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 day of Hendon’s trial arrives. Hendon’s claims that he’s the rightful heir of the Hendon estates, but he’s sentenced to two hours in the pillory. Edward is let off with a lecture and a warning to choose better friends. Edward follows Hendon to the pillory but doesn’t understand what the punishment means until someone throws an egg at Hendon. Edward frantically tries to make them stop, and Hendon has to beg an officer not to punish Edward. Just then, Hugh comes up and says Edward could do with half a dozen lashes from a whip. Edward freezes, torn between begging for mercy and having to suffer such disgrace as a king. He decides he must accept the whipping, but Hendon speaks up and says he’ll take them for Edward. Hugh laughs and orders the officer to give Hendon a dozen lashings in place of Edward.
Edward acts kindly and righteously by trying to stand up for Hendon and protect him from humiliation, but the officer and Hugh want to punish him for it. This shows Edward that in his kingdom, doing the right thing isn’t always rewarded in a positive way—sometimes people are hurt by authority figures for simply doing the right thing. Fortunately for Edward, Hendon is very selfless in his love for Edward and he is willing to suffering excruciating pain to spare Edward the humiliation of it.
Themes
Hendon is taken out of the pillory and whipped a dozen times. Edward can’t watch—he turns his face away and cries. To himself, Edward says that giving one’s life for a king is great but that it’s nothing compared to saving a king from shame. Hendon doesn’t cry out under the lash and, as a result, the crowd is touched by his selflessness and fortitude. When the whipping is over, Edward creeps up to Hendon and tells Hendon he has a nobility that only God can grant a person, but Edward can make that nobility known to humanity. Edward picks up the whip and dubs Hendon an earl. Hendon is touched and he values this act not for the title (which he thinks is empty), but for the love which motivated it. Hugh leaves and the crowd disperses, refusing to insult Hendon any further as a mark of respect.
Although Edward would have felt ashamed of being whipped, Hendon simply accepts it without complaint and he is rewarded for it—the crowd no longer jeers and taunts him because they now respect him. Edward’s real shame is that he would never have been able to quietly submit to something so degrading (from his perspective). He would have cried out and possibly struggled, neither of which would be king-like behaviors. Hendon, then, is saving Edward from revealing how weak he is front of his subjects.
Themes
