puddn head wilson Essay -- essays research papers

Puddnhead Wil passwordThe Tragedy of Puddnhead Wilson juggles three plot lines, which all come together in a murder trial at the novels end. Puddnhead Wilson is a Northerner who comes to the small Missouri town of Dawsons Landing to build a career as a lawyer. Immediately upon his comer he alienates the townspeople, who dont understand his wit. They give him the nickname Puddnhead and refuse to give him their legal work. He scrapes by on odd work and spends or so of his time dabbling in scientific hobbies, most notably, fingerprinting.Roxana, or Roxy, is a beautiful slave who can pass for white, though she is one- sixteenth black. To save her infant son from ever being sold away from her, she switches him with the child of her white master, who looks just like her son and was born on the same day. Her son Chambers, now called gobbler grows up as a white man and heir to an estate. Her masters child Tom, now called Chambers, grows up a slave. Tom grows into a cruel, cowardly man. H is gambling debts lead him, under Roxys guidance, to rob houses, sell the now-freed Roxy as a slave, and finally to murder his uncle, Judge Driscoll, in a screw up robbery attempt.Luigi and Angelo are former sideshow performers. Good-looking and charming, they claim to be Italian twins, heirs of a deposed nobleman. They arrive in Dawsons Landing to rent a manner in Widow Coopers house, claiming the...