Mark Twain

Mark Twain is a very famous and versatile American writer of the 19th century. His works cover many genres: satire and humor, journalism and philosophical fiction. However, most of the works raise similar topics and problems of humanism, democracy, human imperfection and lies. Mark Twain likes the theme of human lies, and, unlike many other authors, he does not adhere to a firm position of condemning lies as a vice, which leads to negative consequences. On the contrary, a writer often has a lie, which is harmless and can lead not only to negative, but also to positive consequences for the characters. It happens that a lie is the only way for delicacy to achieve its goals.

Mark Twain's comedy also tells about lies and the influence on the fate of heroes: “Is he alive or dead?”

This is a very small work, but it tells a very interesting and deep story about the problems of painting, the life of writers and art in general. At the center of this story are four unknown young writers. They have talent, time and ability, they draw a lot of high-quality paintings, but since no one knows their names, they barely manage to sell the paintings in order not to die of starvation. And only one idea, literally to deceive the whole world, saves them from death and allows them to live a good life. The idea is quite simple: you need one of them to draw a lot of pictures, supposedly filled with secret meaning, and the other three come with these pictures and tell about one great writer Francois Millet, whom everyone already "has long known." Of course, people do not want to admit their ignorance, and they very easily recognize the existence of this “great” artist and buy his paintings at incredible prices and spread more and more glory about him. Then four artists arrange false “funerals” by the great artist Francois Millet. As a result, his paintings are sold at an even higher price than before, although they have no creative value.

So, four unknown artists saved their lives with lies. Can one accuse them of lying and the fact that artistic people often remain unrecognized during their lives, and only after their death, when their work becomes unique in its own way, do they receive recognition? I think that their act can be justified. Creative people have the right to a decent life, as well as representatives of other professions. Despite the complexity of creating masterpieces of art, culture is necessary for man as well as science for full and versatile development.