Scoundrels in Twain's Adventures of Essay

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However, this label can only be loosely applied to Tom, as society accepts that the scoundrel will grow out of him, given his proper upbringing.

Second, dangerous scoundrels often seem humorous, but the danger they pose cannot be underestimated. The most blaring examples of dangerous scoundrels in the novel are Pap, Huck's father, and the Duke and the Dauphin. Pap is a drunk who has a reputation for causing trouble. If he were simply a drunk, however, he would be classified as a societal scoundrel. Instead, he is a dangerous man who beats his son and takes advantage of him for his money. Twain clearly disapproves of Pap, as his actions toward Huck, despite Huck's desire to have a family are abysmal. Twain's judgment against Pap is avenged as dies early on in the novel, although the reader and Huck do not know about it until the end. In addition to Pap, the Duke and the Dauphin, two con men whose names derive from a con they pulled, telling others that they are French royalty. These swindlers manage to come up with creative ways to get others money; they even pretend to be relatives so that they can get the inheritance of a recently dead man. While their actions are comedic, it is clear that they are dangerous people, so dangerous that Huck and Jim feel almost like their prisoners.

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Thus, Twain establishes two types of scoundrels in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- societal scoundrels and dangerous scoundrels. Clearly, Twain tends to side with the societal scoundrels, using many instances to show why they should not be considered moral at all. The dangerous scoundrels, however, are those with whom Twain does not agree in the least. Twain's morality when judging these scoundrels, then, does not go along with the typical Southern version of Christianity, which condones slavery and suggests that propriety is part of morality. Instead, he uses a morality more like that which Christianity actually invokes; he sees those people who hurt others as the more dangerous of the two. Thus, in Twain's hell, societal scoundrels wouldn't be present; they would be getting their reward in heaven. However, dangerous scoundrels would be made to suffer the same pain that they caused others......

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