The Practice of Injustice in the Society and the Empire of England as Seen in Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper

*It is just an introduction of my research

1.1.Background of Choosing the Subject

Injustice is absolutely contradictory with justice. It refers to the unfairness of someone, people, institution, and etcetera which act or do something unjust upon the others. For example, my father is a temperamental character. He always hits me when my little brother cries. He never asks who makes him cry, but just hits and considers me as the suspect because he thinks that it is me who play a toy with him. But in fact, it is my other brother who takes his toy away. In this case, the injustice is done by my father towards me.

According to Sion, injustice means that “some good is not followed by commensurate good or is followed by undeserved bad; or that some bad is not followed by commensurate bad or is followed by undeserved good” (“Understanding Injustice”).  It means that injustice does not merely refers to the absolute badness (e.g. the leader of a country puts someone in prison with no reason), but also the goodness can be expressed as an unfairness when it is undeserved (e.g. a father gives unequal affection to his children).

In The Prince and the Pauper, the issues of injustice are occurred in the society and the Empire of England. It happens among the society and in the internal of empire, and also between the empire and the society.

In the society, for example, the injustice happens in Tom’s family. In the internal of the empire, the injustice happens between the King and the Duke of Norfolk. Between the Empire and the society, the injustice is derived from King’s carelessness to the society, especially Offal Court, and the injustice of his law which is whatever King’s will, it can be said as law (Mark Twain, The Prince and the Pauper 23).   

            In this paper, those issues of injustice are being analyzed. The present writer is interested to understand deeper about the injustice they do. Also, the present writer is curious about the Prince of Wales; about what he learns from the injustice in the society and of his father King Henry VIII. In this case, Edward the Prince of Wales experiences himself living in the poor society. He exchanges his glory cloth with Tom, a poor child from Canty’s family. Due to their similarity in form (i.e., face, hair, and etcetera), the inhabitants of the empire, the society, and even his father do not recognizes him anymore. In his dirty cloth (i.e. Tom’s cloth), the society recognize him as a poor child who is crazy when he says that he is the true Prince of Wales. Nevertheless, he gets many lessons from that poor society. One of them is he now understand how poor people (i.e., beggar, thief, and etcetera) struggle to live.

The present writer thinks that the topic of injustice is interesting to be analyzed. It is because of the contradictory character between King Henry VIII and his child Edward VI. The personality of father is usually inherited to his child, but Edward is different. Instead, it is him who stops the practice of injustice of his father since he replaces his father’s throne. For example, Edward shows his kindness to his people when his uncle wants to execute Tom who is known as a false King. He cancels the execution and thanks him instead. It is because Tom who makes him learns a lot about the life of poor society.

In addition, other attraction that makes the present writer interested to analyze the injustice in The Prince and the Pauper is because of the unfairness in Tom’s family. It is specifically of the violence he gets when he does not bring any money when getting back home. He is ordered to be a beggar, but there is no consideration when does not get that money. Therefore, somehow, in the point of view of the present writer, the topic of injustice in the society and the Empire of England is interesting to be analyzed. In this case, the analysis is based on the text of the novel itself.