After Tom, Joe, and Charley join Henry and that narrator in waiting for Henry’s wife to arrive home, the three newcomers decide to play some live music. Twain uses imagery to capture the sounds and sensations of the music, as seen in the following passage:
Toward nine the three miners said that as they had brought their instruments they might as well tune up, for the boys and girls would soon be arriving now, and hungry for a good, old-fashioned break-down. A fiddle, a banjo, and a clarinet—these were the instruments. The trio took their places side by side, and began to play some rattling dance-music, and beat time with their big boots.
Because Twain does not use much imagery in “The Californian’s Tale,” this moment is significant. Here, he engages readers’ sense of hearing by describing the miners’ music as “rattling” and also helps them to feel the experience somatically by noting how the men “beat time with their big boots” (presumably shaking the floor beneath them).
Twain uses imagery here for a few different reasons. First, the descriptions are not particularly joyful—rather than describing the music as upbeat or melodic, he describes it as “rattling,” a word that describes a series of knocking-like sounds and is also related to the word “rattled,” meaning worried or anxious. This language helps readers understand that there is an anxiety underlying this performance. Henry is worried about when his wife will return, and the miners playing the music are all worried that Henry will lose his mind if he realizes that his wife is never going to return (as she was abducted 19 years earlier).
Twain also uses imagery here in order to help readers understand how far these men will go to support their friend’s delusions. They string the house with flowers and then bring out their instruments, play their loud music, and beat their feet in a sort of feigned act of joviality, all ostensibly to celebrate Henry’s wife’s impending return. In this way, they are both kind friends and also enablers, refusing to help their friend face the reality that his wife is never coming home.
