The 1900s

Abstract

During the final decade of his life, Twain received several devastating blows—the death of his beloved wife in 1904, the death of his daughter Jean in 1909, and his own declining health. These and other problems have led some scholars to portray him as a bitter, cynical, disillusioned codger who was hamstrung by his misfortunes and angry as his creative powers diminished and his health deteriorated. This, they say, led him to repudiate Christianity, adopt a deterministic worldview, and savagely rail against an implacable, depraved God, a hypocritical, heartless Christianity and the damned human race. Twain’s writings during his final decade allegedly displayed his relentless despair as he embraced social and spiritual nihilism. At the same time, his criticisms of various groups including missionaries, villains, especially Russian Czar Nicholas II and Belgian King Leopold II, and several ideologies—militarism, imperialism, anti-Semitism—became increasingly caustic.