The Great Significance of the Final Episode of Huckleberry Finn One of the things that many reviewers of Huckleberry Finn simply fail to understand is the final episode of the novel where Tom returns and distracts Huck from his rescue of Jim through a long series of idiotic and childish schemes based on ideas Tom took from romantic novels, such as those of Walter Scott. Critic Stephen Railton dismisses these final chapters as "just another version of their Royal Nonesuch" (405); referring of course to the silly play put on by the Duke and the Dauphin in chapter 23. From one point of view, this whole "escape" sequence seems funny and humorous in the traditions of frontier and southern humor -west. Twain had a reputation as a humorist, and some of his readers laughed a lot at this section. Many, however, are discouraged by it; I think this seems out of place in this novel which deals with so many serious and adult subjects; whose theme is the inhumanity of man to man but which can nevertheless be surpassed by the simple friendship developed between a white boy and a black slave on a raft. To many, who don't look too deeply, this latest episode seems out of place, anticlimactic, undermining, or just downright obnoxious. Philip Young called the ending “irrelevant” (Gullason 357). Leo Marx called it a “fragile device” (Gullason 357). And William VanO'Connor called this a "serious anti-climax" (Gullason 357). This is just a small sample. But can it really be a simple absurdity, a “RoyalNonesuch”? Can we really think so little of Twain to believe that he would simply abandon the seriousness of ...... middle of paper ...... d E. Hudson Long. New York: Norton, 1961. 305-309. Railton, Stephen. “Jim and Mark Twain: What is Dey Stan for?” Virginia Quarterly Review 63.3 (Summer 1987): 393-408. Rubenstein, Gilbert M. “The Moral Structure of Huckleberry Finn.” College English 18 (November 1956): 72-76. Rep. in Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: an annotated text, context and sources, critical essays. Ed. Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: Norton, 1961. 378-384.Stallman, R.W. “Reality and Parody in Huckleberry Finn.” College English 18 (May 1957): 425-426. Rep. in Clemens, Samuel Langhorne. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: an annotated text, context and sources, critical essays. Ed. Sculley Bradley, Richmond Croom Beatty, and E. Hudson Long. New York: Norton, 1961. 384-387.