“Two Stories Tangled Together”

Thomas W. Howard, “‘Two Stories Tangled Together’: The Double Brain, Pudd’nhead Wilson, and Those Extraordinary Twins” (pp. 81–110) In this article, I examine Mark Twain’s Pudd’nhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins (1894) alongside nineteenth-century psychological theories, especially ideas about the double brain. While scholars have long acknowledged Twain’s fascination with twinship, I argue that the twinned and conjoined characters of these texts reflect deeper concerns about mental duality and the divided self. I begin by demonstrating Twain’s longstanding interest in psychological and psychical research, including his own investigation into “mental telegraphy,” his membership in the Society for Psychical Research, and his acquaintance with famed psychologists including William James. Next, I show how the conjoined characters Angelo and Luigi demonstrate characteristics that commonly appear in theories of the dual-hemispheric structure of the brain. I then turn to the two tales themselves as evidence of a further conjoinment, where Twain performs hypnotic whispers and subconscious suggestion through his careful revision of the texts. Instead of a straightforward narrative, Twain creates a twinned narrative that disrupts linear storytelling, requiring readers to navigate layered and shifting interpretations. Ultimately, Twain’s entangled stories serve as a literary experiment that engages multiple forms of attention, paralleling contemporary conceptions of the double brain and challenging readers to experience the reading of fictional narrative as a more psychological, nuanced process.