The folks in Pudd'nhead Wilson are native speakers of English, and they
have plenty of trouble understanding jokes, particularly irony.  No, I
don't think the referecnes are to President Wilson (it's before his time),
but I do believe they are sly allusions to purported America democracy.
The original joke -- the barking dog who Wilson wants half to be killed --
escapes the town.  One could read the joke as a reference to slavery and
the white/black half-and-half dog; no one gets the joke, not even Wilson,
not really.

With all his efforts to expose the baby switch and the real murderer,
Wilson still doesn't seem to get the joke that two people, both "white,"
could be divided into two as slave and as master.  The town doesn't get
irony; neither does Wilson, not fully; and the question is, does the
reader?  There's much more to this -- and you should look over previous
references to "election" in the novel for the relationship of blood,
status, and choice -- but this should be a start.

Anyone else want to plug in?

Hilton Obenzinger

On Sun, 6 Feb 2000, Ryota Iijima wrote:

> This is a dialogue between townspeople, from the conclusion of
> _Pudd'nhead Wilson_:
>
> >"And this is the man the likes of us have called
> >a pudd'nhead for more than twenty years. He has resigned from that
> >position, friends."
> >"Yes, but it isn't vacant--we're elected."
>
> I wonder why they use words like "resign," "position" and "elect" here.
> Is it a pun on "President" Wilson?
>
> Because English, which I teach in Japan, is not my mother tongue, I
> sometimes have this kind of difficulty in understanding jokes.  I'm in no
> hurry and hope someone will post an answer sometime.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Ryota Iijima
> Assistant Professor
> Fukushima University
> mailto:[log in to unmask]
> http://www2.educ.fukushima-u.ac.jp/~ryota/
>