【正文】 of these citizens had already been exposed. Then here es the climax of the story. Behind the gold coin, there was a huge fraud. But the readers can find out the weakness of human nature of these citizens through the fraud. Their selfishness, lies and greed were quite clear. And the stranger designed a trap to make the Richards once again be tempted. Mr. Burgess helped the couple save their honor and gained a huge amount of money. But because of fear and anxiety, the Richards became ill and told the truth that they were tempted by the gold coin too. ―The last of the sacred Nieen had fallen a prey to the fiendish sack。s newspaper. After toiling as a printer in various cities, he became a master riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion. He was a failure at gold mining, so he turned to journalism. As a reporter, he wrote a humorous story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County which became very popular and brought nationwide attention. The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, written in 1900， is one of the most famous works of Mark Twain. The novel was about a town named Hadleyburg which was famous for its good reputation. Everyone believed it was an uncorrupted town. But a stranger came to Hadleyburg with a bag of gold coin to find out an unknown benefactor because the benefactor ever gave 20 dollars to the stranger. The chief nieen citizens wanted to be the benefactor and made every endeavor to get the gold. At last, the honest and upright town became the synonym of ugliness, liars and thief. This novel is a turning point in Twain’s writing, where he changes his style from humor to satire. Also, he is being more and more pessimistic pared with his early writing. Chinese scholars mainly explore The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg from the following aspects, such as from the writing skills or the reasons of his pessimism. Chen huizhu ever wrote an essay to Learning Theory, entitled ―Research on the causes of Mark Twain’s pessimism in his later life‖. She tried to examine the reasons of his pessimism from Mark Twain’s personal experience and the changes of American society. Foreign scholars mainly study this novel from the aspects of cultural pessimism and pessimist literature. They try to study Mark Twain’s pessimism in his later writings. Few scholars discuss his pessimism revealed in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg from the aspect of new historicism. This essay explores Twain’s pessimism in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg with the theory of new historicism. Scholars of new historicism hold the view that literature is highly affected by the plex and subtle social background. Literature is a product of a specific society which has its own features in history and culture. This essay 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。他剖析了在誘惑面前人性表現(xiàn)出的的黑暗和這個世界的丑陋，進(jìn)而萌發(fā)了悲觀主義的情緒。本文試圖借助新歷史主義的觀點來分析馬克吐溫在《敗壞了赫德萊堡的人》這部小說中流露出的的悲觀主義，從個人經(jīng)歷和美國社會現(xiàn)實兩個方面研究馬克吐溫悲觀主義產(chǎn)生的原因，緊接著討論馬克吐溫悲觀主義的含義，并從小說的構(gòu)思和藝術(shù)形象兩個角度來研究馬克吐溫悲觀主義情緒在《敗壞了赫德萊堡的人》這部小說中的具體體現(xiàn)。s theory of evolution and Spencer39。 the town was stripped of the last rage of its ancient glory. Its mourning was not showy, but it was deep.‖ （ 241） The couple realized their desire but dead at last. Here, Mark Twain told a bizarre story to readers. He revealed the moral status and social reality by his text. Through the wonderful plot design, Mark Twain revealed the moral status by actions of people in the town when they faced the gold coin. Furthermore, the process of trying to claim the coin was a true portrayal of capitalists when they faced huge amount of money. Here his text is closely related to the culture and society of the 19th century in America. At that time, America entered a stage of imperialism. Capitalist ran after money without caring about anything. This society was far away from Mark Twain’s ideal society. And Mark Twain could not find a reasonable solution and explanation to the ugly world, so his mind is filled with pessimistic mood. 2 From the aspect of characters Mark Twain designed the character of the stranger mainly to expose the evil essence of human nature. The stranger was a visitor to Hadleyburg, who was a concentrated reflection of blackness in human