So having their darling Helen confess to lying evokes consternation from the elderly women and they demanded that she confess to the lie in front of her sick mother. Theirs was a world where lies had no place.

The story opens with the aunts confronting Helen for a lie she confessed to have said. The story revolves around a female family of four, Margaret Lester, a widow in her late thirties, her teenage daughter Helen, and two righteous maiden twin aunts, Hannah and Hester Gray. Was It Heaven? Or Hell?: Summary and Plot Analysis This short story is going to take you a trip down that memory lane. Leaving you confused where exactly was the line that separated a good lie from a bad one? Lying is possibly the worst thing that you can do?Īnd what puzzled you as you grew was the same people that told you all those things resorted to lying themselves, correcting you when you pointed it out to them saying ‘ ‘that was for good reason’ and ‘not all sorts of lying is bad’? Was it Heaven? Or Hell? is a short story that was published in early 1900s as part of Mark Twain’s short story collection The 30000 Bequest.Īs a child, have you ever been told not to lie?