The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

Dave Wilson is an outsider in Dawson's Landing when he arrives and is quickly branded a fool, a label he is unable to escape for twenty years. Luigi and Angelo Capello are also outsiders, but unlike Wilson, they are celebrated for their exotic foreignness. Tom Driscoll is the ultimate insider, the town's native son and part of its most esteemed family, yet when Tom goes to Yale for two years, he returns as an outsider, influenced by East Coast ideas and overly educated. Judge Driscoll and Pembroke Howard are seen as pillars of the community, yet they cling to their roots in Virginia, not Missouri.

The idea of social identity and fitting in, and whether that is a worthwhile pursuit, runs throughout the novel, as characters rise and fall on the opinions of the townspeople. Twain has some fun with the importance Judge Driscoll, Pembroke Howard, and even Roxy place on a connection to the First Families of Virginia, particularly when it comes to Roxy, whose identification as an enslaved person blocks any claim her son might have to high-society. Yet it is Roxy who reminds Tom of his connection to Virginia, telling him that a descendant Captain John Smith should behave without cowardice.

Tom Driscoll has been raised with every advantage possible in 1830s Missouri: a prominent family, a distinguished bloodline, relative wealth and comfort, servants, and an education. Yet Tom is the villain of the novel, double-crossing and deceiving everyone he comes in contact with. Tom, Twain tells the reader, was a difficult, crying baby. Was he simply born bad? Or is he the product of Roxy's deference, an undisciplined, overindulged brat who lacks a moral compass because he has not been taught right from wrong?

The question of why Tom is the way he is has much larger implications, of course. It was common in Twain's time to characterize Black people as uneducable and in need of firm guidance, a justification that was often given for the practice slavery. Yet Twain's works, including this one, often portray the plight of enslaved people with sympathy, and highlight the many admirable Black men and women in any given setting. And if it is true that Tom, who is actually Black, was made a villain by nurture, then would it not also be true that Black people who are treated well could be made heroes? Or are people born with characteristics that remain unaffected by the circumstances of their upbringings?