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The £ 1,000,000 Bank Note

The £ 1,000,000 Bank Note . Money and Social Climbing. Outline. Starting Questions Henry’s Personalities 1, 2 The environment as his support Humor Conclusion: Money and Class in a capitalist society . Starting Questions. Is the story interesting or convincing to you? 

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The £ 1,000,000 Bank Note

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  1. The £1,000,000 Bank Note Money and Social Climbing

  2. Outline • Starting Questions • Henry’s Personalities 1, 2 • The environment as his support • Humor • Conclusion: Money and Class in a capitalist society

  3. Starting Questions • Is the story interesting or convincing to you?  • Why does it happen to this young man, who is later called Henry?   • What qualifies him to take this bank-note of such a huge amount?  What is his task?  What makes him fulfill his task?  Would you be able to be as successful as he is?

  4. Henry’s Personalities • One who tries to adjust to changes without ‘losing’ his face. • Knows the value of money in society well enough the play the role of a millionaire. (e.g. at the eating house and the tailor’s shop) • Responses: • get proper dressing and house • Pay visits to VIP’s

  5. Money’s Social Impact • effects – free meals, free clothes, fame for Harris •  loan from Harris; •  social gossip: called vest-pocket monster, •  media’s attention: newspaper (p. 7) * Besides being funny, what does this rise to fortune imply?

  6. Henry’s Personalities (2) • His responses to to this radical change of his fortune and social position?  • Why does he choose to be honest to Portia Langham about his having no money, but not to Lloyd Hastings?  • Do you think him arrogant in letting Lloyd use his name and his name only for a fortnight?  • --  What makes him fall for Portia? • Is his raising the salary he expects to get from the gentleman from 600 to 1000 pounds a year to 1200 a year, and then to 3000, unrealistic? 

  7. Humor • The targets of humor • the protagonist – when he is poor;   • The minor characters and the Londoners—in their admiration of wealth • The “English” – their way to end a debate; their views of game. (Which reveals his American perspective.) • humor -- achieved through description, exaggeration, caricature (shop clerk), or skillful use of syntax and rhetoric (e.g. Henry and Portia)

  8. For your reference: Twain on Humor • Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place. • Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand. • The secret source of Humor itself is not joy but sorrow. There is no laughter in heaven. (sources 1, 2, 3)

  9. Money and Class • Henry: from a ‘made’ man to a ‘self-made’ man; capable of using a sign of social status to win him a real status. • Love for him is more valuable than the bank note, but it is still measured in money terms. • If this bank-note is an abstract form of money, then what it signifies – social status and love—is also relative and empty of substance.

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