Prince Edward is the crown prince of England. Tom Canty is a boy from a destitute family in the slums of London. They are of the same age and look exactly alike. One day, they happen to meet each other. The prince, desiring to experience the free life outside the Royal Palace, changes clothes with Canty. Thereupon follows a series of extraordinary events where Edward learns about the problems of commoners while Tom learns to play the role of a prince and then a king. In The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Mark Twain parodies social norms, concluding that people’s actual worth is often hidden by their outward appearances.