The crescendo of the piece is when the doctor lectures two aunts about their morals and their souls. They adamantly believe that lying for any reason is sinful and would cause them the loss of their own souls. The doctor asks if they would lie to help someone - to ease their pain or to save a friend's soul. They stand strong that they would still never tell a lie, even to save someone else's soul. The doctor then poses the question: What kind of souls do they have? Why are their souls worth saving but no one else's? It's selfish to always look out for yourself and no one else! In fact, it's sinful, which makes them hypocrites. I love that the doctor yells at them to "Reform! Tell lies!" If their lies help people, I'd like to believe that God would forgive them. I am Catholic, after all, and we believe in forgiveness!
I'm so glad that Twain wrote this piece. He and I often see eye-to-eye when it comes to organized religion. The thing I have been the most surprised about in this class has been that Twain writes about religion so much. Since my previous knowledge of Twain includes mainly Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, I was shocked to learn that religion is such a major theme in his writings.
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