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
Later that afternoon, Tom undergoes the lengthy process of getting dressed for dinner with the help of nobles and servants, all of whom have been instructed not to notice any evidence of his madness. At dinner, the servants’ hearts ache to see how lost their prince seems to be. They stare in pity while Tom eats with his fingers and questions whether lettuce and turnips (both new to England) are edible. Tom becomes frantic when his nose itches and he doesn’t know if he’s allowed to scratch it (eventually he does). After the meal, instead of washing his hands in the bowl of rosewater someone brings him, he drinks it. He also gets up and leaves before the chaplain can bless him. Back in Edward’s room, Tom eats some nuts he took from the dinner table and he studies a book on English etiquette that he finds in Edward’s room.
Tom’s confusion over whether he’s allowed to itch his own nose highlights how restrictive the rules of what princes and princesses can or cannot do can be. This explains why Edward was so envious of Tom when they met: although Edward has the social privilege that comes with royalty, he lacks the freedom of common life. Meanwhile, Tom is constantly afraid of doing too much by himself because it will reveal how ill-equipped he is for life as a royal. Through Tom’s experience, Twain implies that the nobility is too spoiled and dependent on their servants for basic day-to-day rituals like getting dressed. In this respect, palace life is silly and pointless, if not harmful.
Themes
Literary Devices
