“A Tearful Smile”: A Study of Mark Twain’s the 1000000 Pound Bank―Note

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【中图分类号】G64 【文献标识码】A 【文章编号】2095-3089（2013）10-0087-01

“The Million pound bank note” is a well?known short story by the American author mark twain. In this story， Mark Twain describes a typical and evil capital society under the irresistible mammonism， and using comedic exaggeration， veiled humor along with specific artistic methods， he vividly depicts the profound theme―evil and ugly capitalism causes strong Mormonism， which completely distorts human minds and morality.

The comedic story takes place in Victorian London， where two very rich， eccentric brothers give the penniless story protagonist， Henry Adams， one million pounds of money in the form of a single peerless bank note. Henry would not be easily able to exchange that note in the bank without being questioned about how he had come to it， charged with theft and arrested. He would also not be able to spend it since no ordinary person would be able to change it. However， with the help of his wisdom and capability， this honest and kind American man not only is not arrested， but also gets a beautiful girl from upper class and becomes a real millionaire. From the content of this short story， it is easily found the unique humor and dramatic effect that Mark Twain usually uses is through the whole story.

To begin with， Mark Twain portray a series of characters who blindly seek for money and hypocritically treat people from different classes by dramatic exaggeration. According to the vivid descriptions about the proprietor of a tailor?shop ， “Sell an eccentric millionaire such as unspeakable suit as that！” and “Indefinitely！ It’s a weak word， sir， a weak word. Eternally―that’s the word， sir.” （extreme exaggeration and dramatic irony） We can clearly feel that what the proprietor cares is not whether or not this man pay for those clothes， but this man is a millionaire with one million pound―he has the ability to pay for those clothes（ maybe he totally need n’t pay）， so here one million pound for those people is not only purely financial signal for exchanging products， but a symbol for upper social position， for remarkable honor， for golden promise even for noble morality. That is to say， money has more additional and potential meanings over its original denotational semantics so under this crazy and chaotic society， money becomes the only belief and that guides people’s behaviors and the most reliable standard that judges their moral quality. It is no doubt that money palays the most curial role in primary capital society under the shortage of morality and belief.

Moreover， ironic humor also play the critical role in drawing the characters and deepening the theme. Under the author’s depiction， money possesses the magic power. “His eye was on the note， and he was petrified. He was worshiping， with all his body and soul， but he looked as if he could n’t stir hand or foot.” and “Then he made a thousand apologies for not being able to break the bill，” it seems that money is so holy and noble that this poor man is afraid to touch it even get close to it. The author shows a amusing and upset character in the face of money by this kind of very ironic and detailed humor. Besides， throughout the whole story， the author does not use any sharp and ditect critical judgments but casual and relaxed humor for the statement of time， place and characters. In the beginning of this story， the author just tells that the main character is a “honest” and “kind” man， but after getting this million pound， he cheats his friends， lovers and merchants， even himself！ Those sharp comparison causes very excellent irony for the main character by the overtly complete expression of moral extension and mental distortion.

In conclusion， with the extraordinary usage of dramatic exaggeration and ironic humor， Mark Twain brings us into a magic capital world and in that society， human minds have been distorted mentally by this crazy Mammonism and cruel capital system. In his short story， we can clearly and greatly understand it.

作者简介：

程微：女，江苏省镇江市人，出生于1992年10月1日，大学本科，实用英语专业。