The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

Last week I was the lead respondent for Mark Twain’s short story entitled, “The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg”. This story, published in 1899, was about a town that is supposedly incorruptible. A stranger had visited the town and was “wronged” by the townspeople. The stranger devised a plan to corrupt Hadleyburg and show the residents that they were not infallible to greed.
One night the stranger dropped off a sack of gold coins at the residence of Edward and Mary Richards. The stranger explained that he had visited the town previously in a state of poverty, and that a resident had given him $20.00 and some good advice. He wished to repay the kind citizen with the sack, which allegedly contained $40.00.
The result is a fiasco of sorts when the nineteen most upstanding citizens show a personality that was nonexistent prior to the stranger’s visit – GREED! Each citizen rationalized in their mind why they should get the money. In the end, the bag contained lead coins plated in gold. All the citizens learned that the town WAS corruptible, and vowed to learn from this charade.
Some of the themes portrayed in this work are hypocrisy, morality, individual versus society, and the Eden Myth and the “fortunate fall”. Many scholars compare this story to the temptation in Eden, and the lesson learned after eating the forbidden fruit. One of the biggest questions is whether this story is a story of revenge or redemption. The stranger’s intent was to seek revenge on the town of Hadleyburg, but he inadvertently redeemed the town by opening their eyes to their shortcomings and making them aware of them in future conflicts.
I enjoyed the story, and wish Mark Twain had written more “fable-like” pieces.