【正文】 ing 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 the mental apparatus and upset the convictions and debauch the emotions of an audience not practiced in the tricks and delusions of oratory.‖(223)The citizens were trained to be honest from the very cradle, against every possible temptation. But it was fictitious honesty when temptation came. Mark Twain’s pessimism was not only displayed in his disappointment to human nature but also displayed in his belief of fatalism. In The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg, Mark Twain preliminarily expressed his viewpoint of fatalism. He explained accidental events to the order of God. He did not believe the will power of human. In his mind, it was God but not human that controlled the development of events. His viewpoint of fatalism was mainly displayed in the character of the Richards, who tended to explain his failure or success in getting the money to the order of God. From here, we can see Mark Twain thought man could not dominate the destiny of their own. This is a kind of negative viewpoint of life. Chapter Two The specific analysis of pessimism in The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg 1 From the aspect of plot The plot of The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg is very bizarre. When the gold coin which is the symbol of temptation appears, the honest and upright town lost its peace. Here, Mark Twain took the gold coin and the passing stranger as the main line, and played a farce for the readers. We can take the farce as a psycho logical experiment. Twain had designed a clever psychological experiment, conducted by the stranger, to make the readers watch these experiment objects and find out the reaction of citizens in the town. By doing so, Mark Twain revealed the human nature in a material society and the reality of morality decay. Twain’s satire, similar to ridicule, is linked to pessimism in his old age when he was quite suspicious. He was suspicious of human nature as well as the democracy of American society. At the beginning of the story, the passing stranger came to hadleyburg with a bag of gold coin and broke the quiet life order in the town. The citizens were greatly excited because the trust from the stranger showed that they lived in an incorruptible town and were proud of it. But the citizens were in anguish and sigh later as they wanted to know what the remark was that the benefactor said to the stranger. That was ―You are far from being a bad man.‖ From their reaction, we can find they had fallen into the trap of the stranger and attracted by the temptation. Then the passing stranger continued his plan of experiment by telling the nieen chief citizens what the remark was. And the nieen chief citizens and their wives bore that expression of peace and happiness again. So the Mr. Burgess received nieen letters which all made a declaration that the gold coin belonged to its writer. Till now, the selfishness and greed 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。 作者簽名： 日 期： 學(xué)位論文原創(chuàng)性聲明 本人鄭重聲明：所呈交的論文是本人在導(dǎo)師的指導(dǎo)下獨(dú)立進(jìn)行研究所取得的研究成果。 ：任務(wù)書、開題報(bào)告、外文譯文、譯文原文（復(fù)印件）。 作者簽名： 日期： 年 月 日 學(xué)位論文版權(quán)使用授權(quán)書 本學(xué)位論文作者完全了解學(xué)校有關(guān)保留、使用學(xué)位論文的規(guī)定，同意學(xué)校保留并向國家有關(guān)部門或機(jī)構(gòu)送交論文的復(fù)印件和電子版，允許論文被查閱和借閱。吐溫小說中的幽默與諷刺藝術(shù)