The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg story
"The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" is the twelfth installment of The American Short Story television anthology series produced by Learning in Focus and Sea Cliff Productions for the Public Broadcasting Service. This installment is based on the 1899 Mark Twain short story of the same name. Synopsis: A passing stranger sets out to corrupt the seemingly honest people of Hadleyburg.
20 total · 10 major · 10 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| a person's true character is revealed in a time of crisis | major | The people of Hadleyburg, who prided themselves for being an honest and incorruptible lot, showed their true colors once they realized that they could lie their way into obtaining $40,000 worth of gold. |
| attitude of superiority | major | The people of Hadleyburg prided themselves on being morally superior to everyone else. The town sign reading "Lead Us Not Into Temptation" must be interpreted in this context. |
| compromising one's ethical principles for personal advantage | major | Edward and Mary, who prided themselves on their honesty, grappled with whether or not they should stake a claim on $40,000 worth of gold to which they had no right. |
| greed for riches | major | Each of the 19 most upstanding couples in Hadleyburg coveted the $40,000 worth of gold and stooped to deceit in order to get it. The Richards and the couple who ran the post office all wrestled with the idea of keeping the gold a secret from others. |
| husband and wife | major | The story follows Edward and Mary Richards as the succumb to the temptation of trying to lie their way into $40,000 worth of gold. |
| hypocritical character | major | Hadleyburg's most upstanding citizens were outrageously hypocritical in trumpeting their morally incorruptibility while conniving to get their hands on $40,000 in gold. Edward and Mary Richards lamented the fact that they had done as the stranger instructed and put out an ad about the gold. Afterwards, Mary wondered plaintively why they "didn't let themselves be overcome by it" even though at first they both agreed that they must do the right thing. |
| lesson in humility | major | The Hadleyburg residents prided themselves on being an honest and incorruptible people, but they were left with egg on their faces when a mysterious stranger publicly exposed many of their most upstanding residents as being dishonest scoundrels. |
| people may not always live up to their reputations | major | Bank president Otis Pinkerton proclaimed publicly that the event surrounding the gold would land Hadleyburg in the dictionary as synonymous with being morally incorruptible and honest. But the town's most upstanding residents subsequently showed themselves to be greedy connivers. |
| resisting a temptation | major | Each of the 19 most upstanding couples in Hadleyburg, most especially Edward and Mary Richards, ultimately succumbed to the temptation to lie their way into obtaining $40,000 worth of gold. |
| the desire for vengeance | major | A mysterious stranger avenged an unspecified past offense by exposing Hadleyburg's most upstanding residents as being a bunch of supercilious hypocrites. |