can make a “body’s mouth water.” Of the two versions of Providence, her’s appeals to Huck more; and in chapter 3, he admits that he would prefer to belong to the Widow’s providence “if he[God] wanted” him. There is, however, a certain hypocrisy and moral emptiness in the widow's religion. In chapter 1, when she chastises Huck for his “mean practice” of smoking, he observes that she applies double standards. It is perfectly acceptable for her to use snuff but only “because she done it herself.” Her hypocritical nature is also revealed when, in the name of her religious beliefs, she urges Huck to “help other people” and to do everything he can “for other people”; at the same time she has no qualms about owning people. Miss Watson’s version of Heaven is a place where the inhabitants spend their days walking around with a harp in their hands, singing. The entry requirements to her heaven are however, as Huck observes in chapter 3, extremely selective. It is not a place for “a poor chap”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.21) and if Miss Watson “got him there warn't no help for him” (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.21). Poor people are punished in Miss Watson’s heaven. The total moral emptiness of Miss Watson's religion is best demonstrated, however, in chapter 1, when she “fetched the niggers in”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.7) for an evening prayer. Like the widow, Miss Watson, as a good Christian, honors religious customs, yet at the same time she sees nothing wrong with owning slaves. Miss Watson’s evening prayers with the slaves was not just a philanthropic act but a means of controlling the summoned. During these prayers the slaves are deceived and led to believe that it is the will of God that they subject themselves to their masters.
When in chapter 2 Huck states his preference to go to hell rather then heaven, (the latter appearing to be a boring place), Miss Watson responds as follows: “She said it was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for the whole world; she was going to live so as to go to the good place.”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.7). Huck emphasizes the use of the word “she” in to demonstrate her adamant, almost desperate, belief and desire that she is a “good” person and that she will to go “to the good place”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.7).
In chapter 16 Huck is confronted by slaver traders searching for runaway slaves he struggles between turning Jim in and saving him. When he is unable to bring himself to turn Jim in he rescues him by fooling the slave traders that by boarding his vessel they might contract small-pox. As the slave-traders rush to escape the lethal disease one of them says; “my Kingdom”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.155) before leaving Huck with two “twenty-dollar gold piece[s]”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.155). The slave traders symbolize the members of the church who try to solve any problems they have by giving the church money believing that will solve the problem. In reality they are not actually solving anything and only deceiving themselves by running away from the problem. This demonstrates their religious hypocrisy.
In chapter 18, Twain uses the family feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons to demonstrate and question the fidelity of the local congregation. By accident Huck has come into contact with the aristocratic family of the Grangefords and their rivals, the Shepherdsons. The two families are locked in a deadly feud which has claimed many lives on both sides. When the two families visit church and hear a sermon about “brotherly love”(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.184) Huck observes that; “the men took their guns along.."(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.184) and “kept them between their knees” (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.185). The fact that the two families brought weapons, which they seem eager to use, to a sermon about “brotherly love” demonstrates the absurd hypocrisy of the situation. The two families are hypocritical in the teachings of the gospels.
At the end of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is taken into the care of the Phelps’, yet another deeply devoted family.

This chapter marks Huck’s return to civilization after a long absence. Like the Watson's, the Phelps family are devoted Christian, southern family who own slaves. They are not unlike the Watson family at the beginning of the novel. Mr. Phelps has bought Jim from the Duke to collect the reward money for him, and has locked him up in a shed. When Huck, Tom and Jim plot Jim’s escape Jim reveals to Tom that Mr. Phelps “come in every day or two to pray with him."(Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, p.419). Mr. Phelps is hypocritical since his reason to pray with Jim is that the he has no one else to pray with; he does not really care about Jim. This act by Mr. Phelps demonstrates the hypocritical nature of many of the deeply devoted slave

owners.