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Dark Humor In Invalid's Story '

1299 Words6 Pages

Martin
Destiny Martin
Hensley
English 11/ Fifth Period
27 February 2018
Part 12: Rough Draft #1 Mortality is the state of being subject to death. In the Invalid’s Story Mark twain uses his often overbearing dark humor to lighten the dark tone of his story. Twains use of his characters by their actions and dialogue further amplify the dark humor that is very often displayed throughout this story. From the beginning of the short story Mark Twain very bluntly hints at the actions that would later on occur in the short story for added suspense, further known as foreshadowing. In the Invalid’s Story, Mark Twain constantly uses the theme of mortality, the literary device foreshadowing, and expresses himself through the use of dark humor. To …show more content…

As stated in the previous paragraph, mortality is the state of being subject to death. Mark Twain had his characters speak very loosely about death and the scents that tend to come along with it. Some may see this as Mark Twain’s lack of respect to the dead. For example, In Short Stories for Students Ryan Poquette states, “... Twain’s emphasis on the stench of corpses seems to “emphasize the indignity of human life.” (Poquette 162). To provide the reader a further explanation, the characters in The Invalid’s Story are very unemotional with their statements pertaining to the stench of what they all perceived to be Caps dearest old friend Jack. The characters seem to joke and complain more about the dead body then they showed sympathy. To provide an example of this, In the Invalid’s Story one of the characters Thompson states, “ I’ve carried a many a …show more content…

This quote easily demonstrates how Mark Twain expresses his humor through his characters actions.The character states he thought it would be a good idea to smoke cigars to mask the smell, then very quickly realizes that it was not a good idea. This was Twain’s clever use of humor through the use of action as well as dialogue. In the Invalid’s Story, Twain states, “ Sometimes it is uncertain whether they’re really gone or not, -- seem gone, you know--body warm joints limber-- and so you think they’re gone , you dont really know. I’ve had cases in my car. It is perfectly awful becuz you don’t know what minute they’ll rise up and look at you’ Then after a pause and slightly lifting his elbow towards the box, --”But he ain’t in no trace! No sir, I go bail for him!” (Twain 2). The reader may agree that this quote perfectly portrays Twain’s use of dark humor. The character could have easily opened the window but instead he decided to bust it open with his face, one may find this act substantially funny and believe this is a great example of his humor. Others, however may find this act not funny but rather dumb and unimportant to the story. This also portrays how Mark Twain uses the actions and dialogue of characters to play off his dark humor for comical effect. One can recognize Twain’s word play and irony that make the short story more funny to his audience. However, where one may find a certain aspect of the story comical, another may find it truly disturbing and not funny

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