The Prince and the Pauper

by

Mark Twain

Clothes Symbol Icon

Clothes symbolize social class divisions. In the world of The Prince and the Pauper, people are treated very differently depending on their social status—and particularly the clothes they wear as markers of that status—regardless of their inner character or identity. When Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales and heir to the English throne, swaps clothes with a young beggar named Tom Canty, the boys stand in front of a mirror and they are stunned to realize that they have identical features. Edward also notices that Tom’s hand is bruised and he correctly guesses that a guard outside the palace is responsible. Enraged, Edward runs outside to scold the guard—but Edward is still wearing Tom’s clothes. The guards therefore treat Edward (as Tom) the way they’d treat any beggar: they throw him in the street and mock him when he tries to explain who he actually is. Tom, on the other hand, is immediately taken for a prince because he has Edward’s clothes on. The ease with which Edward and Tom switch roles (despite their vastly different lives) simply by swapping clothes, alongside other characters’ refusal to believe that the boys are who they say they are, represents just how arbitrary and meaningless divisions between rich and poor, royal and common, actually are.

Tom and Edward don’t just look alike: they actually do have very similar personalities, values, and beliefs. While Tom (as Edward) makes a name for himself as a just, wise, and fair ruler, Edward (as Tom) proves his own love of justice time and again as he witnesses his father, King Henry VIII’s, unjust laws being put into practice and he vows to change things when he reclaims his throne. The only real difference, inner or outer, between Tom and Edward are the clothes they start out in. People judge the boys’ worth solely based on the poverty or wealth that their respective clothing signifies: Tom is initially perceived as immoral and backward because of his dirty clothes, while Edward has always been treated with deference and awe because of his fine clothes. In this way, Twain uses the fact that Tom and Edward are so easily able to swap their very identities along with their clothing as a satirical critique of the shallow, unfair assumptions society makes about a person’s inner character based solely on the social class a person occupies. Even when two people like Tom and Edward are identical in body and mind, they will be perceived and treated differently based on the clothing they wear and the status those clothes connote.

Clothes Quotes in The Prince and the Pauper

The The Prince and the Pauper quotes below all refer to the symbol of Clothes. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
).
Chapter 5 Quotes

“List ye all! This my son is mad; but it is not permanent. Overstudy hath done this, and somewhat too much of confinement. Away with his books and teachers! see to it. Pleasure him with sports, beguile him in wholesome ways, so that his health come again.” He raised himself higher still, and went on with energy, “He is mad; but he is my son, and England’s heir; and, mad or sane, still shall reign! And hear ye further, and proclaim it: whoso speaketh of this his distemper worketh against the peace and order of these realms, and shall to the gallows!”

Related Characters: King Henry VIII (speaker), Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales / King Edward VI, Tom Canty
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 30
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

“Now were he impostor and called himself prince, look you that would be natural; that would be reasonable. But lived ever an impostor yet, who, being called prince by the king, prince by the court, prince by all, denied his dignity and pleaded against his exaltation? No! By the soul of St. Swithin, no! This is the true prince, gone mad!

Related Characters: Earl of Hertford / Duke of Somerset (speaker), Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales / King Edward VI, Tom Canty, Tom’s Mother, King Henry VIII
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 41
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

In a moment all the heavy sorrow and misery which sleep had banished were upon him again, and he realized that he was no longer a petted prince in a palace, with the adoring eyes of a nation upon him, but a pauper, an outcast, clothed in rags, prisoner in a den fit only for beasts, and consorting with beggars and thieves.

Related Characters: Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales / King Edward VI, Tom Canty, John Canty / John Hobbs, Grammer Canty
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 60
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 12 Quotes

“And so I am become a knight of the Kingdom of Dreams and Shadows! A most odd and strange position, truly, for one so matter-of-fact as I. I will not laugh—no, God forbid, for this thing which is so substanceless to me is real to him. And to me, also, in one way, it is not a falsity, for it reflects with truth the sweet and generous spirit that is in him.” After a pause: “Ah, what if he should call me by my fine title before folk!—there’d be a merry contrast betwixt my glory and my raiment! But no matter: let him call me what he will, so it please him; I shall be content.”

Related Characters: Miles Hendon (speaker), Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales / King Edward VI
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 81-82
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 27 Quotes

That same day several prisoners were brought in to remain over night, who were being conveyed, under guard, to various places in the kingdom, to undergo punishment for crimes committed. The king conversed with these,—he had made it a point, from the beginning, to instruct himself for the kingly office by questioning prisoners whenever the opportunity offered—and the tale of their woes wrung his heart. One of them was a poor half-witted woman who had stolen a yard or two of cloth from a weaver—she was to be hanged for it. Another was a man who had been accused of stealing a horse; he said the proof had failed, and he had imagined that he was safe from the halter; but no—he was hardly free before he was arraigned for killing a deer in the king’s park; this was proved against him, and now he was on his way to the gallows. There was a tradesman’s apprentice whose case particularly distressed the king; this youth said he found a hawk, one evening, that had escaped from its owner, and he took it home with him, imagining himself entitled to it; but the court convicted him of stealing it, and sentenced him to death.

Related Characters: Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales / King Edward VI
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 198-199
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 30 Quotes

He enjoyed his splendid clothes; and ordered more: he found his four hundred servants too few for his proper grandeur, and trebled them. The adulation of salaaming courtiers came to be sweet music to his ears. He remained kind and gentle, and a sturdy and determined champion of all that were oppressed, and he made tireless war upon unjust laws: yet upon occasion, being offended, he could turn upon an earl, or even a duke, and give him a look that would make him tremble.

Related Characters: Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales / King Edward VI, Tom Canty
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 209
Explanation and Analysis:

Tom’s poor mother and sisters travelled the same road out of his mind. At first he pined for them, sorrowed for them, longed to see them, but later, the thought of their coming some day in their rags and dirt, and betraying him with their kisses, and pulling him down from his lofty place, and dragging him back to penury and degradation and the slums, made him shudder. At last they ceased to trouble his thoughts almost wholly. And he was content, even glad; for, whenever their mournful and accusing faces did rise before him now, they made him feel more despicable than the worms that crawl.

Related Characters: Tom Canty, John Canty / John Hobbs, Tom’s Mother, Bet Canty, Nan Canty
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 210
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 31 Quotes

At this point, just as he was raising his hand to fling another rich largess, he caught sight of a pale, astounded face which was strained forward out of the second rank of the crowd, its intense eyes riveted upon him. A sickening consternation struck through him; he recognized his mother! […] In an instant more she had torn her way out of the press, and past the guards, and was at his side. She embraced his leg, she covered it with kisses, she cried, “O my child, my darling!” lifting toward him a face that was transfigured with joy and love. The same instant and officer of the King’s Guard snatched her away with a curse, and sent her reeling back whence she came with a vigorous impulse from his strong arm. The words “I do not know you, woman!” were falling from Tom Canty’s lips when this piteous thing occurred; but it smote him to the heart to see her treated so; and as she turned for a last glimpse of him, whilst the crowd was swallowing her from his sight, she seemed so wounded, so broken-hearted, that a shame fell upon him which consumed his pride to ashes, and withered his stolen royalty. His grandeurs were stricken valueless: they seemed to fall away from him like rotten rags.

Related Characters: Tom’s Mother (speaker), Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales / King Edward VI, Tom Canty, John Canty / John Hobbs, Father Andrew
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 216
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33 Quotes

“Know, all ye that hear my voice, that from this day, they that abide in the shelter of Christ’s Hospital and share the king’s bounty, shall have their minds and hearts fed, as well as their baser parts; and this boy shall dwell there, and hold the chief place in its honorable body of governors, during life. And for that he hath been a king, it is meet that other than common observance shall be his due; wherefore, note this his dress of state, for by it he shall be known, and none shall copy it; and wheresoever he shall come, it shall remind the people that he hath been royal, in his time, and none shall deny him his due of reverence or fail to give him proper salutation. He hath the throne’s protection, he hath the crown’s support, he shall be known and called by the honorable title of the King’s Ward.”

Related Characters: Edward Tudor, Prince of Wales / King Edward VI (speaker), Tom Canty, Father Andrew
Related Symbols: Clothes
Page Number: 240-241
Explanation and Analysis:
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Clothes Symbol Timeline in The Prince and the Pauper

The timeline below shows where the symbol Clothes appears in The Prince and the Pauper. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 2: Tom’s Early Life
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Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
Nature vs. Nurture Theme Icon
...a prince just once. This makes him more aware of how dirty and shabby his clothes are and he starts spending more time bathing in the Thames. Tom starts imitating the... (full context)
Chapter 3: Tom’s Meeting with the Prince
Appearances vs. Reality Theme Icon
Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
...sight of a real prince. Sure enough, inside is a handsome young boy wearing fine clothes and jewels. As if in a trance, Tom ignores the guards and presses his face... (full context)
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...and swim with the other boys. Tom replies that he wishes he could wear fine clothes like Edward’s just once, so Edward proposes they trade clothes for just a moment. (full context)
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After changing clothes, Edward and Tom stand in front of a mirror and stare in wonder at their... (full context)
Chapter 4: The Prince’s Troubles Begin
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...master and announce that Edward, Prince of Wales needs a word with him. Noting Edward’s clothes, the boys tease him, laughing and asking if he’s a messenger. At this, Edward gets... (full context)
Chapter 5: Tom as a Patrician
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Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
...palace, Tom continues admiring himself in the mirror. He looks at himself in the fine clothes from every angle, fingers the jewels, tries all the chairs in the apartment, and wonders... (full context)
Chapter 9: The River Pageant
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Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
...point where the stairs meet the water. Dignitaries, ambassadors, knights, and gentlemen dressed in splendid clothes from all over Europe come down the stairs while trumpets blast. Hertford appears and makes... (full context)
Chapter 10: The Prince in the Toils
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...dream and he’s that really living in a hovel and wearing rags instead of proper clothes. There’s a knock on the door and John asks who it is. The person at... (full context)
Chapter 12: The Prince and His Deliverer
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Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
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...laughs as he imagines Edward calling him by his new title in public because his clothes don’t match his rank. (full context)
Chapter 13: The Disappearance of the Prince
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Edward gets sleepy and orders Hendon to get his clothes off and to sleep by the door to keep guard. Hendon smile and thinks to... (full context)
Chapter 14: “Le Roi est mort—vive le Roi”
Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
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...gets out of bed and stands there while a train of people pass his new clothes around, dress him, and help him wash himself. (full context)
Chapter 18: The Prince, a Prisoner
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Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
...stops at a couple of farmhouses to ask for food, but the owners, noticing his clothes, turn him away. Edward gets colder as night falls and he becomes afraid of the... (full context)
Chapter 25: Hendon Hall
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Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
...constable’s sight, Hendon directs Edward to an area where he can change into the nicer clothes that Hendon bought him in London and wait while Hendon gets his own belongings from... (full context)
Chapter 30: Tom’s Progress
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Wealth, Poverty, and Morality Theme Icon
...by others, having guards follow him, and even the council meetings. Tom orders more fine clothes and triples the number of palace servants. Although everyone considers him a wise and judicious... (full context)
Chapter 32: Coronation Day
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...the nobility stand up and hold their coronets over their heads, a boy in filthy clothes walks up the aisle and declares that the ceremony can’t go on because he’s the... (full context)
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...how they met, the conversation they had, the food he ate, and how they swapped clothes. Tom reminds Edward how he prepared to rush out to yell at the guard who... (full context)
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...in a show of happiness and support. Tom excitedly asks Edward to take the fine clothes back so that Tom can have his rags again. Somerset calls for Tom to be... (full context)
Chapter 33: Edward as King
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...reaches the palace, Hendon sticks out like a sore thumb because of how dirty his clothes are. Fortunately, Humphrey Marlow spots him he and realizes Hendon must be the person the... (full context)
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Tom Canty, dressed in nice clothes, comes into the room, and Edward makes another announcement: Tom will head the group in... (full context)
Conclusion: Justice and Retribution
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...old man and he is universally honored and respected. People take note of his fine clothes and pay him the same homage as they do a king or queen. King Edward... (full context)