Benedict J Whalen

"3 He set aside the manuscript, not taking it up again until March to June of 1880, when he composed the "Notice" and chapters 181/2 to 21, a relatively short addition to the novel that halts after Colonel Sherburn shoots Boggs. [...]what had changed that allowed Twain to proceed with such speedy and wonderful success? I argue that part of what helped Twain overcome his difficulties with the plot and composition of Huckleberry Finn was a development in the way he made use of and reference to Hamlet. [...]in Twains breakthrough in the summer of 1883, he develops his reading of Hamlet yet further, addressing several of the elements most central to Shakespeares play: the crisis of conscience, and the importance of memory in shaping moral action? "8 It is indeed noteworthy that, in its final form, Twain never resolves the mystery of Pap's murder, and this remains as a lingering sign of the shift in Twain's ideas about how the

In The Rape of Lucrece and Hamlet, Shakespeare focuses upon the effects of sin and the problems of conscience that it causes. However, he does so by shifting focus from the sinner to the one harmed by the sin. Through this shift in focus, Shakespeare explores sin as something that does not only harm the sinner and his immediate victim, but as something that strikes against the common good. Sin harms humanity in its corporate nature, and the consequences of sinsorrows, guilt, conflicted conscience, and the desire for absolutionspread from the sinner to his victims and the larger community. At pivotal moments in both works, Shakespeare turns to artistic representations of the figure of Hecuba, sorrowing in the midst of the destruction of Troy, as a means for navigating the strained point of intersection between private conscience and the common good.