Comedy in Twain's Stories Essay Example

Mark Twain stated, “The humorous story may be spun out to great lengths, and may wander around as it pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular.” Twain proves his statement to be true through his writing. As Twain explores humor in “from Life on the Mississippi” which he wrote in the 1850s and “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” in 1865. Both stories focus on qualities of comedy which are unique to the region. Within this essay, we will look at how the location of these stories affects Twain's comedic effect.

Mark Twain's writing style is displayed within his stories. The use of diction within both Life on the Mississippi and The Notorious Jumping Frog are similar. When looking at the type of diction we see colloquial language used in both stories. Though the dialect varies as Life on the Mississippi takes place in Mississippi  and the notorious jumping frog takes place in Calaveras county, California. The dialect can be seen with phrases similar to “Saint Looey'' and “the old Big Missouri'' from life on the Mississippi and words such as “bannanner” and “this feller'' from The Notorious Jumping Frog. Through Twain's stories, he shares entertaining anecdotes, for example in Life on the Mississippi we read of how he went and joined a steamboat crew but only got “a cold shoulder and short words from mates and clerks.” We see this anecdote which at the end means the life he wanted led him nowhere we read of how nothing changed. There were some entertaining antadoests in the notorious jumping frog such as “if there was two birds setting on a fence, he would bet you which one would fly first.” The anecdotes presented in the Notorious Jumping Frog leads the readers back to the same place which displayed Jim Smiley’s gambeling problem. Both stories lead the reader to nowhere in particular they waste the audience's time. These stories have similar diction but the variations reflected through the characters and the setting's personalities are  important to Twain's writing style as well.

In Twain’s stories comedy is used in different ways. The stories that are told are very different. In life on the Mississippi we read of a boy who hopes to work on a steamboat one day and the notorious jumping frog is focused around Jim Smiley and how he trains a frog to jump. The comedy that is used to encapsulate each of these stores is very different. Mark Twain once said “the teller does his best to conceal the fact that he even dimly suspects there is anything funny about it [the story].” Life on the Mississippi is a good example of this. We see humor stemming from the sad and somewhat pathetic place that is living in this city. The line “The town drunkard stirs, the clerks wake up,... all in a twinkling the dead town is alive'' is as humorous as it gets in lif on the mississippi as we see Twain play on the fact that he has called the town dead and empty to being alive because a boat comes by. When reading the Notorious jumping frog we see humor steaming from the difficult situation that is living in a mining town. The comedy is seen clearer as through it all they play on the fact that Jim smiley is a gambler and will gamble on anything this is proven through the line “Parson Walker’s wife laid very sick once, for a good while, and it seemed as if they warn’t going to save her; but one morning he come in, and Smiley up and asked him how she was, and he said she was considerable better—thank the Lord for his inf’nite mercy—and coming on so smart that with the blessing of Prov’dence she’d get well yet; and Smiley, before he thought, says, ‘Well, I’ll resk two-and-a-half she don’t anyway.”

The way of living dictated the type of comedy Twain decided to use. He reflected emotions in a way that would move the stories but take them nowhere. 

These stories display similarities in the writing styles. The way that diction and dialect are constructed within these stores which take place in different locations is similar. Though the setting and characters dictate the way that Mark Twain decides to use comedy within the stories. We see comedy being concealed in the story with a depressing setting but not being concealed in a difficult setting to set a comedic relief type of relationship. The settings that Mark Twain decided on brought the stories together and displayed his comedic and writing style.