1. Character
The duke and the king in the story are flat characters. They have no evolution from the beginning to the end of the book, and they never feel regretful about who they had lied to or stolen from. They exhibit traits of greed and lack of conscience when they steal from the Church people, the play audience and when they were about to steal from the Wilks family. The king and the duke are basically the opposites of Huck and Jim, who are round characters. Huck and Jim show moral development and compassion. They have deeper thoughts than how they can deceive someone and they feel regretful when they do something that they know that they shouldn't.
2. Dramatic Irony
Huck's conscience is an example of dramatic irony because his decision to help Jim is not what a normal white man from the south would think. He puts his newly developed morals into action as he decides that helping Jim is what is most important to him. Huck even thought that what he was doing was completely wrong, but he decided "All right, I'll go to hell". He thought that if saving Jim was such an evil thing to do, he was that committed to his friend to suffer hell for him. Twain probably thought that readers would have respect for Huck and notice his new morals. Huck doesn't necessarily believe that his decision to help Jim would be considered noble, he just thought that it was what he should do for his friend. His morals allow him to make this decision not based on society, but on what he believes to be the right thing to do.
3. Conflict
When the duke and the king sell Jim it signifies the true lack of conscience of the duke and the king. They had pretended to have Jim's best interest at heart, but then they betrayed him in order to get more money. This advances Huck's moral conflict because he wants to do everything he can to protect his friend. He had finally decided that he would do anything to watch out for Jim, but then he actually gets gets turned in as a runaway, not by Huck. The outcome of the conflict is that Jim does get sold by the duke and the king, but it makes Husk sure of the fact that people can be evil to each other.
4. Theme
Twain attacks the whole idea of slavery by using racial slurs and using stereotypical white/black mentalities in the book. He appears to go along with the accepted view of slavery, but what h actually did was criticize how awful slavery was. In Huck's conversation with Aunt Sally, he criticizes the white thought of blacks not being human. Huck lied to her about why he was so late, saying that there was an accident on the steamboat. When Aunt Sally asked if anyone was hurt, he remarked that no person was hurt, but a black person was killed. This reinforces the theme that slavery is evil because it promotes the thought that blacks are not human, or as good as a white man.
The duke and the king in the story are flat characters. They have no evolution from the beginning to the end of the book, and they never feel regretful about who they had lied to or stolen from. They exhibit traits of greed and lack of conscience when they steal from the Church people, the play audience and when they were about to steal from the Wilks family. The king and the duke are basically the opposites of Huck and Jim, who are round characters. Huck and Jim show moral development and compassion. They have deeper thoughts than how they can deceive someone and they feel regretful when they do something that they know that they shouldn't.
2. Dramatic Irony
Huck's conscience is an example of dramatic irony because his decision to help Jim is not what a normal white man from the south would think. He puts his newly developed morals into action as he decides that helping Jim is what is most important to him. Huck even thought that what he was doing was completely wrong, but he decided "All right, I'll go to hell". He thought that if saving Jim was such an evil thing to do, he was that committed to his friend to suffer hell for him. Twain probably thought that readers would have respect for Huck and notice his new morals. Huck doesn't necessarily believe that his decision to help Jim would be considered noble, he just thought that it was what he should do for his friend. His morals allow him to make this decision not based on society, but on what he believes to be the right thing to do.
3. Conflict
When the duke and the king sell Jim it signifies the true lack of conscience of the duke and the king. They had pretended to have Jim's best interest at heart, but then they betrayed him in order to get more money. This advances Huck's moral conflict because he wants to do everything he can to protect his friend. He had finally decided that he would do anything to watch out for Jim, but then he actually gets gets turned in as a runaway, not by Huck. The outcome of the conflict is that Jim does get sold by the duke and the king, but it makes Husk sure of the fact that people can be evil to each other.
4. Theme
Twain attacks the whole idea of slavery by using racial slurs and using stereotypical white/black mentalities in the book. He appears to go along with the accepted view of slavery, but what h actually did was criticize how awful slavery was. In Huck's conversation with Aunt Sally, he criticizes the white thought of blacks not being human. Huck lied to her about why he was so late, saying that there was an accident on the steamboat. When Aunt Sally asked if anyone was hurt, he remarked that no person was hurt, but a black person was killed. This reinforces the theme that slavery is evil because it promotes the thought that blacks are not human, or as good as a white man.