Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. This Study Guide consists of approximately 35 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - Chapter 20's aphorism reflects that circumstantial evidence should be treated with caution. Pudd'nhead Wilson is a novel by the classic novelist Mark Twain. All the circumstantial evidence on which Howard has based his case will be overturned when confronted with Wilson's scientific evidence. From this rather simple premise Mark Twain fashioned one of his most entertaining, funny, yet biting novels. The twins are released from suspicion, but Pudd'nhead delays naming the murderer. "Chambers", now known as Tom, becomes a free man and the heir to the judge's estate. the dream) to bring about a resolution that, while not perfect, is probably the best possible. "Tom", or Chambers, faints, and is arrested. We've just stumbled into a small town in early nineteenth-century Missouri called Dawson's Landing—which is totally the original Dawson's Creek. everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Pudd'nhead Wilson. Chapters 1-2 Summary. Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson Chapter Summary. They give him the nickname "Pudd'nhead" and refuse to give him their legal work. In this novel, a slave switches her child with the child of her master in order to protect him from the darker side of slavery. Wilson puts it all together, realizing that Tom was the woman he saw, dressed in female clothing, and that... (read more from the Chapters 20-21 and Conclusion Summary). Taught to think of himself as less than a man, he cannot speak the way a white man should and he finds himself in a terrible limbo. The next morning he arrives at the trial and informs the judge that he has new evidence. Despite the carefully orchestrated show he puts on before the court, Pudd'nhead has been failed by his scientific side: not only is "Tom"'s negligence required to open Pudd'nhead's eyes, but Pudd'nhead also has to overcome his own certainty, based on what he thinks is solid empirical evidence, about a female being involved. Why, then, is the novel called The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson? While everything in the novel, especially the overwhelming initial response of the townspeople to them, has hinted that they would be eventually unmasked as frauds, they reach the end of the novel with their reputations intact. "Tom" asks him what has affected him, and Pudd'nhead assures him he is just tired. Pudd'nhead succeeds through his failures, and this suggests that the issues of race and identity at hand are too complex to be solved by the simple application of a system. character and … Immediately upon his arrival he alienates the townspeople, who don't understand his wit. Perhaps it is because at the end, he has become a success in a world too debased to be worth succeeding in. Having been raised as a slave, and speaking in a black dialect, he can't bring himself to inhabit "the white man's parlor." Pudd'nhead calls three witnesses: the women who saw "Tom" disguised as a woman leaving the judge's house. Millions of books are just a click away on BN.com and through our FREE NOOK reading apps. This Pudd'nhead Wilson - Chapters 20-21 and Conclusion Summary & Analysis Mark Twain This Study Guide consists of approximately 35 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more - everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Pudd'nhead Wilson… He tells the court that their story suggests that another party is involved, who must be found in order for the twins to get a fair trial. Have the townspeople been right all along?