Throughout Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain uses satire to attack what he sees as the hypocritical views of the midwestern society. Nothing is sacred to his words, especially not slavery, politics, human nature or religion. From the first chapter with Miss Watson's preaching about heaven and hell to the performance of the Royal Nonesuch to the dramatic escape planned for Jim, Twain infuses the story with satire to the detriment of our opinion of the river society he is describing.
Religion is one of the key victims of Twain's satire. He speaks through Huck declaring it, at least as it was taught, to be irrelevant to the average person's life, "Here she was a-bothering about Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see..." (pg. 4). Not much later Huck finds that prayer has never done him any good, and he can't see that it has helped many others either. Through Huck's eyes we see that Twain opposes the blind faith put in the church teachings. He also finds that religion's supposed altruistic spirit clashes with the reality of our self-motivated human nature, as Huck clearly illustrates through his constant remarks that he doesn't see what's in it [religion] for him.
The characters of the Duke and King are excellent tools for Twain's satire. Through them he chides small time criminals and all the people they dupe. The chapters on the Royal Nonesuch are the climax of satire in this story. First Twain presents the altered version of Hamlet's soliloquy, which even in its first lines, "To be, or not to be; that is the bare bodkin/ That makes calamity of so long life..." (pg. 132), clearly shows his readership that though the con-men and townspeople know enough to have heard of Shakespeare and even recognize some lines, their arrogance is unwarranted, for in reality they are ignorant of high society. Twain is also satirizing American literature which was at that time still mostly plagiarizing and bastardizing European culture in a vain effort to declare themselves part of high society. What Twain really wants is what he achieves through Huck Finn, no part of "high society", but the creation of a new class of unpretentious American writing. Twain goes on to satirize human nature through the town's reaction to the Royal Nonesuch. Instead of running the lowlifes out of town as soon as they realized they were being duped, the town let them stay, encouraging others to go see the show, so that they will not be the only ones taken in. Twain exaggerates here somewhat the lengths people will go to not appear anymore gullible than their neighbors, but it is a valid social commentary that we would rather take in others before we admit that we have let ourselves be taken in.
The dramatic escape planned for Jim goes almost too far in its efforts at satire. The whole thing becomes so complicated and convoluted that it makes most the books ending seem beyond belief. In my opinion this is a case of out of hand exaggeration in an effort to express satire. Once again the main point seems to be a criticism of relying on established methods and European ways. Tom cannot explain half the plans he wants to execute during Jim's rescue, but merely says, "Oh, I don't know. But he's got to have it. All the nobility does." (pg. 249) While the end is still very funny, it is less subtle and the overkill on the satire makings the reading even tedious at points.
Overall satire is a key defining feature of Huckleberry Finn and Twain makes good use of it to poke fun at American and especially midwestern society. At times he is overloads the storyline, and at others, such as the description of Huck's escape from the log cabin, it is unnoticeable, but throughout the story satire keeps coming back to laugh at the characters and their settings and tell us how Twain really feels.
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