The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. Dawson's Landing, Missouri (Chapter 1)

2. Fingerprinting and palmistry (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. He makes a humorous remark about wanting to own half of a dog, and his sarcasm flies over the heads of the townsfolk to whom he is speaking. They decide that only a very stupid person—a “pudd’nhead”—would want to own half a dog. (Chapter 1)

2. He threatens to sell them “down the river,” meaning into the worse conditions enslaved people face in the plantation states. (Chapter 2)

3. Roxy’s initial plan is to drown both herself and Chambers in the river so that neither will have to live the rest of their lives under the threat of being sold down the river. (Chapter 3)

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. Judge Driscoll (Chapter 4)

2. Patsy Cooper/Patsy and Rowena Cooper (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. Roxy’s indulgence of Tom causes him to grow up spoiled and self-involved. Her love for him is not reciprocated, as he does not know that she is his biological mother and instead views her as his father’s property. (Chapter 4)

2. The townsfolk are enamored with the idea of the Italian twins, viewing their outsider status as exotic. But when Tom adopts a habit he learned on the East Coast—wearing gloves—the same people reject him for this “outsider” habit. (Chapter 5)

3. They claim that they are the orphaned children of Florentine nobility, and that they have spent two years in debt slavery to a museum in Berlin that exhibited them as oddities. (Chapter 6)

Chapters 7-9

Reading Check

1. The Freethinkers Society (Chapter 7)

2. His gambling debts (Chapter 8)

Short Answer

1. Wilson sees a young woman in Tom Driscoll’s bedroom, but Tom is supposedly still out of town and neither the judge nor his sister Rachel say anything about a female visitor staying in the house. (Chapter 7)

2. Roxy’s rheumatism prevents her from working, and a fraudulent bank has stolen her life savings. In desperation, she returns to Dawson’s Landing and survives by blackmailing Tom. (Chapter 8)

3. Tom has been disguising himself and going into his neighbors’ homes to steal from them, giving himself an alibi by pretending to be away in St. Louis. (Chapter 9)

Chapters 10-12

Reading Check

1. A dagger (Chapter 11)

2. First Families of Virginia (Chapter 12)

Short Answer

1. Tom was happy to take advantage of the social distinctions between Black and white residents of Dawson’s landing when he believed himself to be “white,” tormenting Chambers and dismissing Roxy. But now that he is aware that he is “Black,” he sees the social distinction as evil and misguided. (Chapter 10)

2. An Indian prince gave Luigi an expensive dagger, and that night a servant came to try to steal the precious item. Luigi killed the servant in defense of Angelo’s life. (Chapter 11)

3. Tom takes Luigi to court for kicking him at the party. Judge Driscoll is horrified, because he thinks that a gentleman would challenge Luigi to a duel, not take him to court. When Tom says that he is afraid of Luigi, it is the last straw for Judge Driscoll. (Chapter 12)

Chapters 13-15

Reading Check

1. A silver watch (Chapter 13)

2. Captain John Smith (Chapter 14)

Short Answer

1. The police and pawnbrokers have all been notified to be on the lookout for the stolen dagger, and so the thief cannot sell it without being caught. (Chapter 13)

2. He is going to duel Luigi to restore the family’s honor, but he is afraid that he will be killed in the process. He decides that it is his fault that Tom has turned out so badly and that it would be unfair to punish him by disinheriting him and leaving him alone in the world without any assets. (Chapter 14)

3. Tom tells Wilson that he believes Luigi lied about the dagger being stolen—he says that there is most likely no dagger at all. Then he tells his uncle that Luigi is a murderer and that the twins begged Tom to keep it a secret. (Chapter 15)

Chapters 16-19

Reading Check

1. Alderman (Chapter 17)

2. A potato (Chapter 18)

Short Answer

1. He agrees to her plan to forge papers and sell her back into slavery to someone local looking for a household servant. But he betrays her trust by selling her down the river. (Chapter 16)

2. Desperate to believe in Tom’s character, Judge Driscoll takes his side against Luigi and Angelo. This results in Judge Driscoll campaigning vigorously against the twins. (Chapter 17)

3. After Tom stabs his uncle and his uncle cries out for help, it is Angelo and Luigi who come into the house to try to aid the Judge. The twins are only out walking at this time of night because they are trying to avoid all of the townspeople that Tom and Judge Driscoll have turned against them. (Chapter 19)

Chapter 20-Conclusion

Reading Check

1. Their landlady/Aunt Patsy (Chapter 20)

2. He is sold down the river. (Conclusion)

Short Answer

1. Tom goes to Wilson’s house to taunt him about not being able to find the “girl” who was seen leaving the Driscoll house on the night of the murder. While he is there, however, he inadvertently gives Wilson the idea to check his fingerprints after he picks up the slide containing Roxy’s prints. (Chapter 20)

2. He uses the series of fingerprints to demonstrate that Chambers and Tom were switched when they were about seven months old. Then he shows that the prints on the dagger belong to the person they all know as Tom Driscoll, but who is really Roxy’s child, Chambers. (Chapter 21)

3. The real Tom Driscoll, who grew up as Chambers, is caught between the “white” and “Black” worlds. He grew up among enslaved people and has none of the education or mannerisms that would allow him to move comfortably in white society, despite his heredity and the legal classification of his race as “white.” (Conclusion)