Michelle, Romin, Wonjune
In chapter XXV, the duke and dauphen pretend to be George and Harvey Wilks in an attempt to con the Wilks family of the late Peter Wilks’s inheritance. This facade the two con men chose to put up is an important indication of multiple ideas that Mark Twain portrays in Huck Finn. The hierarchy of scamming is prevalent throughout the novel and can be seen through Huck, Tom, and the Duke and dauphen.
Huck only lies as necessary to live and gather information along their journey. One scene in which this is shown is when Huck fooled two men to make them believe that his sick family members were on the raft. Had the two men checked the raft, they would have discovered Jim. From this, it can be seen that Huck lies for the sake of others and can develop a convincing idea quite fast. The greatest scam Huck has pulled off is faking his own death back in his hometown to escape from his father. With his imaginative mind, had Huck not met the Duke and dauphen, he may have ended up like them if he had not experienced the terrible scams they pull on people. Tom on the other hand, lies for amusement and does whatever he wants. Tom has no interest in Jim’s freedom, he only wants an adventure. Something he can do to take the boredom out of his life amd be a part of something exciting. Huck had spent the whole time actually putting Jim’s freedom above practically everything else. However, Tom only wants an adventure, Jim could have been anyone else and Tom would have behaved the same way. Jim is Huck’s friend, but just another slave, an adventure to Tom.
On the extreme end are the two highly experienced veterns, the duke and dauphen. Their scams are well thought out and they can be described as genius psychologists. They utilize the selfishness and weakness of humanity to their advantage. The nonesuch plays exploits the selfishness of humanity where if one gets tricked, they will keep quiet to have others share their miserable fate. The two Wilks girls are the only ones left in such a large town so when two “uncles” appear, they instantly become their pillar of support and utter trust. At this point, Huck knows that there is a line he cannot cross amd calls this scam, “disgusting.” Both scenes excellently display the two con men’s expertise in manipulating the human mind and interpretation of human behavior.
