Mark Twain and

Belief

C.B.S.G.J.H.

Katie O’BrienB.P.

• Born November 30th, 1835 to John Marshalland Jane Clemens

• Parents’ beliefs– Father: free-thinker– Mother: Presbyterian• Aunt Polly

• Sam joined Pres. Church in 1841

• “feared God and dreaded Sunday School”

In His Texts…

Sam’s childhood seen in Tom Sawyer

•Sam Clemens received tickets for memorizing verses

as a child too. •Church was strict when Sam was a

boy.•Sundays were

reserved for church ONLY.

Sam’s childhood seen in Huck Finn

•Like Huck, Sam prayedfor things he didn’t need when he was growing up

•Twain later said, “I had found out that I was a Christian for revenue only and I could not bear the thought of that, it was so ignoble.”

•Moses and theBulrushers:-Like Huck, Twain thought Bible storieswere entertaining, but he never really placedany faith in them.

“Then Miss Watson she took me in the closet and prayed, but nothing came of it. She told me to pray every day, and whatever I asked for I would get it. But it wasn't so. I tried it. Once I got a fish-line, but no hook. It warn't any good to me without hooks. I tried for the hooks three or four times, but somehow I couldn't make it work. By-and-by, one day, I asked Miss Watson to try for me, but she said I was a fool. She never told me why, and I couldn't make it out no way”

The Doxology

Doxology in Tom Sawyer-p 131: “Suddenly the minister shouted at the top of his voice: ‘Praise God from whom all blessings flow-SING!-and put your hearts in it!’

Doxology in Huck Finn-p 213: during Peter Wilkes’ funeral-

“…somebody over in the crowd struck up the doxolojer, and everybody joined in with all their might, and it just warmed you up and made you feel as good as church letting out”

The Doxology is short and to the point instead of being drawn out and overly prosy.

Roughing It

•Mormonism is opportunistic•It isn’t original•Joseph Smith and Brigham Young are taking advantage of people

“All men have heard of the Mormon Bible…”

-few have read it•Stealing from the Christian Bible

Innocents Abroad

•Holy Sepulchre-relics -people obviously being mislead by faith-Church misleading people

Twain’s religious ideas largely paralleled religious developments in America during his time.

•Scientific and psychological belief •Social Darwinism and Freud

•After 1891, he felt events and incidents could not be explained by examining their “purpose”

Towards the end of his life…

•His daughter, Susy, died in 1891

•A reporter said of Twain, “there was a species of hopeless resignation in his bearing, in painful contrast to his one-time easygoing carelessness… [he appeared] so disturbed by mental worries.”

•Further heartbroken by the death of his wife and another daughter

•Continued to believe in the possibility of an afterlife where he could be reunited with his family members

•His previous beliefs, both spiritual and social, collapsed with Susy’s death

•Focused more on trying to make the world a better place

•denounced biblical Christianity in June 1906, but he still believed in God and blamed Him for all human suffering and falsehoods

•an interest in spiritual phenomena led him to work with spiritualists in the early 20th century in an attempt to communicate with Susy

No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger

• Twain formed his own beliefs while constantly challenging the blindly accepted beliefs of others – flaws in Catholicism that his characters fail to acknowledge, including

indulgences and seemingly superstitious ceremonies.• To Twain, a separate existence in dreams gave him an alternative to reality,

a reality that became increasingly difficult for Twain to live. • No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger allowed Twain to explore the relationship

between dreams and reality.

• “Nothing exists; all is a dream. God—man—the world,-- the sun, the moon, the wilderness of stars: a dream, all a dream, they have no existence. Nothing exists save empty space—and

you!”

“You never see us ranting and shouting and tearing up the ground, You never heard of a Presbyterian going crazy on religion. […] You never see any of us Presbyterians getting in a sweat about religion and trying to massacre the neighbors.”

Bibliography

Budd, Louis J., and Peter B. Messent, eds. A Companion to Mark Twain. Blackwell Publishing, 2005.

Bush, Jr., Harold K. Mark Twain and the Spiritual Crisis of His Age. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: The

University of Alabama Press, 2007. Clemens, Clara. My Father, Mark Twain. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1931. Darrell Wilson, James, and J.R. LeMaster. The Mark Twain Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis,

1993. Fisher Fishkin, Shelley, ed. A Historical Guide to Mark Twain. Oxford: Oxford University Press,

2002.

Fulton, Joe B. The Reverend Mark Twain. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press., 2006. Jerome, Robert D., and Herbert A. Wisbey Jr., eds. Mark Twain in Elmira. Elmira, NY: Mark

Twain Society, 1977. Neider, Charles, ed., “Mark Twain: Reflections on Religion.” Hudson Review 16 (1963): 329-

52. Pellowe, William Charles Smithson. Mark Twain, Pilgrim from Hannibal. New York: The Hobson Book Press, 1946.

Phipps, William E. Mark Twain's Religion. Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2003. Twain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.

Twain, Mark. No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

Twain, Mark. Roughing It. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1913.

Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.