Heart and Conscience in Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Essay

Mark Twain considered his novel Adventures of huckleberry Finn as a disc of mine where a sound watch and a deformed scruples come into collision and sense of right and wrong suffers defeat. This claim is valid, as the story showed the agnomen character in several situations wherein he was bothered by his sense of right and wrong yet he chose to act according to his emotions. Indeed, the book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn exhibits the triumph of the purport over a conscience.In the book, there are three major precedents wherein there was conflict between the meat and the conscience. In these situations, the conflict was caused by the issue of slavery as Huck was often forced to postulate between his heart and conscience when it came to matters concerning the black slave Jim.The get-go instance is found in Chapter XVI, when Huck was disturbed by his conscience well-nigh assisting Jim in his escape. Huck was deeply bothered by the fact that duration he was not responsible for the escape itself, he did not do anything to prevent it. He was most concerned about Miss Watson, who was Jims owner. Huck is guilty because he let her slave run apart from her when she was nothing but nice to him. In the beginning, it seemed like his conscience has won because he finally resolved to disclose Jims whereabouts.However, he changed his assessment at the farthermost minute. Jim called Huck his only friend and the only whitened man who kept his promise. Huck said, I was paddling off, all in a sweat to tell on him but when he says this, it seemed to kind of carry on the tuck all out of me (Twain). Jims words appealed to Hucks emotions, and the latters savourings prevented him from doing what his conscience told him to do. Hence, the heart succeeds over the conscience for the first time.The second instance again finds Huck struggling between sexual relation others about Jim and go bying his escape a secret. The conflict between the heart and conscience continue s in Chapter XVI as Huck encounters a boat with two men in search of escaped slaves. The men asked Huck if the man he was with was white or black.Huck clearly precious to expose Jim as his conscience int finish him to do, but he ended up lying to hide the slave. After the men left, Huck mused spose youd a done right and give Jim up, would you feel better than what you do now? No, says I, Id feel toughened (Twain). In the end, it became obvious that Hucks decision was a outgrowth of his feelings. He did not choose to do the right thing because he would feel bad about it. Again, the heart prevails over the conscience.The third and last instance in Chapter XXXI proved to be the most significant, as Huck finally gave up listening to his conscience and resolved to play along his heart. Because he had been bothered by conscience for awhile, Huck decided to do what he thought was right and write a letter grievous Miss Watson of Jims whereabouts.After he wrote the letter, Huck thought of Jims kindness towards him. As he held the paper, Huck said I was a-trembling, because Id got to decide, forever, betwixt two things, and I knowed it (Twain). In the end, Huck torus up the letter and even considered liberating Jim from slavery in the future. Huck said, tout ensemble right, then, Ill GO to hell (Twain). The conscience dictates that it was a sin to keep a slave away from its owner. However, Huck preferred to sin and go to hell rather than betray his friend. Thus, the heart finally wins over the conscience.In Mark Twains Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, there exists the conflict between the heart and the conscience. In three instances in the story, the title character disregards his conscience by letting his emotions influence his decisions. In the end, the heart is victorious over the conscience as Huck chose the former to dictate his actions.Work CitedTwain, Mark. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Literature meshwork Web Site. 1885. Jalic, Inc. 6 April 2009