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Motifs
Definition of Satire
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of satire, but satirists can take... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians, are often the subject of... read full definition
Satire is the use of humor, irony, sarcasm, or ridicule to criticize something or someone. Public figures, such as politicians... read full definition
Section 2
Explanation and Analysis—Manifest Goodness:
In Section 2, Edward Richards is the first citizen to receive a follow-up letter from a "Howard L. Stephenson." In the letter, this Stephenson details how Goodson had originally made the remark that was so worthy of the mysterious "gold," but adds that Richards—by virtue of some unnamed favor for Goodson—is his "legitimate heir." In a fit of angst, Richards wracks his brain to remember this apparent favor. Perhaps, Richards wonders, he had saved the stranger's life? The reader is, by now, well aware that Richards has no actual claim to the gold, and Twain captures Richard's cognitive somersaults with his trademark satire and hyperbole:
His life? That is it! Of course. Why, he might have thought of it before. This time he was on the right track, sure. His imagination-mill was hard at work in a minute, now.
Thereafter during a stretch of two exhausting hours he was busy saving Goodson’s life. He saved it in all kinds of difficult and perilous ways. In every case he got it saved satisfactorily up to a certain point; then, just as he was beginning to get well persuaded that it had really happened, a troublesome detail would turn up which made the whole thing impossible.
Related Themes:
Explanation and Analysis—Shadbelly Schadenfreude:
In Section 2, Jack Halliday—the voice of the Hadleyburg commoners in Twain's story—wanders, bewildered, through the village: the nineteen prominent citizens of Hadleyburg appear to be in some indescribable state of joy, just days after they were frozen by some equally mysterious sadness. In a moment of bitter satire, Halliday assumes that this happiness must come from someone else's suffering:
Unlock with LitCharts A+When Halliday found the duplicate ecstasy in the face of “Shadbelly” Billson (village nickname), he was sure some neighbor of Billson’s had broken his leg, but inquiry showed that this had not happened. The subdued ecstasy in Gregory Yates’s face could mean but one thing—he was a mother-in-law short: it was another mistake. “And Pinkerton—Pinkerton—he has collected ten cents that he thought he was going to lose.” And so on, and so on.
Related Themes:
