While searching the internet I found a website, http://www.twainquotes.com/Lookalikes/lookalikes.html, that showed 16 different cases of Mark Twain being mistaken for someone else. This site shows pictures of both Twain and the other person. One case that popped out at me was with Mark Twain and Frank Moulton. I couldn't find much information on Frank Moulton but the website said that he was a high profile figure during the Henry Ward Beecher case in 1875. The New York Sun newspaper compared the two men using their clothing.
I think that this case of reallife mistaken identity shaped how Twain wrote both the previous stated stories. Because Twain and Moulton were compared based on what they were wearing, Twain then used this to be the method of recognition in both his books. During the Beecher case the two men were brought together and asked to stand next to one another. This is the exact ending of The Prince and the Pauper. The two young boys were brought together in front of a group of people in setting much like a court room.
Frank Moulton Mark Twain
How cool! And Mark Twain was kind of hot? Haha, just kidding...sort of. But, yeah the more information on Twain's life I get, the more parallels I see in his writing. He also might have been finding trouble in his own dual persona of Twain and Clemens. Especially when he lost so much of his money, a majority of his children, and eventually his wife. So confusing!
ReplyDeleteI think this combined with his and the period's fascination with oddities and hoaxes had a lot of influence on the way/what Twain wrote about. It's odd how these things come together and even more difficult to understand because of his apparent inner battle or separate identities of sorts. I never realized that Twain himself would be so complicated.
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