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Edward shows his wisdom through his manner as when he removes his identity as King and sits at the family table and eats with them, and he does not ask
them to stand while he is eating due to his honour as a King. Implicitly, Mark Twain expresses how the honoured-noblemen as should be.
3. Nobles’ Cruelty
In the story, Mark Twain shows so many cruelties of the English laws. Carrie’s England and Scotland in the Sixteenth Century describes in the 16
th
century, the English Laws were absolutely established by the king or by the king’s permission. Chrimes 73 states “Law was tribal custom, or folkright, to which the
king was subordinate in every respect, as any other member of the folk. He might, and on occasion did, find it necessary to declare, with the express or tacit assent of
the ‘wise man’ of his realm the witan, what the law was on certain points, and even to commit such declarations to writing”.
The novel also tells the same thing: “The king’s will is law” 32, therefore by showing so many cruelties of the English Laws, Mark Twain implicitly
criticizes the greatest noblemen at that time, that is King Henry VIII. Even for his cruelties, Kent McCroskey’s English Occupation states about Henry VIII that he
was infamous by his cruelty to the Irish people. Morgan 246-7 implies that there were a lot of victims due to Henry’s vindictive egoism.
a. Torturing Innocent People
The noblemen often do cruel things to the common people; even it was caused by trivial matters. The idea about the noblemen sometimes makes the
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common people frightened, which is reflected in the Tom Canty’s thought. “Might they not hang him at once, and inquire into his case afterward? He had
heard that the great were prompt small matters. His fears rose higher and higher; and trembling he …” 25. The nobles also interfere the religion aspect, as shown
by King Henry VIII. He uses his authority to close many churches that resist to the king’s regulation 170. Often many peoples are suffers by challenging the
nobles, even if they are right, as in the old lawyer’s story where Prince Edward is arrested with 224. Morgan 246-7 describes that there were a lot of people who
were executed because they disputed the Act of Supremacy which declared that the king of England was supreme head of the Ecclesia Anglicana, or Church of
England—not the pope. They were cruelly executed in the summer of 1535. Mark Twain uses Prince Edward’s adventure to reveal the apprehensive
life of the common people, which is caused by the laws arranged by the nobles who have the charge in government. The Prince meets a troop of vagabonds 136
who consists of people who are disappointed to the laws and suffers by the law. They are people who are hunted down by the law and forced to get into the crime,
as what is experienced by Mr. Yokel 140. Through this journey Mark Twain would like to show the effects of the laws and the application of the law, which are
arranged by the noblemen to the common people. Many subjects suffer because of the law and live in fear because of it, as shown in the Mr. Yokel in his last speech
when he tells his story. “….A
SLAVE
Do ye understand that word An English
SLAVE
-that is he that stands before ye. I run from my master, and when I am found-the heavy curse of heaven fall on the law of the land that hath commanded
it I shall hang” 141. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Mark Twain uses Prince Edward to reveals the injustices of the laws when he himself is sent into the prison 212. He expresses his opinion about the
English Laws, as he meets an old lawyer in prison. “…thou shalt be free; and more, the law that have dishonoured thee, and shamed the English name, shall be
swept from the statute-books. The world is made wrong, kings should go to school to their own laws at times, and so learn mercy” 224. The Prince hears
that the old lawyer is suffered by the law. He is punished and tortured because he protests the injustices of Lord Chancellor. He looses his two ears and gets marked
on his cheeks. Mark Twain criticizes the nobles through the Prince Edward’s expression or speech. Prince Edward thinks that the unjust law which do tend to
one side such as to neither the nobles nor the common people, in his monarch should be omitted. Therefore, Prince Edward Tudor realizes that the law in his
country is not well-established yet. There are still many injustices and the laws tend to take the nobles’ side.
Mark Twain wants the reader to compare the life of other noblemen to the life of Prince Edward, who has the experiences of living in the some levels, even
in the lowest level society of English. Prince Edward, by himself has the experiences of many cruelties of the English laws and many types of injustices
throughout the land in his “adventure”. Therefore, by using this character, Mark Twain conveys that those experiences give Prince Edward the lesson how to be a
good king, a good nobleman. Unconsciously, the Prince Edward’s paradigms about his people, about the
English laws or his father‘s law also have changed after he has the experience in living in the common inhabitant’s life. Before his adventure he may think that the
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English laws can bring his citizen to good life. It does not seem like that anymore since the Prince meets the Ruffler’s gang, who are consists of some people who
are desperate by the English laws 131; a fact that he only knows by reading the books.
b. Violating Humanity
