The Prince And The Pauper Analysis

The Prince and the Pauper

Donivan Pogue

Tom Canty, the son of a poor family, has always dreamed of being a prince.He was tired of being a filthy pauper, eating crumbs of bread and begging for food and money on the streets of Offal Court, out of Pudding Lane.And almost every night, his father and grandmother would come home, drunk, and beat him and his two sisters, Pam and Nan. Occasionally, Tom Canty’s father, John Canty, would beat his wife for protecting her children.This was a motivation for Tom for begging on the streets. Now today the father would get charged with child abuse but this was the sixteenth century of England and there wasn’t a whole lot of laws back then. But anyways. Sometimes Tom Canty would go around pretending he was

the prince and this worried a lot of people.
Prince Edward of Wales didn’t want to live the royal life.

He wanted to be free from the work, studies, and hardships of being a prince. He wanted to play and be free. He longed to be a pauper and have no worries about the world. His father, King Henry VIII was growing old and Edward knew he was going to be the King soon.

One day when Tom was walking around town he discovered the place where the King’s castle had been. Charing Village. He went up to the closed gates of the castle and saw the Prince, practicing with his dagger in his hand. The guards saw Tom and grabbed him by his shirt collar but before they were about to throw him, the Prince told the guards to stop and let him in. The Prince and Tom then sat at the big dining room table in the castle. The prince had asked what was his name, how old he was and all of that kind of stuff. Tom rarely talked fore he was scared that he might get sent away or even worst. Killed.

They then went into a room with a big mirror and the Prince had realized that both of them looked quite similar. They had the same hair, same face, same body build. Then the Prince asked Tom if he would like to switch clothes and be different people. So Tom gave the Prince his clothes and the Prince gave Tom his clothes. The Prince was now Tom Canty and Tom Canty was now the Prince. Whenever the Prince, or should I say, “Tom Canty”, left the castle it started to rain and he was then beaten by a gang of boys. His father walked up to him, drunk, and dragged

him on home.
Now “The Prince” was considered “mad” because he already “forgot” his foreign languages that he was supposed to know and he doesn’t know the proper table manners. Whenever they had switched back, the King, Henry VIII had already died and Edward became the king. Unfortunately, Edward only lived a few years as king before dying, and Tom Canty became an old, wise man with long white hair and a long white beard.
Fin.