Essay/Term paper: Vanity in "the man that corrpted hadleyburg"

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Position Papers

Rod Hollimon





For the love of Money,

People will steal from their brothers,

For the love of money,

People will rob their own mothers…

People who don"t have money

Don"t let money change you…



-- The O"Jays





After reading "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg," by Mark Twain, the (above) song "For The Love of Money," by the r&b singing group The O"Jays resounded fervently in my head. The song"s ongoing message of the ill affects money can have on a person almost parallels that of Twain"s brilliant story of vanity, greed, revenge, and honesty, or should I say dishonesty. The story displays how much an entire town is willing to forsake in order to obtain that which has been known to destroy families, careers, lives, and in this case, the good name of an entire town – money. Yes money – that age-old evil that causes men to cheat, lie, steal, and even kill to consume its pseudo sense of security and power, is at the very root of the theme of the story, which is: when money is obtained through some evil act or dishonest deed, there is no escaping the moral punishment – even if the acts or deeds are unknown. Mark Twain, in my opinion, does an excellent job in supporting the theme of the story by using characterization to bring out the vanity of the town of Hadleyburg, the revengefulness of the stranger, as well as the greed and dishonesty of the people of Hadleyburg.

Though unconventional, it can be supported that Twain made the town of Hadleyburg a character in the story and equipped it with its own set of flaws and short comings – the biggest being, ironic as it may be, the vanity that came as a result of the town being known as honest and incorruptible. We are first introduced to the fact that the town"s seemingly good reputation had, over the years, taken a bad affect on the attitude of the Town and the way it treats its visitors in the second paragraph of chapter one of the story. The passage that describes it best is as follows: "Hadleyburg had the ill luck to offend a passing stranger – possibly without knowing it, certainly without caring, for Hadleyburg was sufficient unto itself, and cared not a rap for strangers or their opinions." (Perkins 372) Another example of Hadleyburg at its vainest comes at the beginning of chapter two when the news of the gold sack of money reached the news papers and made national headlines. "Hadleyburg village woke up world-celebrated—astonished –happy—vain. Vain beyond imagination." (Perkins 379) Although there are other numerous examples that I can pull from to describe the character of Hadleyburg, none do more to exemplify its character than the following passage: "…this town"s honesty is as rotten as mine is; as rotten as yours. It is a mean town, a hard stingy town, and hasn"t a virtue in the world but this honesty it is so celebrated for and so conceited about…" (Perkins 378)

The next example of characterization used by Twain to support the theme of the story comes through the character of the stranger. Even though the speaker of the story doesn"t reveal much about the stranger, we know that he is a very important character in the work primarily because he sets up the corruption plot of the story. We know little else about his character besides what we find out in the beginning of the story when the town offends him in some way that, for what ever reason, the author chose to leave out of the story. "…Hadleyburg had the ill-luck of offending a passing stranger…it would have been well to make an exception in this one"s case, for he was a bitter man and revengeful." (Perkins 372) While this passage lets us know that the stranger is revengeful and bitter, it leaves us still with little else to go on in terms of his character. We also find out toward the end of the story that the stranger, whose name might have been Howard L. Stephenson, could have been very wealthy; however, we never really find out because the Richards never cash the bank notes. Thus the stranger, for the most part, remains a mysterious figure who fuels the corruption of hadleyburg.

More than the thirsty desire for revenge of the stranger, and the vanity of the town of Hadleyburg, the real reason for the corruption of Hadleyburg lies in the greed and dishonesty of its citizens. Although a great majority of the town"s citizens proves themselves dishonest, Mr. Richards seems to be one of the for-runners of the dishonest citizens club. We find out very early in the story that he has been holding onto a secret that, in keeping it, meant not only that he was dishonest for not confessing of his being guilty of some criminal act, but also meant that he allowed an innocent man, an innocent man of God to be exact, suffer a tremendous loss – one that meant the slandering of his good name as well as temporary exile from the town – all for something Richards did himself. For an example of greed of the citizens of Hadleyburg, we must revisit our dishnest friend Richards, this time joined with the editor-proprietor of the local paper, Cox. The first instance of their greed came when they both met in the street to try to stop the newspapers from being sent out. Even though they were unsuccessful in this attempt, the fact that they were both willing to not tell anyone else about the money and keep it for themselves says that the both of them are greedy as well as dishonest. Another example of dishonesty and greed would be the whole test scene between Wilson and Billson. Wilson, having seen Billson"s inability to speak, took advantage of the situation by wooing the crowd with a very elaborate and rhetorical lie. "…for the presentation of my own honor I must speak – and with frankness. I confess with shame – and I now beseech your pardon for it – that I said to the ruined stranger all of the words contained in the test-remark, including the disparaging fifteen." (Perkins 388)

After carfully reading the story of and dissecting the characters in "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg," by Mark Twain, I was quite impressed with Mr. Twain"s clever ability to develop a quality short story that clearly uncovered the evils that the desire for money can cause. In conclusion, Mark Twain effectively used characterization to thoroughly support his central theme, which is as follows: when money is obtained through some evil act or dishonest deed, there is no escaping the moral punishment – even if the acts or deeds are unknown.









Works Cited

Fishkin, Shelley F. Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg & Other Stories & Essays, Mark Twain The Oxford University Press (1900):

Kent, Rasmussen, R. Mark Twain A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life &



Writings, Oxford University Press, November 1996



LeMaster, J. R. / Wilson, James D., ed. Mark Twain Encyclopedia

Garland Publishing, Incorporated, February 1993



Perkins, George; Perkins, Barbara, ed. The American Tradition in Literature, 9th edition McGraw-Hill COLLEGE 1999



O"Jays, The Best of Old School, "For The Love Of Money"

AMW 1999