The Enlightenment philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, argued that man is by nature a selfishly individualistic animal. In generalizing the nature of people in society in this manner, the worst characteristics are expected. In society's pursuit for personal advancement and wealth, human nature can be seen using several negative characteristics. In Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses Huck's encounters with people on his journey to show the human nature of society to be full of greed, gullibility, and senseless violence. .
A driving force of people in society is greed, especially in the case of the King and the Duke. The King and the Duke show their greed by selling Jim to Mr. Phelps in order to make forty dollars even after everything Huck and Jim has done to help them. This illustrates what cruel acts man will resort to just to attain personal wealth. Another incident occurs when they exploit the people of Arkansas with the Royal Nonesuch play and have no problems with taking their money from them. As the duke says, "I"m in up to the hub for anything that will pay . . .(Twain 129)," even if it means exploiting people and making them believe that they are other people. We can see Mark Twain's disgust for societies materialism. They will do anything that will benefit themselves and even use the gullibility of society to do so.
People are inclined to believe the stories they are told, even the tall tales of Huck, the King, and the Duke. The town"s people in Arkansas state after seeing the Royal Nonesuch, "We are sold-mighty badly sold. But we don't .
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want to be the laughing stock of this whole town. . . (Twain 159)." This shows the gullibility of the town to believe that the King and Duke were real actors in a play called the Royal Nonesuch. Sally Phelps believed Huck's story that he was Tom, along with the steamboat operator who believed Huck's tall tale about the steamboat wreck up the river.
