Huck vs. The Duke and King

In showing Huck's sympathy for the Duke and King in chapter 33, Twain really makes his reader think, both about why on earth Huck would feel this way, and what Twain's intentions are in this passage.

In my analysis of the passage thus far, I have reached a few realizations. First, that Huck has a natural instinct for appreciation and connection to the human condition. He seems to be able to recognize the humanity in the characters that society has cast out--first Jim, and now the Duke and King. 

My second realization is that there are definite parallels between Huck and the Duke and King. The most obvious of these is their tendency to take on different "roles" in the different towns they go to. However, while both are essentially doing the same thing (taking on alternate identities in order to somehow benefit themselves), the reader perceives the acts differently. For example, when Huck pretends to be Tom at Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas' house, his intention is to steal Jim, who is essentially property. Likewise, when The Duke and King pretend to be the Wilk's brothers, their intention is to take the girls' money and property. This parallel is obscured by the reader's differing perceptions of the two instances--glorifying Huck's and condemning the Duke and King's. In other words, the perspective of morals with which the reader approaches the novel in some ways destroys the parallel. However, in the eyes of the society in the setting of the novel, Huck is on the same level of immorality as the Duke and King--an idea that "re-solidifies" the parallel between the two. 

Huck's view of himself strays from both of these ideas. Rather than seeing himself as superior to the Duke and King or as their immoral equal, he identifies himself to them and seems to simply recognize their common human status. This, ultimately, is what Twain is attempting to convey when he writes of Huck's strange flash of sympathy and sorrow in the moment of their public condemnation. 

Huck seems to understand--whether he consciously knows it or not--that people have an inherent human dignity that is to be respected. He regrets the cruelty that people exhibit in their treatment of others, and ultimately places the blame for these conflicts on society when he rejects civilization at the end of the novel, choosing to move to Oklahoma instead.