The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn · Chapter
XXIV explained
The duke and king plan to work the towns along the river.
What happens
The duke and king plan to work the towns along the river. To avoid tying Jim up, the duke disguises him as a 'Sick Arab' in a blue-painted costume. The king dresses in fine clothes and, with Huck, meets a young man who mistakes him for Mr. Wilks, a deceased man's brother. The king and duke then impersonate Harvey and William Wilks to scam the family.
Themes in this chapter
Deception and Identity
The king and duke impersonate Harvey and William Wilks to scam the family, while Jim is disguised as a 'Sick Arab' to avoid suspicion.
Hypocrisy of Society
The townspeople readily accept the king's pious appearance and story, showing how easily society is fooled by outward shows of respectability.
Characters to notice
- Huckleberry Finn
Narrator and servant to the king, called 'Adolphus' by the king.
- Jim
Disguised as a 'Sick Arab' to avoid being tied up; painted blue and dressed in King Lear's outfit.
- The Duke
Devises the disguise for Jim and plans scams; later plays the deaf-mute William Wilks.
- The King
Dresses in fine black clothes and impersonates Harvey Wilks, a preacher from England.
- Peter Wilks
Deceased tanner; his death and inheritance are the target of the king and duke's scam.
Key passages
“He dressed Jim up in King Lear's outfit—it was a long curtain-calico gown, and a white horsehair wig and whiskers; and then he took his theater paint and painted Jim's face and hands and ears and neck all over a dead, dull, solid blue, like a man that's been drownded nine days.”
The duke put Jim in a costume from King Lear, including a long gown and a white wig, then painted his entire visible skin a dull blue to make him look like a drowned corpse.
Jim's disguise as a 'Sick Arab' is a grotesque and dehumanizing performance to avoid being tied up.
“I never knowed how clothes could change a body before. Why, before, he looked like the orneriest old rip that ever was; but now, when he'd take off his new white beaver and make a bow and do a smile, he looked that grand and good and pious that you'd say he had walked right out of the ark, and maybe was old Leviticus himself.”
Huck is amazed at how the king's fine black clothes and polite manner make him appear saintly and respectable, contrasting with his usual scruffy and dishonest appearance.
Highlights the theme of deception and how clothing can create a false impression of virtue.
“Well, if ever I struck anything like it, I'm a nigger. It was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race.”
Huck expresses his disgust at the king and duke's shameless and elaborate act of grief, saying it makes him ashamed of humanity.
Huck's moral reaction to the frauds' hypocrisy, though his language reflects the racial attitudes of the time.