As a reader, there's nothing better than reading a novel with which you can connect personally. While I'm not from the South, I can related to what it means to live in a small-town like Dawson's Landing and what particular social quirks are the norm in this type of setting! It's actually a rather interesting phenomenon, this small-town environment!
Just as we see when Mr. David Wilson earns the nickname "Pudd'nhead Wilson" after he makes his infamous comment, "I wish I owned half of that dog...Because, I would kill my half," (Twain 6) reputation and image is everything in small town locales. Wilson's reputation as foolish and ignorant lasts his whole life and is permanently part of his image in Dawson's Landing, suggesting the unforgivable nature of small communities. It's difficult to get back into the good graces of the public once you slip up once because everyone knows your business, and gossiping is chronic. If you live in a small town, you quickly learn that one small mistake has the potential to become one giant demerit.
The Dawson Landing public's fascination with the arrival of the Italian twins Luigi and Angelo also brings to mind another small-town quirk: the fascination with the exotic, the new, and the "latest news." The arrival of these highly-esteemed, supposedly high-cultured expatriates effects such an excited response from the community, as Twain writes, "None of them had ever seen a person bearing a title of nobility before, and none had been expecting to see one now, consequently the title came upon them as a kind of pile-driving surprise and caught them unprepared" (32). In small towns, everything quickly becomes familiar and often boring since the same events happen and the same people walk the streets, so anything from a new occurrence to a celebrity can evoke a very strong and zealous response from town's people! Such new occurrences also act as part of the latest gossip and news. I had a similar experience when Hilary Clinton visited my hometown of Rhinebeck, NY for her daughter's marriage. The town was thrilled to have the Clintons around, to say the very least!
Along with numerous other facetious qualities of the novel, the portrayal of small town life is light-hearted and especially humorous for those of us who have grown up in small towns and cities.
Twain definitely chose his setting well when he wrote Pudd'nhead Wilson. He could have chosen a city or a remote rural area for the novel, but there would have been such stark differences. Cities can get to be too large and while social circles are important, it is easy to hide in plain sight. Rural areas, on the other hand, can be too secluded. With a town, Twain is able to have a mass of nameless people that can be treated as a separate character. It was an interesting element, and I'm glad to hear that Twain was accurate in his portrayal!
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