Pudd'nhead Wilson Lesson Plan

How does Twain use language to suggest parallels between the Italian twins and slaves? And how does the twins’ story comment upon the nature of slavery?

When the twins tell the story of their youth, they say they were “seized” and without the “formality of consent” forced to be a sideshow exhibit. They even use the word slavery to describe their circumstances—“It took us two years to get out of that slavery.”

However, even though they are now free men, they can never truly escape from their past. In the scene at Aunt Patsy’s house, the twins are once more an exhibit—the townspeople come to gawk at them, and Aunt Patsy gets “high satisfaction in showing off her fine...