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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
Mark Twain uses the character of Tom Canty to reveal the cruelty of the laws. Tom Canty finds out that there are so many cruel laws as when he meets the
three accused persons, a man, an old lady and a young lady. He realizes that the law is very cruel because he knows that there still a kind of punishment that breaks
the humanity, such as what the man is going to get. He will be boiled alive 118. He shows his disagreement of this kind of punishment by omitting this punishment
to avoid any of his subjects suffers by this kind of cruel punishment. Lockyer 127 states that there were approximately three hundred men and
women were burnt between February 1555 and November 1558 under the reign of Mary Tudor. They were accused of heresy. While, most of them were the
common citizen of English who came from the low levels of English society included weavers, fullers, shearman, tailors, hosiers, cappers, husbandmen,
labourers, brewers and butchers. There were only nine people who were described as gentlemen. While Morgan 246-247 also describes that there were a lot of
people who were cruelly executed in the reign of Henry VIII for resisting the king’s supremacy.
Mark Twain criticizes King Henry VIII, the greatest noblemen in his reign, who acts as a tyrant that gives such a terror to his own citizens. Mark Twain does
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use the Prince Edward’s opinion that expresses his confession of the unjust and tyrannical of his father reign, the reign of King Henry VIII. He expresses his
confession by having an opinion about the tyrannical reign of his father when he mourns in his father’s death. “The tidings struck to a chill to the heart of the poor
little waif, and sent a shudder through his frame. He realized the greatness of his loss, and was filled with a bitter grief; for the grim tyrant who had been such a
terror to others had always been gentle to him” 76. Mark Twain criticizes King Henry VIII and considers this greatest nobleman as a tyrant who gives such a
terror to the people through the Prince Edward’s opinion. Mark Twain also conveys his criticism through Tom’s opinion and speech,
while Tom Canty as king, after the death of the king, Henry VIII. Tom announces that from that time the law of the king will be the law of mercy. “Then shall the
king’s law be law of mercy, from this day, and never more be law of blood” 74. Mark Twain through Tom Canty’s speech implicitly would like to criticize the
previous reign, the reign of Henry VIII, and regards this reign is a reign which full of cruelty, that he calls it as a reign of blood.
4. Nobles’ Ways of Governing
