The Mode Of Twins In Mark Twian's Novels-How It Helps To Explore The Theme Of Self

Mark Twain is a defining feature of American literature and embodies all the values of his times. Being a prolific writer, Twain creates a lot of short stories, novelette and novels, which are famous for their humor, insight and criticism of society. His five important novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) leave many classic images in American and world literature, such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and Nigger Jim. It is not difficult to find out that the protagonists in Twain's novels often appear in pairs, like the adventurous Tom and Huck, the run-away Huck and Jim, the twinned but unrelated Prince and Pauper, the seemingly incompatible Hank and King Arthur, and the swapped babies in Pudd'nhead Wilson. In Mark Twain's imaginative engagements with the figure of a linked and divided self, the trope of the twin serves to dramatize psychological conflicts: the mysteries of an individual's identity.The mode of twins is one of the characteristics of Twain's artistic creation, functioning to develop the plot, to depict characters and to explore the theme of self. The reasons for the formation of this mode can be figured out by analyzing the contradictory nature of Mark Twain, Twain's personal experience and the social background of his times.This thesis will draw on Twain's personal life and the social background of his times to explain how the mode of twins form and take Twain's five novels as examples to demonstrate how this mode helps the writer to explore the theme of self and identity.