The Mysterious Stranger

While it may seem that he only brought up Satan for the sake of comparison, there are some definite connection between his thoughts here and his inclusion of Satan within The Mysterious Stranger. It is possible that Twain had these thoughts in mind as he wrote Satan’s insightful dialogues. This could have been his attempt to give Satan a chance to speak for himself for once. Surely his experiences and abilities would give him a unique perspective worth considering. Twain said it best in the essay: “We may not pay him reverence, for that would be indiscreet, but we can at least respect his talents.” In other words, it was an opportunity for Twain to finally give the devil his due. However, the identity of Twain’s “devil” might be closer to home than expected. The Mysterious Stranger was not the first time that Twain had depicted the character of Satan. In the essay “Mark Twain’s Masks of Satan: The Final Phase,” Stanley Brodwin points out

Each one of these roles follows the other in a chronological chain of evolving themes. The first role is the standard “Father of Lies” personality, which can be seen in “The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg” (Brodwin 207). This is a fairly traditional portrayal of Satan as an insidious tempter who leads good, moral people astray. The second role is the sympathetic and misunderstood failure as viewed in "That Day in Eden (A Passage from Satan's Diary)," "Eve Speaks," and “Sold to Satan.” Here Twain shows a greater amount of kinship with the figure, even going as far as jokingly including the aforementioned “ancestral” relationship between himself and Satan in “Sold to Satan” (208). The third role furthers this personal connection and casts Satan as a “mischievous, sarcastic