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
When Edward wakes up the next morning, there’s a rat sleeping on his chest. He takes this as a good omen—he’s hit rock bottom and he has nowhere to go but up. Two young girls come in and spot him. Cautiously, the girls approach Edward and ask who he is, and he introduces himself as the King of England. The girls briefly argue over whether he’s lying but they decide that if he says he’s really king then they’ll believe him. Edward says that he is, and the girls, accepting his answer as true, launch into some questions about how he got there and what happened. To himself, Edward vows to always honor children because they believe his story while adults call him a liar.
Edward seems to forget how the boys at Christ’s Hospital treated him when he tried to convince them of his real identity—they mocked him and then dunked him in a dirty pond. The difference between those boys and these girls is that the boys live in a big city that is notoriously full of corruption and criminals. These girls, however, live in the country where they don’t feel quite as surrounded by corruption as kids in a city, which makes them more trusting.
Themes
The girls’ mother takes pity on Edward, believing him an impoverished lunatic. Although she’s a poor widow, she decides to help him by trying to find out where he came from. She theorizes that he was an apprentice, so she makes some subtle remarks and asks seemingly innocent questions to determine what career he was apprenticing for. When she brings up food, Edward’s eyes light up and he talks about fine dishes, so she decides he must have been training to be a baker or cook in the palace. She decides to further test Edward by leaving him in charge of the cooking for a moment. Edward remembers a story about King Alfred doing something similar and he decides to do his best. Unfortunately, he lets the food burn and the woman scolds him for it. However, she relents when she sees how upset he is about his failure.
Although Edward’s recent experiences have humbled him, he still has a lot of personal pride and a sense of superiority over other people. This is why he’s only able to reconcile himself to taking over domestic chores by remembering that another great king did the same, and so Edward should have nothing to be ashamed of. This is a testament to Edward’s sheltered upbringing: although he’s shown himself to be kindhearted and compassionate, it’s clear that being waited on in the palace has made him spoiled and hesitant to do what he considers lowly work.
Themes
The meal the woman and her daughters share with Edward is somewhat unusual because both sides feel as if they’re doing the other a grand favor—the woman feels so badly about making Edward upset over the food that she allows him to eat at the family table instead of alone in a corner, and Edward feels so guilty about burning the food that he deigns to eat with the family instead of making them stand up and wait on him. Neither side realizes this about the other. After breakfast, the woman gives Edward chores to do around the house, and he does them because he thinks King Alfred might have, too. However, when she tells him to drown some kittens, Edward decides he’ll have to draw a line. Just then, Edward notices Hugo and John walking up, so he leaves the kittens by an outhouse and sneaks away.
Both Edward and this woman feel guilty for how they’ve treated each other (Edward for burning breakfast and the woman for hurting his feelings). This is what enables them to treat each other with some semblance of equality. Still, in the end, the woman has the upper hand and Edward learns how to swallow his pride to, for once, serve some of the people he rules over instead of expecting them to serve him. This foreshadows a potential change in Edward’s perception of being a ruler if he’s restored to the throne—perhaps, like Tom in his place, Edward will abolish unjust laws and create just ones.
Themes
Literary Devices
