Abstract: Mark Twain is an outstanding representative of American critical realism literature in the late 19th century. He, who had absorbed the essence of the western United States literature humor, formed his own unique artistic style, enriching the American ethnic literature and making a great contribution to the world. Mark Twain wrote a series of novel based on the Mississippi-valley culture, including Pudd’nhead Wilson. In the novel, Roxy, as one of those characters, who boasts an image with unique features and cultural consciousness, and the author’s writing technique have both caused extensive concern of western critics. For the Pudd’nhead Wilson, the writer uses a narrative way of irony to highlight characters as well as the local dialect of Mississippi to illustrate the local culture. The writing style of irony accentuates the cultural contradictions and social problems at that time. With a concise way, the author achieved a highly dramatic effect among the American writers in the 20th century which is immeasurable. Mark Twain often adopts writing skills such as satire, irony and local dialect to enrich characters, depict those background environments and criticize social problems in his books. Then, deep self-reflection can be acquired by readers through his humor. Therefore, in the history of American literature and world literature, he sets up a permanent monument

Key words: Pudd’nhead Wilson，local dialects，irony，satire

Content

摘要：

Abstract:

1. Introduction-5

1.1 The author’s works-5

1.2 The author’s experience-6

1.3 The social and cultural background of Pudd’nhead Wilson-6

1.4 The writing skills-7

2. Satire-9

2.1 satirizing stupid people-9

2.2 satirizing contemptible Tom-10

2.3 satirizing poor Roxy-11

3. Irony-13

3.1 verbal irony-13

3.2 situational irony-16

4. Local dialect-18

Conclusion-20

Bibliography-21

Acknowledgements-22