【正文】 ay will focus on the effects of American culture and history on the change of Mark Twain. At the same time, it will try to explain the novel from the angle of history to proclaim Twain’s pessimism in his later writing. Through the research of pessimism in Mark Twain’s The Man that Corrupted the Hadleyburg, I would like to inspire people to think about how they will act when they face temptation. People all live in a world filled with temptation. And there is a seed of desire in people’s mind. How do people act when they meet with temptation? If people could think about it deeply, they might keep a sober in the pursuit of fame and fortune. Chapter One The formation and meaning of Twain’s pessimism 1 The analysis of the writing background In the late 19th century, there is a dramatic change in American culture. Darwin39。s theory of evolution and Spencer39。s theory of social petition brought great destroy to Christianity and rationalism. This made the traditional belief which was built on the foundation of modesty and fairness lose its sense. Therefore, human dignity was deconstructed and the desire for civilization and democracy was replaced by material pursuit. Power and wealth had bee the center of life. However, we know Mark Twain always had a dream for a highly civilized society. The reality was far away from what he dreamed for. So he was quite disappointed at the society. Moreover, the USA entered the period of imperialism. The country invaded other countries in the whole world in order to open a market for its products. Twain witnessed the colonial war while he was in roundtheworld lecture tour. He had a deep aversion to the evil behavior. The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, written in 1900, was set in such a social background. In this work, the nieen principle citizens deceived each other and disguised when they were faced with a bag of gold. This was a true portrayal of the capitalist society, or we can say, the nieen principle citizens were a symbol of imperialism. Twain mercilessly criticized the social corruption and hypocrisy in American as well as the magic and evil role money played in the society. However, Mark Twain took the greed and selfish nature of the capitalist as all the citizens’ in mon, which made the work shroud in pessimistic color. And pessimistic idea continued in his old age. Twain’s pessimism, which is shown in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg is also related to his personal experience in the 1890s. In 1894, his investments of the typesetting machine and the publishing pany failed, which brought a debt of one hundred thousand to Mark Twain. Therefore he had to make a roundtheworld lecture tour to earn money for the debt as a sickly man of nearly 60 years old. Later，he ever used words to describe his feeling to the bankruptcy, which was “ pain despair and be torn with grief”（ Twain, 76） . The bankruptcy was a huge hit to Mark Twain in material, while the death of his beloved daughter brought great pain to his spirit. Just during his tour, on the 15th of August 1896, when Twain was standing in a dinning room, thinking of nothing in particular, a cable was put into his hand, “ Susy was peacefully released today.”（ Twain, 110） Twain, unprepared, could hardly accept the thunder stroke like that. The writer39。s personal experience influences the writer39。s spirit. He said in his letter to a friend that he kept working just for work in order to stop pain. So we can easily understand the effects of the disasters one after another in his writing. He just expressed his extreme pain and disappointment through his works. Through the analysis of the writing background, we can easily understand his pessimism in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg. 2 The meanings of pessimism After getting familiar to the writing background, we can know that personal experience and the reality of American society contributed to Mark Twain’s pessimism. But what are the meanings of pessimism shown in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg? There are two aspects of the meaning of pessimism. Firstly, Mark Twain holds the view that the human nature is evil. Secondly, he believes in fatalism. In The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, Mark Twain was pessimistic towards human nature. He thought human nature was evil because human became hypocritical and greedy when they were faced with temptation. People’s will was so weak to control their desire. Therefore, all the virtues were ruined by the bag of gold coin. ―The weakest of all weak things is a virtue which has not been tested in the fire.‖(230) Citizens in the town ever thought they were honest, kind, and upright. But the honesty was weak as water when temptation came, which made him quite disappointed and pessimistic toward human nature. In the government hall, Wilson delivered a persuasive speech when he found Billson also gave a letter to Mr. Burgess which said Billson was the benefactor. ―There is nothing in the world like a persuasive speech to fuddle