The humorous style in Mark Twain’s works

3. Contrast
Taking The￡1,000,000 Bank-Note for example. In this story, the biggest contrast is about the fate of the chief character~“I”. At first, “I” was alone in the wo rld, and had nothing to depend upon but my wits and a clea n reputation”, but because of a bet made by two rich men, more exactly because of a note of a million pound. “I ” was not only worldfamous , but also earned a Certificate of dep osit for￡200,000. All sounds comic and impossible, but w hen you look into the story, considering the corruptive influ ence of money and illusory notions of honesty and integrity in capitalist society, you will think it possible.
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5 Repetition

In The ￡1.000.000 Bank-Note, we may quote the following paragraph as an illustration of repetition: They saw many honest faces go by that were not intelligent enough; many that were intelligent, but not honest enough; many that were both, but the possessor were not poor enough, or, if poor enough; were not strangers. The repetition of “enough” emphasizes that “I” is just the man that the two rich men have found, thus start the protagonist’s comic experience, and so the readers are deeply absorbed in Mark Twain’s humorous story.
2. Exaggeration
The Running For Governor is full of exaggeration. When “I” was accused of “perjury”,“I thought I should burst with amazement! Such a cruel, heartless charge. And when I was coupled with this disgraceful suspicion with an additional name “the besotted brute.”At first glance, you may laugh at Mark Twain’s hypocrisy, but indeed, just through these unreal things, you can find something real.
Mark Twain
The humorous style in Mark Twain’s works
BRIEF INTRODUCTION
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, born at a small village in Florida, Missouri, was an American author and humorist. He is most noted for his novels, It is acknowledged that Mark Twain is a great literary giant of America in the late 19th century . It is he, the first American writer, who fuses folk humor and serious literature into one whole, thus shapes the world’s view of America.
4 anti-climax

In Running For Governor, At the very beginning, the author pointed out that Mr. Woodford and Mr. Hoffman--- my rivals were so despicable that “it was plain that in these latter years they had become familiar with all manner of shameful crimes”. Compared with them, “I somehow felt that I had one prominent advantage over these gentlemen, and that was ---good character.” On reading here, not only the protagonist but also the readers have the confidence that “I” must be the winner in the fight. However, to every reader’s surprise. “I” gave up the competition at last, and even admitted that “I was not equal to the requirements of a Gubernatorial campaign（州长竞选） in the state of New York.”
As a great literary artist and a great social critic of his age, Mark Twain displays a complete range of his genius in his famous essays. He has been called the greatest humorist in the world, and that is doubtless the truth: but he is also a charming and attractive story teller, an alert romancer, a clever and penetrating observer, a philosopher without pretensions(自命不凡) and all the more profound, and finally a brilliant essayist.
CONCLUSION

Generally speaking, people regard Mark Twain as a great landmark in American literature, for he is good at expression his emotions romantically as well as satirizing the essence of society with the skilled use of the special weapon--- humor. Technically, he uses flexibly various figures of speech---irony, exaggeration, contrast, anti-climax and repetition, to create vivid American humor. In a word, Mark Twain’s humor is American enough.
Humorous style in his works
Humor is the art of being funny. It aims to give people pleasure but it always includes an element of satire. As “the true father of American literature.” Mark Twain’s art is distinguished for its humor which is achieved mainly through the various figures of speech, such as irony, exaggeration, contrast , anticlimax（反高潮） and repetition, etc, which will be discussed in detail with the illustration of some of his famous works in the paper.
Some of his famous works
The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County1865 The Innocents Abroad 1869 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1876 Life on the Mississippi 1883 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1884 A Connecticut Yankee in king Arthur’s court 1889 The tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson 1894 The man that corrupted Hadleyburg 1990
Figures of speech
1. Irony In one of his early short stories, Running for Governor, the author---“I” was nominated for Governor of the great state of New York to run against Mr. Woodford and Mr. Hoffman, two fictional figures. We can see how Mark Twain uses pretty irony to satirize the two person’s contemptible and shameless behavior in the fight : When “I ” heard the news as follows one day--- “THE LIE NAILED! Mark Twain uses “the ingenious closing sentence” to emphasize the rivals’ “venomousness”(尖 酸) Superficially.