摘 要作为美国文学巨匠之一，马克吐温以他的言辞，机智和智慧著称，而他的作品也贯以幽默讽刺而闻名。《竞选州长》是马克吐温早期幽默作品中的顶峰之作，使其卓越的幽默讽刺才能得到了完美的体现。小说介绍了虚伪的美国政客为了在竞选活动中获胜不惜采取恶意的手段，揭露了所谓的“自由竞选”内幕，进而入木三分地讽刺了美国所谓的“民主政治”。本文旨在通过分析小说中的幽默讽刺手法，让我们更好地理解这部作品所体现的深刻意义。同时，本研究还有助于我们学习英美文学，进一步了解美国民主政治。29904
毕业论文关键词：马克吐温;《竞选州长》;幽默;讽刺
Abstract As one of the great master of American literature, Mark Twain was renowned for  his words, wit and wisdom, and almost all of his works are full of humor and irony. Running for Governor represents the summit of Twain’s early humor, which embodies his excellent power of expression, humor and sarcastic. This story mainly tells us the hypocritical American politicians took malicious means to win in running for governor, reveals the inside story of election campaign with a ironic tone, and then satirizes the dark lowdown of the so-called American “democracy”. And the purpose of this paper is to help us to understand the profound meanings of this work through analyzing the humor and irony in Running for Governor. Meanwhile, this paper, which is in favor of the understanding of democracy in American and the teaching content of British and American literature.
Key words: Mark Twain; Running for Governor; humor; irony
 Contents
摘 要i
Abstract.ii
I. Introduction1
II. Features of Mark Twain’s Work2
 2.1 Humor.2
 2.2 Irony.3
III. Humor and Irony in “Running for Governor”.4
 3.1 The Reveal of So-called Free Election in This Short Story.4
 3.2 The Yielding of a Decent Man.5
 3.3 Depiction of American Political Parties.6
 3.4 Press---- a catalyst8
IV. Significance and Effect of This work9    
 4.1The Work’s Influence on American Literature9
 4.2 The Work’s Influence on American Society.10
V. Conclusion12
Bibliography.13
Acknowledgements14 
Analysis of Humor and Irony in Running for Governor
I. Introduction
Its well－known that Mark Twain is a mastermind of humor and realism and a giant in world literature. It is he, an American writer and a humorist, who occupies a very unique and important position. With their solemn and profound thinking nucleus, the humor and irony in Mark Twain’s novels are the expression of criticism of the 19th century American society. He made great contribution to American literature. It was him who combined the American folk humor and serious literature together. Some American writers before him were influenced a lot by European literature, however, his way of thinking, values, writing styles, even his humor belong to purely American. William Faulkner said Mark Twain was “the first real American writer, we are inheriting him”.
Mark Twain, who won a worldwide audience for his stories of the youthful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Also, short stories are good material for readers to appreciate Mark Twain’s humor. Among all of his short stories, Running for Governor represents the summit of his early humor. It’s one of his famous short stories, which talks about a “free election” happening in the great state of New York. The unpredictable plot is that the candidates of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party chose to run foul of each other and spread a rumor at all costs during the course of the general election in order to win over votes. On the contrary, facing with his opponents’ baseless slanders, the protagonist as the candidate of the Dependent Party was utterly innocent and decent and didn’t take any counterattack. At last, this story ended up with the tragic fate of a decent man. 马克吐温《竞选州长》中的讽刺与幽默:http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_25354.html