According to the Oxford Dictionary, the definition of hypocrisy is “the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not conform; pretense.”. In multiple instances, cases of hypocrisy have appeared in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Many people display acts of cowardice or deceit even though they claim to be otherwise. The Grangerford Family, the mob trying to capture the colonel, and the crowd at the play all display actions that are in contrary to the beliefs they claim to have.
A first example of hypocrisy would be the feud between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons, as they preach love and kindness but carry on shooting at each other. The Grangerfords are always very accepting and welcoming of Huck, but their feud they have against the Shepherdsons reveal a darker truth about them. Even though they were kind with Juck and respected him, as the youngest Grangerford son was even his great friend, they had some more undesirable characteristics.. They show no love or mercy for the Shepherdsons, and are shooting at them every time they meet. They fight to the death, and it is widely known that many young men have died as a result of this untraceable feud. Neither of these two families can remember when this problem started or how it started, yet they still feel the unsuppressable urge to shoot and kill each other. This makes the whole feud very foolish, as logically the two families don’t have an actual reason to fight each other. Their deep hatred for each other drove all the bloodshed and violence, yet there is no motive or reason for their actions, which makes the hate unreasonable and the deaths almost pitiful. When Miss Sophia, a Grangerford girl elopes with a Shepherdson, all hell breaks loose and a huge gunfight ensues. The Grangerford sons are shot dead, including Buck who was Huck’s friend. This showed how despite the Grangerfords claiming to love god and preach Christian values, they did not truly try to practice those values on themselves. They were still violent, and filled with hate for the other family, which showed how hypocritical they were to their own religious beliefs.
Hypocrisy can also be shown when people go back on their word, just like when the mob vowing to lynch the colonel for his unjust murder of Broggs ran off when he pulled out a gun. Their fear is justified, as it is only normal for humans to be scared when they are threatened with a gun. The mob claimed to want to take down the colonel for his unethical and wrong killing of a harmless old man who was just drunk and a bit out of his mind, but faltered at the very last moment. As they broke down his fence and walked to his house, the colonel stepped out onto the roof with a pistol with a couple rounds of bullets. This is an example of hypocrisy because everyone was trying to hold the colonel accountable for his unlawful crimes until a bit of trouble came up. When he pulled up a loaded gun, it seemed like all their desire for retribution evaporated into the thin air and they ran away, humiliated. Their actions do not match their ideology. Although fear is instilled in humans by nature, this still does not excuse their behavior from being extremely hypocritical.
Hypocrisy could also be driven by petty reasons, such as when the townspeople tricked by the two con men go on tricking others to watch the performance, making them feel embarrassed and stupid in their turn. They tell one thing to the people who haven’t watched the play yet yet they know the truth about how big a scam the play was. They claim to be friendly and spread false rumors, yet they only do it because their egos were bruised and they did not want to admit they fell for two con men spurting nonsense. Not only did they trick their own people into wasting money, they also kind of helped the two con men to make more money, as they charged people coming to watch the performance. This way, they feed into the lies and deception that the king and the duke started, which isn’t beneficial to themselves but rather to the two charlatans. It is hypocrisy between neighbors, saying one thing and knowing another. Although not as harmful or serious as the previous two, it still is very showing of the morals of the people involved.
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have as many instances of hypocrisy as scenes making us believe in humanity again. We could even say that Mark Twain is poking fun at people pretending to themselves and others. These little anecdotes tell a lot about Huck, as he is the narrator and we are seeing it through his perspective and lens. Hypocrisy is very much existent in society even to this day, and we meet all sorts of people claiming to believe one thing while hiding their true face under a facade.
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