Chapters 23 and 24

Editor: Shivali Khetan 

Plot Summary

     At the beginning of the chapter, the duke and the dauphin are preparing for the performance that night. The king comes out on stage in just body paint and on all fours. The crowd roars of laughter but quickly find that the show is over and that they were ripped off. The next day the people who came to the first show told everyone else how great the show was because they wanted everyone else to be ripped off. On the third night of the show, the people who came to the first two shows came again for revenge with their pockets filled with food to throw. The duke, dauphin, Huck and Jim escape on to the raft with $465 they made from the play.

     While this is going on, Jim wonders how the duke and the dauphin were just regular rapscallions (rascals).  Huck explains that kings are mostly rapscallions and gives several examples including Henry VIII and how he used to marry a new wife everyday and chop her head off the next day. Jim continues to question the duke and the dauphin but Huck keeps explaining using historical stories as precedents for their peculiar behavior.

     That night, Jim didn’t wake Huck like he normally does to switch shits for the night watch. Huck finds him morose, moaning for his family and Huck learns that he cares about his family just as much as white people do. Jim then relates a story to Huck about one time when he beat his daughter for not listening to him. What Jim didn’t realize was that his daughter, Lizabeth, was deaf from a bad case of the Scarlett fever. He tells Huck that he begged God for forgiveness and how he could not forgive himself. 

     The next day, the four prepare for their next adventure. Instead of leaving Jim tied to the raft for hours they dressed him in a costume, painted his face and neck a solid blue, and hung a sign on him that read “Sick Arab- but harmless when not out of his head. They tell Jim if anyone asked any question that he should just start to howl so they would stop bothering him. With the money from the show, the other three dressed well and Huck cannot understand how clothes changed a person so much.

     The duke, dauphin, and Huck get on a steamboat so they can make a grander entrance. The dauphin starts talking to a young man and the man asks if he is Peter Wilks. The king says he is a reverend so the man continues to tell him about a man who died and left all of his property to his two brothers from England. The man explains that one brother is William and other is Harvey who is deaf and dumb. The king asks more questions about the family including how old Peter’s daughters were and when the funeral was. The king asks Huck to fetch the duke and arrive at the Wilks’ home. The two begin their charade as the two brothers and everyone gathered around to sympathize. Huck is ashamed to think that anyone is capable of this.

Characters

Huck Finn: Huck narrates the various schemes of the duke and the dauphin. It is clear that Hck has no respect for the two of them. Huck plays a minor role in their charades. He causually assists them but tries to seperate himself as much as he can. In these chapters, Huck maturity and growth is apparent (see Historical and Cultural Context).

Jim: A slave who worked at Widow Douglas' but escaped when he heard he was going to be sold. Acompanies Huck down the in search for a place where he can be free. He also believes the duke and the dauphin are really who they say they are. The reader learns more about Jim's past and emotions in these chapters (see Literary Criticism).

The Duke: One half a con team that pulls Huck and Jim into their immoral plots to extort money in from people in various ways as they travel down the Mississippi River. 

The Dauphin (The King): The other half, who like the duke orders Huck and Jim around. He is the one who prances around naked on stage and is the one who comes up with the idea to pretend to be George Wilks' brothers.

The Townspeople: Fooled into paying for the Royal Nonesuch play come back for revenge show. The four aforementioned are forced to escape.

Young man from steamboat: Tells the dauphin abut the Wilks' and their current state of affairs. He essentially gives them their plot which then becomes the basis for the next few chapters. 

The Wilks: A family of girls who lost their mother and now their father. They will come to meet their supposed "uncles" right before the funeral.

Important Quotes

Quote #1

"'Greenhorns, flatheads! I knew the first house would keep mum and let the rest of the town get roped in; and I knew they'd lay for us the third night, and consider in was their turn now.'"

In Chapter 23, The duke and the dauphin put on play where they essentially rip the townspeople off because their show is rubbish. The duke exclaims this line when they escape from the wrath of he angry townspeople onto the raft. He jokes about how the people were going to turn the show into a picnic. This quote explains how experienced the duke is at at scamming people. He knew exactly how the crowd was going to react and what they were going to do next. Huck is in disbelief as to how much the "rapscallions" made.

Quote #2 

"Sometimes I wish we could hear of a country that's out of kings." (pg 117) 

After a conversation with Jim about the authenticity of the duke and the dauphin, Huck agrees with Jim saying that he wished for a land without these kind of people. While Jim thinks he wants a world rid of kings, Huck knows he means these scam artists. This quote explains Huck's view on criminals and shows he can differentiate between right and wrong. He wants to be free of these men and learn of any place where he can be free. All his books and lessons have taught him about these people and he becomes sick of it.

Quote #3

"What was the use to tell Jim these warn't real kings and dukes? It wouldnt a done no good; and besides, it was just as i said; you couldn't tell them from the real kind." (pg 117)

As a real sign of his maturity, this quote symbolizes Huck's growth. He understands that Jim would only be disapointed that he was fooled into believing that they were not actually a duke or a dauphin. Huck also shows the reader that it didnt matter by playing off the point that nobody could tell the difference between an authority figure and a crook. In Huck's mind, both have wronged him and have been awful role models.

Quote #4 

"He was thinking about his wife and his children, away up yonder, and he was low and homesick; because he hadn't ever been away from home before in his life; and I do believe he cared just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n." (pg 117)

During the night watch, Huck hears Jim moaning and know he is in distress. During these lookouts, Jim has a lot of time to think and it is natural that he remembers what he loves most. He mentions names in his rambles, names Huck concludes are members of his family. After, Huck realizes that maybe black and white people are not as different as he has been taught to think. He learns that love is love and shows one again Huck's maturity. He knows more about people and relationships that any adult in his life.

Quote #5 

"I never knowed how clothes could change a body before. Why, before,he looked like the orneriest old rip that ever was; but now, when he'd take off his new white beaver and make a bow and do a smile, he looked that grand and good and pious that you'd day he had walked right out of the ark, and maybe was old Leviticus himself." (pg 119)

This quote shows Huck's understanding of image. Huck only knows of a world where people dress according to the class of society he or she is in. Huck is amazed as to how different the duke and the dauphin look after buying some nicer clothes. He explains how you would not be able to tell the difference between the scoundrels they were before and the well-to-do citizens they look like now. He understands that how one is dressed and what they look plays a huge role in surface impressions.

Quote #6 

"Well, if ever I struck anything like it, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race." (pg 123)

After The duke and the dauphin begin to trick the Wilks family by telling them that they are the dead man's brother Huck cannot believe that they are actualy going to do this. This quote shows how ethically, Huck is a much better person than the duke and the dauphin. He knows that what they are doing is wrong and what is interesting is that Huck is not upset but embarassed. This also shows what his impressions of society are. Every impression he has had of the human beings has been uninspiring.

Literary Criticism

"Jim is a gentle and loyal person; he is not vengeful, he does not hate, he cannot cheat or trick another. He fears and evades violence, but he does not commit violence—as do so many of the characters in this book, whether as individuals or with the clan or mob. His most memorable speeches are characterized by an open honesty and a deep capacity for unselfish love. We recall the wounded love for Huck that brought about Jim's angry speech quoted above, and the love for his little deaf daughter in that other powerfully dramatic, though brief, narration (Ch. XXIII)"  (Brownell, Frances V. "The Role of Jim in Huckleberry Finn." Boston Studies in English. 1.(1955): 74-83. Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. 74-83. Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. Westhill High School. 17 Dec. 2008. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRG&u=s135g)

In chapters 23 and 24, the reader gets the chance to learn about Jim's family and his true personality. Previously, Jim had just been a travel companion of Huck's. Until this point in the story, I believe Jim just played unemotional supporting role. There was not enough of his personality revealed to understand him as a character.  However when Huck and Jim spend more time with each other Jim's sensitivity is made clear. When Jim is on night watch, Huck wakes to hear him "moaning and mourning". That night Jim tells the Huck how he longs for his wife and his children. He is comfortable enough with Huck that he even tells him about the time he beat his daughter for not listening to him. He then confesses that he will never be able to forgive himself for it because she was infact deaf after a severe case of the scarlett fever. The story about his daughter is important because it probably true t

What is also important about this conversation is the less recognized role Jim plays in the novel; a catalyst to Huck's maturity. In this piece of literary criticism I agree with the authors point that Jim acts as a foil to Huck. A foil in literature is character who contrasts a second character to highlight a certain characteristic of the second character. Jim does just this for Huck. For example, in the chapter 23, Jim still has not realized that the duke and the dauphin are not who they say they are. This then makes Huck seem far more intelligent then he may really be. The author of this piece of literary criticism makes the point that Jim acts as a "moral catalyst". It is apparent at the end of chapter three especially that Jim does infact have morals. This then helps Huck learn more about, to put it simply, right and wrong. Huck has never had an adult in his life that he could look up to and Jim is at least someone who has not wronged him and someone he can trust.

Historical and Cultural Context

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, published in 1885, came at a turning point in history. The thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth ammendment changed the whole social structure of America; blacks were now free. There were many people who were not comfortable with the black's freedom and resisted integrating them into their place of work and their neighborhoods. What is interesting is that Twain set this book antebellum. Throughout the story he incorporates the various social structures of this time period as Huck and Jim travel down the Mississippi River.  Knowing Huck has been raised under the belief that whites are more capable than blacks intellectually and even emotionally his enlightenment is carefully followed as he travels. In the past, his teachers have been, the Widow and Miss Watson, both of which were comfortable owning a slave. His pap, if he were to have ever taught him anything, would have told him something along the same lines.

In the following piece of literary criticism, my first piece of criticism and my historical context can be tied into a third explanation of Huck and Jim's relationship.

"But again and again Huck has proven himself incapable of mastering the language of justice. For modern readers, one frustration with the novel lies in the degree to which Huck fails to abstract general principles from specific examples, to move from "it is wrong for Jim to be a slave" to "slavery is wrong"; or even from "Jim cares 'just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n'; Jim is 'white inside'" (Twain 1995, 155, 251) to "Jim is like me; racism is wrong." But Huck never makes these leaps. Even his attitude toward Jim never seems wholly to recognize Jim's humanity; in the Grangerford episode, Huck considers his servant "my nigger," and only a few pages later thinks of "my Jim" in the same fashion (116, 120)--and this well into their idyllic river voyage and well before the "failed ending" where we might expect such textual difficulties." Bollinger, Laurel. "Say It, Jim: The Morality of Connection in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." College Literature. 29.1 (Winter 2002): 32-52. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 161. Detroit: Gale, 2005. 32-52. Literature Resources from Gale. Gale. Westhill High School. 18 Dec. 2008

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/start.do?p=LitRG&u=s135g.

I do believe that Jim was a moral catalyst and a foil to Huck but I also believe that Huck never realizes this. Huck is confused about his relationship with Jim and he is never sure what to really think of him. He stuggles with the fact that he helped him escape. At times he reverts back to the lessons Miss Watson taught him about blacks people's role in society. Other times he embraces his free-thinking and rebellion. He is constantly toying with concept that Jim was just as much of an individual as he was. In my chapters specifically, Huck understand that "Jim cares 'just as much for his people as white folks does for their'n." This show growth and understanding, two things that Jim has contributes heavily to.