Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Prince and the Pauper, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Appearances vs. Reality
Wealth, Poverty, and Morality
Justice
Nature vs. Nurture
Summary
Analysis
The next day, Tom spends hours listening to various ambassadors speak; occasionally, Tom repeats whatever Hertford tells him to say. Tom struggles with how restrictive palace life is but he enjoys talking to Humphrey. By the third day, Tom begins to acclimate to his new lifestyle but he still dreads having to dine in public. The fourth day is when Tom is supposed to dine in public and Hertford is to be named Lord Protector. The big day comes and it makes Tom feel more like a captive than ever. That afternoon Tom—along with Hertford—is waiting for a group of courtiers and dignitaries to arrive. Tom wanders to a window and sees a loud group of people walking outside. Tom says he wants to know what’s going on and Hertford orders a page to go find out.
So far, Tom’s most meaningful connection in the palace is, coincidentally, with Humphrey—a person whose social position most closely resembles what Tom’s used to be. This demonstrates Tom’s kindness and empathy despite his newfound position of power. Meanwhile, Tom is afraid of eating in public because he doesn’t think he can adequately imitate the way true nobility eats and he’s worried he won’t remember all the rules.
Themes
Literary Devices
Armed guards run out to the group and send a messenger back with the answer: the crowd is following a man, woman, and child who are going to be executed. Tom’s heart aches as he thinks about the fate that awaits the prisoners. In his thoughts, Tom doesn’t consider the laws that were broken nor the possible victims, but only the prisoners’ punishments. Tom abruptly demands that the prisoners be brought inside. At first, he’s embarrassed, but the messenger leaves without a word or a look and Tom feels proud that he can issue commands that none dare to question. Tom absentmindedly sits back in his throne to wait. When the prisoners come in, Tom realizes he saw the man rescue a boy from drowning on New Year’s Day. Tom tells the woman and girl to wait in another room.
Tom gets a major confidence boost when he expresses curiosity about what’s going on outside and someone immediately runs out to see. This reminds Tom that, as a monarch, he makes the rules: even though many rules are restrictive, Tom has the ultimate say over whether he follows them as not, or even whether those rules exist.
Themes
Tom asks why the man is to be executed and an officer says the man was proven to have murdered someone with poison. Tom is disappointed but he says the man deserves his punishment. Before the man is taken away, though, he starts wringing his hands and pleads with Tom to order him to be hanged. Tom asks what is supposed to happen and the man says he’s supposed to be boiled alive. Horrified, Tom grants the man’s wish and he asks Hertford if this punishment could be true. Hertford explains it’s just the law, and Tom says the law must be abolished immediately. Hertford, who has a merciful heart, readily agrees.
Tom’s horror at finding out that people are boiled alive reflects his tendency to value all people’s lives, even if they are criminals. This is different from most members of the upper classes who easily write criminals off as useless and don’t give a second thought about torturing them. Since Tom has lived his entire life as a beggar, he likely empathizes with this man and knows that sometimes lower-class people are scapegoated by authority figures without much evidence.
Themes
Tom asks for more details of the case and he learns that the man was alone with a patient who died of poisoning (according to a doctor). Furthermore, a witch predicted the patient would be poisoned by a stranger. Tom asks the man to share his side and the man says he wasn’t there but he can’t prove it. According to him, he was over a league away; in fact, he was saving rather than taking a life—he saved a boy from drowning to death that day. Tom says the prisoner must go free and criticizes the fact that the man was condemned on such flimsy evidence. A buzz erupts through the room as people praise Tom’s good judgment and they assert that he can’t truly be mad. Tom hears this and it sets him at ease. Tom then orders that the woman and girl be brought in.
Tom begins to grow confident in his position as king as soon as he hears people doubt that he’s insane. Tom’s preexisting insecurities were magnified in his own mind because in the palace he’s surrounded by people who insist on calling him insane. This initially makes Tom doubt his own judgment, but hearing people begin to doubt that he’s insane encourages him that he’s doing a good job.
Themes
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Tom asks the officer what the woman and girl are charged with. The officer says it was proven that they both sold their soul to the devil. Tom’s skin crawls as he asks who witnessed the deal. The officer says nobody was there at the time, but people saw them going to the graveyard and not long after that a destructive storm ripped through the neighborhood, which 40 people can attest to. Tom mulls this over and he asks if the woman suffered in the storm, too. The officer says she suffered heavy losses and Tom replies that she certainly made a bad deal and she has been cheated. Tom asks how the woman and her daughter created the storm and the officer says they did it by taking off their stockings—something anyone who wants to do it and knows the magic words can do.
The description of the woman and girl’s alleged crime is meant to illustrate how ridiculous and unjust some of the laws in Tudor England were. Some of them, such as this one, were founded in superstitions rather than facts, which made it easy accuse anyone who didn’t quite fit in of some crime for which they could then be executed.
Themes
Excited, Tom turns to the woman and orders her to make another storm. Everyone in the room is uncomfortable, but Tom promises the woman she won’t be punished if she does it. The woman says she’s been falsely accused, but Tom persists, even saying that if she can make one then her and her daughter will go free. The woman says she would if she could, if only to free her daughter. Tom says he thinks the woman is telling the truth because his own mother wouldn’t hesitate to create a storm to save his life. Tom frees them but he says he’ll make them rich if they produce a storm. The woman and her daughter eagerly take their stockings off, hoping a storm will come, but none does. Tom tells them to go free but to make a storm for him if their powers ever return to them.
Tom is very young, and his background is very different from the rest of the nobles’. Because of this, he has a very different perspective on human behavior and alleged crimes. More importantly, he recognizes the humanity in people who have been dehumanized by the upper classes. Out of all the other authority figures who likely presided over this case, none of them thought of using the love a mother has for her child to help prove this woman either guilty or not guilty. Tom, however (inspired by his own mother’s love), knew that if the woman did have powers, she wouldn’t hesitate to use them to save her daughter’s life.
Themes
