received it with a smile.” “One of those large smiles which goes all around over, and has folds in it, and wrinkles, and spirals, and looks like the place where you have thrown a brick in a pound.” However,“ and in the act of his taking a glimpse of the bill, this smile froze solid, and turned yellow, and looked like those wavy, wormy spreads of lava which you find hardened on little levels on the side of Vesuvius.” Money was much mightier than god.
However, the shop boss was like a dog when confronting with money. After he saw the check, he quickly ran to clothes room to pick up the best fitting clothes for Henry. Henry was not recovered at all, he took active in measuring Henry’s size and said that he would made clothes for Henry. But when Henry said he can’t pay money at once, the snobbery boss said that “Indefinitely! It’s a weak word, sir, a weak word. Eternally-that’s the word, sir.” “Indefinitely” was limitless, while “eternally” was forever. The boss was so snobbish! From cold treatment to warm treatment, it was just because that thin paper and the astonishing number on it.
The shop assistants and the boss were the loyal slaves of money. Money was their mentor and their utmost pursuit. In Mark Twain’s work A Million Pound, this kind of cold humor exposed a cold society. The money can turned black to white, ugly to beautiful, false to true, humble to noble, coward to warrior. Humor lied in these.
3.2 Humor from Language Art
Mark Twain’s humor novel has a high artistic value. Basing on inheritance and promotion American’s literature humor tradition, he shaped his own art style, people names it as Mark Twain’s American humor, his humor novels employ exaggeration, satire, animation ,symbolization and perplexed logic, etc. Bitterness is in humor to expose the reality’s evil aspect. Mark Twain stressed emphasis on details description, often involved adjectives and adverbs with personal status and feeling.
The language in this book mainly took use of exaggeration to unveil the essence feature of humor target, then to make the humor effects stronger. Mark Twain structured art on the basis of irony. Though the world was absurd, then true and false, kindness and evil, beautiful and ugly had all lost the normal standards. He took the abnormal people and things as normal ones to create, and let the irrational things be rational, thus, all the normal things must be funny and
humorous.
Mark Twain also used animated language to set up many humorous scenes, letting readers experience his humor art’s profoundness.
The most spectacular language feature was the alternative uses of funny humor language and ironic humor language. This gleams the novel A Million Pound. He described the characters with humorous, funny language, and constituted work’s the pattern of funny humor, making work’s comedic tone have a particular flavor. For example；when the protagonist Henry stranded in London streets broken and starved heavily, just at that time, a child walked by and left a delicious pear into guff, which was only eaten a little, Henry stopped there,“ He starved at that dirty treasure with his greedy eyes.”, “with saliva in mouth, his stomach also yearned for it, the whole life was begged at it. “This was Henry’s broken dilemma. When he opened the millionaire’s letter and found a million pound note enveloped in it, he was so fantastic that nearly dizzy. He watched the note and recovered himself after about almost one minute. Just these few lines, Mark Twain sketched Henry’s funny image vividly before and after he got the million pound note. Under his pen, money had long arms. When the hotel boss watched the note, he stared at the note and alarmed, as if his hands and feet were frozen solid. He even dared not to touch it, but he was willingness to see it ever and ever, as if it was hot enough to see it, while, he still dared not to touch it, as if that note was the god and pity plain man couldn’t touch it. Such descriptions embody humor fully.
Mark Twain used many interesting language, set up humor situations to produce humor sense. He was skilled at refining language from real life; its language was clear, humorous and contained wisdom. Sometimes, it was sharp; making readers can’t help laughing or thinking deeply after reading. Mark Twain had strong abilities of controlling language; he was the language master in American literature history. He stressed in language’s appropriateness. He thought that appropriate word is mighty, it can light reader’s path and makes all clear. He also said that “A writer should write what he wanted to say, not only write the similar thoughts, should use the most suitable word, not only its relatives, should avoid lengthy words, but also consider details, should erect the vague writing style, be accurate and simple.” Mark Twain’s humor novel was exact, lifelike and language - refined, he carried out his own creation idea with
his works.
Summary with Eliot’s words: “After reading this book time and time again, I am much more affirmative and deepening the admiration of his language’s coherence and perfect appropriateness. At that time, no matter in America or England, this style was a kind of new improvement and was a new finding of English.”
3.3 Humor from Plots
Readers can also taste Mark Twain’s humor from plots structure, Mark Twain’s novel’s plots have strong dramatic feature, often the unexpectedness and atmosphere at the beginning of novel, make reader expect in an normal logic, while, the plots developed oppositely and come to an unexpected result. However, this kind of unexpectedness which counters against life logic can reflect life’s essence more vivid than normal logic, and then constitutes a humor irony effect. Mark Twain changed normal situations into abnormal in strange ideas, then rendered it ceremoniously to produce fantastic humor effects. At the beginning of the novel, Henry’s job quality and the reasons stranded in England were told. A broken American had nothing to eat, nor had no place to accommodate, then how to live through? This would naturally made readers concern about the character’s later life. Just then Henry starved and poor, two millionaires let maid invite him to a deluxe room and said that he was the target they found, then, what was the target? The author intentionally set up this situation, not to tell the reasons and just let one of the millionaires gave him a letter and told him that he could find instructions in the letter. Readers were curious to know the thing in the letter. Then Henry opened the letter and saw the million pounds check. The letter had no signature, address and date. This is a fantastic detail, and eventually, he fell in love with a beautiful girl, unexpectedly, this girl was the daughter of the millionaire, then he took the post of the millionaire’s daughter’s husband. The reflected, fascinating plots displayed connotations and strengthened comedic humor. However, the absurd surface contained the core.
A characteristic of plots structure is artificial surface and true inner side. Mark Twain wrote reality from absurdity. Viewing from surface, all the plots of A Million Pound were artificial, because many situations were very absurd and unbelievable .While, there were the true facts behind the strange things, for example, money-worshiping, rich persons could win respects, and the poor would
be taunted. The money-worshiping phenomena were existed in America, and also in Chin. It existed in then Mark Twain’s times, it also in our times. The artificial surface and plots didn’t affect the truth of work’s deep thought, and didn’t lessen work’s critical power; conversely, it produced work’s flavor and attractiveness.
In A Million Pound, a useless million pound check made the poor guy Henry Adam obtain and lose some things within 30 days.
Firstly, in the dining hotel, “As long as I am glad, no matter what the food it is, you can come here to eat at any time, and can credit continuously, no matter how long it is.”
Secondly, in tailor’s shop：Henry wore the exquisite suits which was designed for foreign prince for free, and he can pay the money in a long time.
Thirdly, “I was offered all the luxury things, and moved to a deluxe hotel in less a week.”
Fourth, “I had been one of the world-renowned celebrities.”
Fifth, those rugged clothes made the tailor’s shop boss are willingness to credit the whole shop to me.
Sixth, I fell in love with a millionaire’s daughter in two minutes and married with her within a month. As long as readers appreciate the work deeply, it is easy to find that Mark Twain penetrated strong personal feelings into his own humor. The reflected plots impressed readers deeply. Readers could make a right judge of the characters behind the funny acts. This was Mark Twain’s humor, connotations. It is very interesting that the protagonist was an American. However, the story happened in England, this not only satirized America, but also reflected other capitalist country. The money-worshiping in capitalist countries was alike. Mark Twain arranged this kind of plot to get a special connotation.
Seeing through the novel’s plots, there was reality in fictional things. Though the story was artificial, that thing would not occur in real life .However, the protagonist’s experiences were very real. From the hotel boss to tailor’s shop assistant and its boss, their funny deeds, when in front of money, make readers can’t help laughing, and also make readers be deep in thought.
Chapter 4 Humor’s Usage and Significance
4.1 Humor’s Usage
Humor has many uses. It can affect every aspect of life.
First, humor has the use of life’s seasonings. It can bring the poor and miserable people consolation, happiness or a kind of hope, an ideal. It encourages people to face the hard life in a humorous attitude; it is a kind of happiness itself. Though the seasonings can’t basically change their life’s bitterness，it attaches great importance to life’s quality, because it can clear up the tedium and depression of the suffering people’s inner world. Second, humor is the yeast of rationality.
Life needs humor .A bitter life needs humor to regulate. But humor is the yeast of rationality. It can lead people to see life, reality and society rationally. After reading A Million Pound, readers can know the darkness, corruption and immorality.
Third, humor is the medicine of disease, numbness, folly, etc. They are the causes of disease. Society has many emerging and existed problems. People should find them. Mark Twain let people see through the essence of capitalist society and the evil face.
Fourth, humor is the glue of comedy and tragedy.
Reading Mark Twain’s work, people tasted not only the sole comedy or tragedy. Conversely, the sadness is in happiness, tragedy in comedy, they fused into each other.
Humor is never a simple word game, not for selling laughter. It is art bearer of severe reality and tedious life then, also is the important tool of nice and ugly, kind and evil. It can help readers to taste life’s flavors in laughter, enlarge people’s wisdom and improve assessing capability of people or things. Fifth, humor is the mirror.
From Mark Twain’s work A Million Pound, readers can see clearly the American society’s darkness and severity. Seeing the social environment and reality of Mark Twain, people will compare it with modern society’s. Therefore, humor has the effect of mirror, it can erect kind people’s folly, ignorance and it can let people see society’s essence through social phenomena for fear of being cheated. So to speak, this “mirror” takes an active role in promoting history’s development and society’s progress.