Society Mark Twain's novels The Prince and the Pauper and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer tell the fictional story of young boys in a real society that existed. In The Prince and the Pauper, the Pauper, Tom Canty, and the Prince, Edward Tutor, switch roles due to a huge misunderstanding. Tom lives the life of a prince and then a king while Edward has an adventure as a pauper in his country. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer tells the story of a mischievous young boy, Tom Sawyer, growing up in the fictional town of St. Petersburg, Missouri, in the mid-nineteenth century. In both novels, Twain uses irony and satire to criticize aspects of society: social class in The Prince and the Pauper and proper behavior in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The Prince and the Pauper begins by comparing two boys born on the same day in the same city of London, England. One of the boys was "born to a poor family named Canty, who didn't want him [and the other] was born to a rich family named Tudor" (Prince and the Pauper 13). Due to social class differences, their lives are completely different: one lives a godly life and the other lives a mousy life. Unlike others at the bottom of the social hierarchy, Tom Canty is literate and knows some Latin. This is ironic because generally farmers were unable to read, write and were ignorant. Tom's ability to be literate and the ability to learn a different language shows that a low status person like Tom's is capable of having the ability to be intelligent, which contradicts the upper class's belief about the lower class. Tom, as king, is a better ruler and rules with more logic than Henry VIII. At one point in the book, “the elderly leaders [of the court] nodded in recognition of Tom's wisdom” (Prince and the Pauper 106). Henry VIII allowed injustice to spread freely in his country and had turned a blind eye to it. As king, Tom uses his position to abolish unjust laws and defend the falsely accused. If one were to compare a pauper and a king ruling Tudor England, the king would obviously be considered the one who would make the wisest decisions in managing his country. The very thought of a poor man ruling the country would be outrageous because the poor man would be considered incapable of ruling but, ironically, in The Prince and the Pauper, it is the poor man who is the better king. Twain uses the confusion of a prince and a pauper to satirize social class. In a hierarchy, a prince would be considered superior and better in every possible way than a pauper. The fact that no one, not even the prince's father and closest relatives, could distinguish between Tom, of the lower social class, and Edward, of the higher social class, shows that there is nothing different between someone from a upper class and someone from a lower class. The only difference between Tom and Edward wasn't the person, their skills or abilities, it was their family's wealth. Another aspect of society and class that Twain satirizes is the way people judge a person's worth or qualities based solely on their appearances. In Tudor England “the social status of any social class or person is evaluated through appearance”[1]. Twain criticizes the fact that “a person's true worth is based on that person's outward appearance” (Feller). Tom and Edward were labeled by the clothes they wore. Tom immediately became a prince when he put on Prince and Edward's clothes.