Satire in The Great French Duel by Mark Twain
Satire is defined as irony, sarcasm, or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice, or stupidity. Twain spends most of his satirical energy attacking the French culture.
He starts with the French Duel. When the word "duel" comes to the mind of an American, we think of bloodshed and the definite casualty of at least one person. Twain tells us that the only danger in fighting a French duel is in the fact that they are held in the open air and "the combatants are nearly sure to catch cold." He goes on to talk about how M. Paul de Cassagnac, the most famous of French duelists, had been told by his physician that "if he goes on dueling for fifteen or twenty years more - unless he forms the habit of fighting in a comfortable room where the damps and drafts cannot intrude - he will eventually endanger his life." The idea that someone could duel for twenty years and never be threatened by anything else but a cold is absurd to us, but Twain uses this idea to poke fun at the French.
Next Twain speaks of the idea of a "French calm." In the story, a French calm is describe to be very different from an English calm. We think of calm as being very relaxed and tranquil. Twain describes Gambetta quite the contrary when he says, "He was moving swiftly back and forth among the debris of his furniture, now and then staving chance fragments of it across the room with his foot, grinding a constant grist of curses through his set teeth, and halting every little while to deposit another handful of his hair on the pile which he had been building of it on the table."
Later in the story, Twain is trying to negotiate the weapons and distance between combatants that will be involved in the duel. He makes the sarcastic suggestion or using brickbats at three quarters of a mile.
Samuel Clemens, was the sixth child of John Marshalll and Jane Moffit Clemens, born two months prematurely and was in poor health for the first 10 years of his life. His mother tried different types of remedies during those younger years. Twain used his memories of his childhood and his illness to fill the pages of several of his books including Tom Sawyer and other writings. Clemens was often pampered, by his mother, and thus developed early in life the testing her indulgence through mischief, while offering his humor as bond for the crimes he would commit. When Twain’s mother was in her 80s, he asked her about his poor health in those early years: “I suppose that during that whole time you were uneasy about me?” “Yes, the whole time,” she answered. “Afraid I wouldn’t live?” “No,” she said, “afraid you would.” One can clearly see where Twain got his sense of humor and zest for life, (Morris, 1996)). Even though it seemed life started out rough Twain pushed his passed it all and went for what he wanted not allowing anyone to stand in his way.
Mark Twain in his essay “A Presidential Candidate” uses hyperbole, irony, and diction to accost politicians and show their faults to the well-read voters. Twain’s use of hyperbole, which is seen through his past stories such as the incident involving his grandfather, establishes an exaggerated sense of himself as a candidate which creates the image of a forthright yet malicious man running for office. He also uses reductio ad absurdum to show the ridiculousness of the politicians running for office and how they are deceitful about small things while he is willing to tell how he killed his grandfather for snoring. Twain’s diction as seen through such phrases as “prowl”, “heartless brutality”, and “Napoleonic” set up a sarcastic tone that was
While the tone may range from playful to angry, satire generally criticizes in order to make a change. Exaggeration, parody, reversal, and incongruity are satirical devices. Author’s use satirical devices to strengthen their central idea.
...n to Tom he says “Wouldn’t that plan work?” to which Tom replies, “Work? Why cer’nly, it would work, like rats a fighting. But it’s too blame’ simple; there ain’t nothing to it. What’s the good of a plan that ain’t no more trouble than that? It’s as milk as goose-milk. Why, Huck, it wouldn’t make no more talk than breaking into a soap factory” (Twain 176).
Mark Twain’s use of humor in the story mocks and shines light on the issues of our society’s political system from back then that continue
Satire is form of comedy in which flaws in people or society are chastised in order to prompt change in the objects of criticism. Regardless of how long ago comedy itself may have existed, the concept of satire was introduced by the Roman satirists, Juvenal and Horace. The tones conveyed in their writing characterize the main modes of satire, being Horatian and Juvenalian, and are still used in satire today. Presently, two popular forms of comedy that employ satirical elements include parody news sources and comedic performances. Although satirical writing has evolved throughout history, many aspects of satire are still apparent in both the articles of parody news sources, like The Onion, and the performances of professional comedians, like
The parallelism that is introduced in the two long sentences that make up paragraph 14 emphasize Twain’s belief in people. He shows that people believe that they are putting time and effort into thinking about politics and deciding what party they belong to when in all actuality they are influenced by those around them. This can be seen when twain states “they read its literature, but not that of the other side” (720). This shows that many people are actually clueless of the whole picture. They only receive information about a single part and make their decision based off of that, without taking the time out to view both sides.
... count as an injury at all. Then going on to say “Two years ago last Christmas your uncle Silas was coming up from newrleans on the old Lally rook, and she blowed out a cylinder-head and crippled a man.” (Pg 212) This further illustrates the double standard; it did not matter unless the injury was that of a White man. Twain uses blatant ignorance to satirize the stupidity of this racial inequity that was so common at that time in the antebellum south.
In comparison to Twain's poetic river, he is able to grasp the hazards of the river through his work on the riverboats. Through his experiences "a day came when [he] began to cease from noting the glories and the charms ... [and] another day [came] when [he] ceased altogether to note them" (1). Unlike the poetic prose stated before, Twain uses harsh images and a common dialect to describe the conditions of the riverfront, "which is going to kill somebody's steamboat one of these nights" (1). These comparisons in mind-set allow the reader and Twain to wonder if there is any value to actually learning a trade. If beauty or adventure is taken out of the experience, then why surrender to the trade? In further assessment, Twain questions the medical field by asking, "Does [a doctor] ever see [the] beauty [of the body] at all, or [does] he simply view her professionally?" (1). Seeing that doctors could overlook the beauty of the human body, Twain has "pitied doctors from [his] heart" (1). In this particular excerpt Twain does not answer his questions, but through his images of beauty and peril of the river the reader can assume he prefers "the poetry.
Twain describes local customs and the ways that the characters behave to create a more realistic setting for the story. In the story the characters engage in behavior or activities that would be unusual for a regular person to do. For example, the narrator says:
Mark Twain applies humor in the various episodes throughout the book to keep the reader laughing and make the story interesting. The first humorous episode occurs when Huck Finn astonishes Jim with stories of kings. Jim had only heard of King Solomon, whom he considers a fool for wanting to chop a baby in half and adds, Yit dey say Sollermun de wises?man dat ever live? I doan?take no stock in dat (75). Next, the author introduces the Grangerfords as Huck goes ashore and unexpectedly encounters this family. Huck learns about a feud occurring between the two biggest families in town: the Grangerfords and the Sheperdsons. When Huck asks Buck about the feud, Buck replies, 搾... a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man抯 brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in ?and by and by everybody抯 killed off, and there ain抰 no more feud挃 (105). A duel breaks out one day between the families and Huck leaves town, heading for the river where he rejoins Jim, and they continue down the Mississippi. Another humorous episode appears n the novel on the Phelps plantation. Huck learns that the king has sold Jim to the Phelps family, relatives of Tom Sawyer. The Phelps family mistakes Huck for Tom Sawyer. When Tom meets with Aunt Sally, he ?.. [reaches] over and [kisses] Aunt Sally on the mouth?(219) This comes as a surprises to her and Tom explains that he 揫thinks] [she] [likes] it?(219) Later, Huck runs into Tom on the way into town and the two make up another story about their identities. The two then devise a plan to rescue Jim. They use Jim as a prisoner and make him go through jail escaping clich閟.
Mark Twain establishes satire though logical appeal. He had concrete evidence throughout his writing. He demonstrates logical appeal, so the reader can be more engaged in his humorous advice. For example, as Mark Twain discussed on page 7 paragraph 5-6 “you want to be careful about lying; otherwise you are nearly sure to get caught,” (7). He included
The southern way of speech had yet to have been captured skillfully until Twain’s writing. Twain went into detail in L...
Much of Twain’s writing identifies him as a humorist. However, he reveals his pessimistic side as a satirist in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was published 20 years after the Civil War. Through the innocence of Huck’s narrative, Twain attacks slavery, racism, hypocrisy, and injustice during one of the most shameful and embarrassing periods in American history.
...aste land which can be found in the following quote from chapter 8 “I catched a glimpse of fire away through the trees. I went for it, cautious and slow. By and by I was close enough to have a look, and there laid a man on the ground. It most give me the fantods. He had a blanket around his head, and his head was nearly in the fire. I set there behind a clump of bushes in about six foot of him, and kept my eyes on him steady. It was getting gray daylight now. Pretty soon he gapped and stretched himself and hove off the blanket, and it was Miss Watson’s Jim! I bet I was glad to see him. I says: “Hello, Jim!” and skipped out.” (Twain, Chapter 8, p. 43).