“Very well, what shall we do—make the inquiry private? No, not that; it would spoil the romance. The public method is better. Think what a noise it will make! And it will make all the other towns jealous; for no stranger would trust such a thing to any town but Hadleyburg, and they know it.”
This quote is often used in analysis of the story to point to the underlying state of existing corruption in Hadleyburg. Mr. and Mrs. Richards have received the sack of coins along with the letter written by the stranger and ponder what to do with it before deciding to share it with the editor of the local newspaper. The tone of superiority and the desire to stimulate envy and jealousy among the residents of neighboring towns is carefully presented in the guise of local pride. What marks the difference between honest pride and insidious superiority? A certain mysterious stranger and one Mr. Richards could tell you.
“`Dr.’ Harkness saw an opportunity here. He was one of the two very rich men of the place, and Pinkerton was the other. Harkness was proprietor of a mint; that is to say, a popular patent medicine.”
In this case, for Narrator it is absolute certain one can substitute the name Mark Twain. Normally, when a character is a physician, there are not quotes around the “Dr.” before his name. Those around the title preceding Harkness are, in effect, air quotes. The narrator is indicating that one should not take the “Dr.” address of Dr. Harkness too seriously. Why? Well, there’s a lot of reasons, but the main one is presented here very subtly. Without the benefit of autobiographical context, perhaps too subtly to make any sense. The fact is that Twain was a very vocal and outspoken critic of “patent medicines” and the chicanery of the con men selling them under the guise of medicinal treatment. Ironically, however, he also made a few attempts to sell similar products himself.
“Allow me to tell my story—it will take but a word or two. I passed through your town at a certain time, and received a deep offence which I had not earned. Any other man would have been content to kill one or two of you and call it square, but to me that would have been a trivial revenge, and inadequate; for the dead do not suffer.”
It has been said that this story is far less about corruption than it is revenge. The stranger takes out his revenge against nearly the entire populace in a complicated fashion deserving of the term supervillainy. Or, from another perspective, superheroism. Depends upon one’s point of view, perhaps, but one thing that cannot be denied is that there is a definite level of villainy in crafting such a complex plan of vengeance as a means of balancing the books for a wrong that has been done without at the very least illuminating upon that wrong. The stranger goes about his business of exposing the hypocrisy and corruption of the people of Hadleyburg with only the justification that he “received a deep offence” which he had done nothing to earn. What that offense was—the details or even a broad portrait—remain a completely mystery. Ambiguity is very often villainy in real life, but in literature it is sometimes pure genius. One can only wonder whether the story would have the same impact if the true nature of that offense had been told. Leaving it a mystery inherent allows space for the reader to imagine it as having been something worth the response.
