Read our detailed study guide on the novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain. Our notes cover A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court summary, characters, themes, and analysis.
Summary of the Novel
A Word of Explanation
The author by chance meets a person he names himself Hank Morgan, The Yankee of Yankees. He claims that he has shot Sir Sagramore Le Desirous of the sixth century dead. He says that one day he receives a blow on his head while working with his colleagues. When he awakes he gets the news that he is the captive of King Arthur in the sixth century.
Chapter 1
Hank Morgan is the narrator of the readers. He is unable to understand the name Camelot. He then centers his thoughts on his surroundings. He likes the scenery of the countryside but he does not like people from the countryside.
Chapter 2
Hank Morgan gets in a conversation with a boy named Clarence. He gets to know that the year is 528. He realizes that he is transported 1300 years back in history. Hank is present in the court of King Arthur. He also learns that he has been arrested by Sir Kay and thrown in the cell. He is told that he would be presented as a gift with other prisoners.
Chapter 3
He talks about the proceeding of the Round Table. Every night comes and talks about his bravery. Clearance tells Hank that all are exaggerating their tales. In this process of exaggerating tales, the people present in the court start to doze off.
Chapter 4
Hank enjoys the tales because he has listened to it once while the other people have listened to it for a thousand times. Sir Dinadan presents his jokes and laughs at his own joke. Hank thinks that his jokes are very poor.
Chapter 5
Hank is in his cell and Clarence comes to him. He asks Clarence to help him escape the prison. Clarence tells him that it is very dangerous because Merlin has cast spells over the cell. Hank knows that the date of his hanging is 21st. Hank then tells Clarence that he should convey his message to the king that if he is not released so he will destroy them all through his magic because he is a magician.
Chapter 6
Hank thinks that after his threat he would be able to get released from this dungeon. Suddenly, the doors open and he is told that he is going to be executed. He asks the reason for his early execution. Clarence tells him that he has made the plan and Hank has to perform some tricks and he would be set free.
Suddenly the sun eclipse starts and Hank screams that if he is not made the executive of the king he would make them burn through the sun. The king accepts his term and he is released. They wait till the eclipse is over and Hank shouts that the magical spell is over now.
Chapter 7
Hank rises to power in the sixth century but at the same time, he misses the luxury of the 19th century. Merlin starts spreading rumors that Hank is not a good man. Hank decides to make the people believe in his power through another miracle. He blasts the tower of Merlin with the blasting powder. He arrests Merlin and challenges him to stop the fire through magic which he is unable to. This makes Hank superior to him.
Chapter 8
Hank thinks that he knows everything of the 19th century so he is very much ahead of these people. He thinks that he has gone to a great position but people do not pay him respect because he has not earned a title. Although he is known by Yankee in the 19th century, he chose the title of The Boss for himself in the sixth century.
Chapter 9
He makes a register to make a record of his future activities. He then gets to know that King Arthur with his knights plays tournaments every week. He plans to improve the tournament which could give him more respect. He sends a priest to give him a report about the long tournament. He then plans to circulate a newspaper in the country. In the meanwhile, Sir Sagramore challenges Hank for combat.
Chapter 10
Hank slowly and secretly starts making factories and establishing industries. He starts public schooling to educate the children. He starts his civilizing mission. But he is doing all these things very secretly because he thinks that the Roman Catholic Church might oppose his ideas. So he has to gradually introduce the people to his great plan. One day, King asks him for an adventure in the countryside.
Chapter 11
One day, a woman comes and informs that her mistress along with forty-four girls is made captive by three ogres in a guarded castle. King listens to her and asks Hank to go and make the women free. The name of the woman is Demoiselle Alisande de la Carteloise but Hank calls her Sandy. Hank is very much against the idea of going alone with a woman but he has no other option.
The next day he is asked to wear the battle armor which he is unable to wear and the knights help him to wear and the two people start their journey.
Chapter 12
On their way, Hank gets suffocated because of the scorching heat and the heat makes the metal armor boiling. The lady with him too is very much eager to speak and makes Hank frustrated.
Chapter 13
Somehow, Hank finds shelter for the night. Sandy spends the night under the shelter while Hank has to spend his night on the ground with insects swarming into his metal armor. For the food, he asks a group of freemen to share their food with him.
Chapter 14
Hank pays three pennies to a shopkeeper for breakfast. The farmer gives his pipe that releases smoke when lit.
On their way, Hank meets other knights but he asks them to go and appear before King Arthur.
Chapter 15
One their way, Sandy starts narrating a story but Hank sleeps in between her tales. He starts sleeping because her language is very archaic and the vocabulary is very limited.
Chapter 16
When they reach the castle, Hank sees that a Knight is coming out of the castle. He tells him that this is the castle of King Uriens and his wife Morgan Le Frey.
Hank knows that Morgan Le Frey is the half-sister of King Arthur and she is a cruel magician. They enter the castle and she is dealing with the guests. Hank deliberately throws a word about King Arthur and Morgan Le Frey gets angry but Sandy tells her that she should be cautioned because she is treating The Boss improperly. Morgan Le Fay gets surprised because she knows that The Boss has defeated Merlin as well.
Chapter 17
They are treated very well and are given royal feasting. One day, a woman comes and curses Morgan Le Fay, she gets angry and asks her to be hanged. Sandy tells Morgan Le Fay that she should not do that otherwise Hank will destroy her castle. She gets afraid and pardons the lady.
Morgan Le Fay takes her to prison and tells Hank about the prisoner that he has killed a hart but is not confessing the killing. Hank talks to him alone and gets to know that he is confessing because his property would be confiscated and he does not want his family to be without property. Hank gets impressed and releases the prisoner. He then sends him to Clarence.
Chapter 18
When Morgan Le Fay gets the news, she gets infuriated but she cannot do anything. Hank then goes around the dungeon and sets many of the prisoners free who are arrested for petty crimes.
Chapter 19
Hank and Sandy leave the castle and go for their destination to fight against ogres.
Chapter 20
They finally reach the castle of ogres. Hank sees it and comments it as a dirty castle. Sandy tells him that the castle is enchanted and he should take care of going into it.
Chapter 21
They stay in an inn to spend the night. There he learns that a group of pilgrims is going to the Valley of Holiness. One of his Knights, Sir Ozana comes and informs Hank that the miraculous fount has gone dried and the valley is praying for it. He also tells him that Merlin has come to the valley to put off the curse but is unable to do so.
Hank then asks him to go to Clarence and direct him to send trained experts and some material to the valley from the chemical department.
Chapter 22
Hank visits the fountain and observes that it is leaked that has dried the fountain. He then advertises the idea that it is a very difficult job and it needs great magic.
Chapter 23
Merlin announces that the water can never flow because it is enchanted. When Merlin is tired of trying, Hank comes and repairs the well with the help of his experts to amaze all the people who have come for a pilgrimage to the valley of Holiness.
Chapter 24
Hank comes to know that King Arthur is coming to the Valley of Holiness to see a miracle with his own eyes.
A magician comes and tells the people that he is a great magician. Hank challenges him and asks him to tell where King Arthur is and he answers that King Arthur is by the seaside. Hank tells him that he is coming here and King Arthur enters the valley.
Chapter 25
King Arthur wants to make a competitive army and Hank makes some improvements in this system as well.
Chapter 26
King gets to know that Hank is planning to go out to common people to know about their living and miseries. He also decides to accompany him. Hank introduces his minted nickels that are used to care for various patients. This practice saves the money of the kingdom as well.
Chapter 27
Hank cuts the hair of Arthur so that he cannot be recognized by the people. When they set out on a journey, Hank tells King Arthur that he can see in advance and can give him the information of 1300 years in advance. This amazes King Arthur.
On their way, they meet two knights, King out of his habit insults them and they start to fight against them but Hank throws a dynamite bomb at them to save the disguised Arthur.
Chapter 28
On their way, Hank teaches the King how to be polite and how to deal with the common people. He also teaches him to call the common people as friends. He also tells the King that they should eat together.
Chapter 29
They find a hut and there is a sick woman inside the hut. They diagnose it as a disease of smallpox. Hank wants to leave but King decides to help the lady. Her husband and girl are dead too. She then tells that her sons were put in prison by the lord and they could not harvest the land for the lord because of lack of people. Their own fields got neglected too. She then fell ill with the disease.
Chapter 30
The woman dies during the night. They then leave but hear the sound of approaching footsteps. They wait to see who is coming and witness that the sons of the woman have escaped. Arthur and Hank go away from the scene. They then reach the hut of a charcoal burner.
Chapter 31
The name of the charcoal-burner is Marco. They spend a night with him and the next day, Hank goes out with him to the shop and buys the provisions for food. The people are very much impressed with his wealth.
Chapter 32
On Sunday night, all the purchased stuff arrives at the hut of Marco. He along with his wife is unable to manage the stuff. When the son of the storekeeper prepares the bill, the people of the town almost faint with the amount but Hank gives a tip as well to the boy.
Chapter 33
Many of the people from the town are invited to dinner at Marco`s hut. The dinner is enjoyable and the men discuss many things. King Arthur has no interest in the discussion and he sleeps. During the conversation, the town people get suspicious of the identity of Hank and King Arthur.
Chapter 34
The men take them as traitors and try to kill them. King Arthur beats down. They run away to the bushes and hide on the tree. The chasers come and return because they are unable to find them. In the meanwhile, the chasers come and fire the woods. King Arthur and Hank come down the tree and surrender. The townsmen are about to kill them when a slave trader comes and takes them away to sell them in the nearby village. They do not have any option to prove anything and hence they go along with him.
Chapter 35
They are sold to another slave trader and he beats them very hard. King Arthur tells Hank that once the adventure is over, he is going to abolish slavery.
The weather is very cold. A woman runs to their master and asks for protection because a mob is following her. The mob arrives and the slave master tells them he is going to hand over the woman on the condition that they have to burn the woman on the spot. The woman is burnt and the slave master orders the slaves to warm themselves.
Chapter 36
The slaves are brought to London and Hank calls it a big village. They are about to be sold to another master. Hank wants to free himself and in the meanwhile, he fights against a man. He escapes from the master.
Chapter 37
Hank is worried about King Arthur. He also learns that others are finding him and once he is found all the slaves would be hanged. Hank sends a message to Clarence to send 500 Knights as soon as possible. He waits for the knights and gets caught in the meanwhile. He thinks that now there is now for them to be rescued by the Knights.
Chapter 38
They are brought for the death sentence. Hank announces that he is the boss and the other person is King Arthur. Nobody believes them. They are one by one brought to the stake. The turn of King Arthur comes and Hank tries to rescue them. Clarence and knights arrive on the bicycle.
Chapter 39
They return to the capitol. After a few days, there is an ad in the newspaper, in which Sir Sagramore has challenged Hank for a battle. Sir Sagramore employs the services of Merlin to have some spells and enchantments for the fight. Hank prepares himself and comes out to fight in a gymnastic uniform.
The fight begins and Merlin helps Sir Sagramore and leaves Hank unarmed. King Arthur grows tensed and requests Sir Sagramore to get Hank a weapon but he refuses. Hank then shouts that all the Knights must come at him once and when they all pace, he starts firing them with the revolver. The knights soon surrender and Hank stands victorious.
Chapter 40
Three years pass and a process of modernization starts. Hank setups many new schools, factories, and industries. He also makes new inventions.
Hank marries Sandy. And they have a son Hello-Central. He falls ill and the doctor advises him to take the family to the sea for the rest. He then heads towards the French coast and then to England to have some fresh supplies.
Chapter 41
His ship does not come and he leaves the family in France and moves to England. When he lands he finds that everything is deserted and there is an Interdict. He then moves to Camelot to find Clarence.
Chapter 42
He explains to Hank that after he left, they faced a war. King Arthur gets killed in the war. The church has taken control of the country. They are now searching Hank to kill him and destroy everything Hank has built. Clarence also tells him that there are only sixty Knights on his side.
Chapter 43
Hank and Clarence hide in the cave. His people are afraid because the whole country is against them. Hank blasts the area and makes a ditch. He also sets an electric fence and when the army rushes at them they get killed on the fence. Afterwards, he fires at them and the remaining army has to hide in the ditch. Hank then orders his men to let the streaming flood flow to the ditch and this kills the remaining army of the church. The battle gets over and they become the masters of England.
Chapter 44
Hank is stabbed by a Knight but the wound is not very serious. Merlin comes as a nurse in disguise to nurse Hank. She tells them that Hank is not going to wake up. He will wake up after thirteen hundred years. Merlin touches on the fence and dies. The rest of them escape because the church starts to make another army against them.
Chapter 45
The scene now shifts to modern England. Mark Twain has ended the story of Hank Morgan.
Background of the Novel
A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur`s Court is written by Mark Twain. It was published in 1889. The original title of the book was A Yankee in King Arthur`s Court. Twain got interested in Arthurian tales because he read an edition of Morte D’Arthur by Thomas Malory. Twain got the idea in December 1884. He started working on it between 1885 -1889. The draft was completed at Hartford, Connecticut. It was published for the first time in England by Chatto and Windus. The title was A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur. This is the last novel written by Mark Twain.
Overview
In the book, a Yankee from Connecticut named Hank Morgan gets an extreme hit to the head and some way or another moves past to England during the rule of King Arthur. After some underlying disarray and is caught by one of Arthur’s knights. Hank understands that he is in the very past. He utilizes his insight to cause individuals to accept that he is an incredible magician.
He endeavors to modernize the past so as to improve the lives of people. However, at long last he can’t forestall the demise of Arthur and a ban against him by the Catholic Church of the time, which becomes dreadful of his capacity.
Setting
Like most stories including time travel and authentic histories, this novel mistreats topography and history. The tale utilizes both land and recorded settings, encircled in one time and spot and occurring principally in another. Geographically, the novel opens and ends in and around Warwick Castle, England. The Castle is a place of interest, and the storyteller Mark Twain probably meets the chief character, Hank Morgan, while touring. Hank Morgan imparts his story to the storyteller in Warwick Castle and in his lodging.
The novel happens over one and a half days. Generally, this outside edge is set in nineteenth-century England.
The majority of the action of this novel happens in the notable Camelot of the 6th century and in and around both the English and European countryside. Hank Morgan professes to have lived before. Camelot is an old city with sustained palaces, comfortable motels, and verdant peaceful scenes. The individuals are based in developments, having not many of the extravagances of nineteenth-century England. Camelot presents the court of the notable King Arthur, where gallant knights, maidens in trouble, and poor subjects live helplessly before the King and the Church.
The Orthodox Catholic Church dictates the rules that everyone must follow and has set up the “Divine right of Kings”. The sovereignty lives in extravagance, while the poor man battles to live in peace. The hero of the novel, Hank Morgan, winds up continually contrasting Camelot to the industrialized and mechanically propelled country of the nineteenth century. The tale is essentially a juxtaposition of the old and the new, the unadulterated, and the developed. Hank Morgan tries attempting to change Camelot into a developed country.
Context of the Novel
The Gilded Age
During the last part of the nineteenth century, when the Civil war got finished, America encountered a blast in assembling that launched it into position as one of the world’s financial pioneers.
Around the time of development, fortunes were made. The railways, which were extended over the landmass, and the phone, designed in 1876, made the development across the national enterprises. With these dissemination and correspondence systems, organizations had the option to arrive at business sectors anyplace in the land. Millions were made in the fields of steel, transporting, retailing with inventory deals, and oil. The rich ways of life of society’s elite made the period by the name the Gilded Age, an articulation coined by Mark Twain in the title of an 1871 book.
Tragically, just a little segment of the populace was appreciating such riches. Quite a bit of society was enduring in destitution during the Gilded Age. A surge of outsiders drove compensation down, and rustic Americans rushed to the urban communities, which couldn’t give occupations to all. With the blast in assembling, apartments emerged, and with them the unsanitary conditions that spread ailments. Exploiting the liberality of the well off and the obliviousness of the majority of new voters, government officials became corrupted.
It was out of this period where the maltreatment of modest, extra work empowered just a couple of people to turn out to be unfathomably affluent that America’s work development emerged.
Characters Analysis
Hank Morgan
He is the protagonist of the novel. He is basically a factory manager. With a practical mind, he doesn’t care for meaningless feelings. He is a clever person, whose thoughts dominate the whole story. He tells the tale and relates it to the past. He is a thoughtful and simple person. He has an outstanding knowledge of the past. He is talkative and his company is relaxing and joyful.
Hank is gifted with a strong sense of good and evil. He supports and acknowledges the American dream. His democratic thoughts compel him to go against chivalry. He constantly wants to disintegrate it. His aversion for chivalry appears because he is a strong believer of the republic. He detests aristocracy. He hates the knighthood and its codes. Being a man of democratic thoughts he promotes education, for it is an important ingredient of civilized society.
With all his extraordinary features of personality, Hank is also a patriot. As he is influenced by American models, he wants to grab them in England in order to eliminate its injustice and inequality.
Through the vote, he gets the title of Boss. This title polishes his ability and encourages him to work further for the welfare of England. Hank`s all enforcements are made to uplift the standard of common people. He eliminates ignorance and brings the wave of justice and truth which vanishes slavery. To glorify England, he takes seven years. According to the novel, within a certain time, he brings prosperity and happiness.
He builds many schools and colleges. Printing of newspapers is made to abolish illiteracy, which leads to end the slavery. Law is enforced which counts each individual equally.
The second aspect of his personality is his skill in engineering. He solves problems easily and uses easy methods of comprehending the issues. Hank teaches knights how to become a constructive part of society. In the end, Hank is highly criticized and all his works are destroyed. Twain, by the virtue of Hank’s personality, describes that most enlightened personalities fail to remove ignorance.
Twain highlights the point that this weaponry and arms are going to destroy the humans and humanity from this world. Towards the end of the novel, Hank is nostalgic for the sixth century Camelot because the people of that era are far away from this hazardous technology that eliminates mankind in the blink of an eye.
Clarence
Clarence’s life starts as a page in the court of Arthur. He is a thin boy with lobster color. He befriends Hank and is highly influenced by his personality. He gets assistance from Hank and later becomes his right hand. He quickly learns all the tactics and tricks of Hank. He is a supportive character to Hank. He helps him in building schools, colleges, and factories. He is a friendly boy but has no shine in his personality as the other subjects of King Arthur.
Hank educates Clarence and soon he appears as an intellectual and creative engineer. His transformed personality helps Hank in all his enforcements. He is the most supportive and loyal character in Hank’s journey. It is Hank that helps Hank and King Arthur to come out of the danger of slavery in London when they are about to be killed. Clarence in the end appears to hope for hank when he falls in an enchanted sleep.
Merlin
Twain does not spend much time describing Merlin’s character. Marlin is an old man with a white beard and wears a black gown. He is a greedy natured man and a magician of King Arthur’s court. His hatred against Hank makes him the villain of this novel. He does not practice real magic and throughout the story, combat appears between Hank and Merlin.
The main problem between the two is Merlin’s over superstitious nature. Hank with his practical approach always hits him. Merlin tries all his nonsense magic on Yankee who does not believe in all that. He even tries to repair the fountain in the Valley of Holiness but he is unable to do so because he is more practical with the things. Merlin uses abusive language against him when Hank is not around. Merlin is a satiric character whom Twain presents the whole ignorant world that Hank wants to alter but he fails in the end.
Sandy (Demoiselle Alisande de la Carteloise)
Sandy is the girlfriend of Hank with whom he gets married and they have two kids as well. She is a sweet and pretty girl. She talks too much that reveals her soft heart. She loves Hank because he rescues the women from Ogre’s family. The women become pigs and Sandy never stops honoring them. She is also a superstitious girl and when she is given facts of those ladies who become pigs, she gives reasoning for them.
She uses long sentences. And her sentences never reach the end. She uses the old language of the same Arthurian writers. She is a great supporter of Hank and for her devotedness, Hank ignores her many weaknesses. According to Hank, she has a simple heart that attracts him. She is also a foolish girl but Hank’s last words show how much her loyalty means to him.
King Arthur
Arthur is the ruler of Britain. He is a decent and elegant man but Hank negates his intelligence and smartness. According to Hank, he respects him as a person but not a dictator. Arthur is an embodiment of his age. He likes nobility. He treats his subjects with prejudice.
Arthur is a receptive personality who can be changed and Hank works for it with the help of Clarence. Arthur Hank ends slavery and gives advantages to peasants. He soon gets influenced by Hanks’ enchanting personality. He is inspired by Hank as his decision making and opinions. Arthur becomes a good person and recovers all his mistakes. He dies at the end of the story.
Sir Kay
Kay is a stepbrother of Arthur. He hates Hank and supports the same purpose of Sagramore. He is a mean person who does not think for others. He is a jerk and speaks funny stories about how he traps Hank. One thing that differentiates Key from others is his brave nature. He is not the same idiot as the knights of Arthur’s court. Though Kay has many heroic qualities, his evil nature and his selfishness give him the same category of other foolish knights.
Sir Sagramore
Sagramore is a knight. He hates Hank. He condemns all his codes of chivalry. He asks Hank for a duel. He is always ready to kill Hank. Sagramore also uses Merlin for his dirty purposes.
He is a short-tempered and an arrogant person. He is the representation of all the corruption of the Arthurian era. Hank defeats him in the end and with his fall all his class goes down. Human slaughtering stops and supremacy ends.
Sir Dinadan
Dinadan is also a knight with the same personality as Kay and Sagramore. He is the monster of the story. He mostly appears at the dinner table. He speaks pointless and meaningless stories and attempts pranks which he thinks to be joyful. He is a comic relief of the novel. Hank kills him at the end.
Morgan le Fay
Historically, she is the most dangerous villain of Arthurian stories. She is the half-sister of Arthur. She destroys the kingdom of Arthur. She is not a charming character but an evil soul. Twain portrays her in the most serious tone according to history because she is all trouble.
Sir Launcelot
Sir Launcelot is a good man and performs good deeds. He is not like other knights of the story. He helps Hank many times. Once he rescues Arthur and Hank on cycle. During the duel between Hank and Sir Sagramore, he gives a weapon to Hank. Being a knight he never helps Sagramor in his selfish interests and accepts the defeat of Sagramore with full grace of knighthood.
Guinevere
Guinevere is a queen of the kingdom. Her history shows she sleeps with Sir Launcelot which brings her not only a disgrace but also a miserable condition for King Arthur.
The Narrator
The Narrator does not have a role in the story; he appears as a tourist and conversant with Hank. He narrates the traits of Hank. He then comes at the end to witness the death of Hank. In the closing section of the novel, he is given the name of M.T which shows that he is Twain himself.
Themes in the Novel
Britain vs. America
The complexities between Europe and America are at the core of this novel. To Twain, Europe approaches the past that is attached to customs, overloaded with rules and desires and history, and incapable to acclimate to current perspectives. America is the future that is grasping innovation, opportunity, and the capacity to transform oneself through one’s own undertakings. Twain remembers some subtlety for this correlation.
For instance, he recognizes the dark side of innovation, indicating how it makes it simple to rapidly murder numerous individuals with nineteenth-century weapons. Furthermore, Hank Morgan, his agent American, develops to value the honorable hearts of Camelot. A respectable heart might possibly go with an honorable title, yet King Arthur, Sir Launcelot, and Sandy all become essential to Hank.
Twain dedicates a lot of time in the novel to recognizing the manners by which Hank finds the sixth century confused or backward people. Twain doesn’t inconvenience himself with separating between the sixth and the nineteenth hundreds of years without question. Twain may in any case have been stinging from Matthew Arnold’s analysis in his book Civilization in the United States (1888).
Arnold reprimanded Americans largely and Twain specifically for an absence of adoration for the past. Hank feels no veneration by any means. He is in a rush to get things back to an increasingly agreeable and impartial game plan.
In addition to the fact that Twain objects to the social classes and monarchical administration of European nations, yet he means to deglamorize European writing. Arthurian legends, for example, Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur and Sir Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe are especially famous in nineteenth-century America. While Twain delights in the stories, he likewise plainly enjoys utilizing this book to cut a portion of the exquisite folklore about medieval life.
Twain places a decision in favor of American writing, trusting his American legend will face the British knights and win the heart of the readers. He is especially angry about Sir Walter Scott and Ivanhoe.
Valiant and sentimental babble like Ivanhoe adds to a portion of the folklore around the Southern lifestyle and the Act of futility fantasies about the Civil War. Confederates utilized these fantasies to introduce themselves as chivalrous, knight-like figures shielding their little fiefdoms. Twain is energetic about Sir Walter disease, as he calls it in Life on the Mississippi (1883). In this manner, he enjoys the incredible artistic creation of Camelot as totally different from Scott’s noble and articulate condition.
Slavery
Through this novel, Twain shows his own reaction against slavery he presents medieval ages and the mindset of ignorant people who are not capable of any change. People of Arthur’s time are enslaved not only physically but also mentally. The people in this story are not free to use their lands for their own benefits. They cannot marry according to their wishes and cannot migrate. They are bound to their lords for each necessity of life.
Hank with his liberal thoughts hates slavery and wants to put that to an end. He wants everyone to get freedom and live their lives according to their will.
Twain explains slavery as nothing but the ignorance of people. Slavery is not imposed rather it is made by themselves. In the end, he again gives the same massage of slavery with the abolishment of Hanks’s development to free enchained people.
Follies and Foolishness
Twain shows the follies of human beings that are the reason for their slavery and injustice they face. In England, every person is foolish and taking benefits of foolish people which they consider as their real victory. These are human follies that do not allow them to see the light of hope and change.
The character of Merlin is a great example of human follies who does not accept the dominating nature and mind of hank which actually Hank adopts for the wellbeing of human beings. Though within seven years Hank develops all the country, foolish people do not understand their own goodness and in the end, all the development stops and vanishes.
Patriotism
Through the theme of patriotism Twain differentiates between real heroes and greedy ones. Those who think about the developments and welfare of the individuals and promote patriotism in its true sense to serve the whole nation are the real heroes. There are some with lusty nature, not only damage their own selves but bring catastrophe on a huge level. Hank, with a strong horizon of mind, wants to develop the whole nation. He puts industries to improve economic position, builds the infrastructure of the educational system.
These reforms improve the way of thinking to abolish slavery and ignorance of chivalric thought. All his actions are the real picture of a patriotic hero. Hank loves his country and his people which is the sign of nationality contrary to those selfish ones who just want to gain their personal interests. Merlin and some other characters are harmful characters. They instead of supporting Hank and his goodwill negate his ideas and try their best to destroy the well being. These people are anti-nationalist.
Society and Class
This novel deals with two different classes. It deals with the medieval age rulers and the peasants. The elite and the nobility remain dominant. Both classes are shown with their different attitudes. Nobles are arrogant, selfish, brutish, and self-centered. The class of peasants is suppressed and ignorant; it is uneducated and enchained in slavery by their masters.
Yankee sees the great differences between them. The suppressed class does not have a hold on their lives. They for their basic necessities look to their lords. Their minor actions need the permission of their masters. Twain’s representation of class difference highlights the cause of slavery.
Wisdom and Knowledge
Wisdom and knowledge is the most important theme of this novel. Twain presents the importance of knowledge which modifies wisdom and develops one’s life. Twain presents this theme through the character of Hank who appears to be an educated man. Hank deals with difficult and complex problems in England.
His wisdom compels him to help needy people. He wants to end slavery which is the main cause of human suffering. Through industries, Hank uplifts the economic position of England. To abolish ignorance he establishes many schools and colleges.
Hank uses his wisdom on a larger scale to remove the hard state of the people of England. He is a well-educated man which makes him a wise person.
Technology and Modernization
Hank’s knowledge and wisdom are the symbols of technology and modernization. In the novel, the life of medieval people gradually develops and gains positive waves as they get technological advancements. Engineering skills of Hank help a lot for the suppressed class. Industries remove hand labor as well as improve the economy of England. Schools educate the lower class and bring the light of hope for them.
While discussing the benefits of technology, Twain also shows its disadvantages. In the battle of the sand bar, misuse of technology is revealed. It causes the death of so many people. Through this novel, Twain delivers a message as the use of technology develops life but it is equally harmful in the hand of those who misuse it to achieve their personal interests and do not care for innocent people.
Superstitions
Superstition negates rationality and it controls the human mind by giving it fears. In this novel witchcraft and black magic are also used to control the human mind. Merlin is a magician of Arthur’s court who does not like Hank for his reasoning and rational thinking. Twain shows in this novel how superstition is used to give fear and stop their thinking process which is one of the causes of their slavery.
Catholicism
Hank is the follower of American models and hates the overruling of the church over common lives. Catholicism has its roots in history. As the novel rejects the model of middle ages it also opposes unwanted control of church which uses religion for its accomplishments.
The Bible, during the Middle Ages, is misinterpreted. Before the invention of the printing press, each individual was manipulated in the name of religion. Purposely the church rejects scientific inventions and discoveries for its own profits. Similarly, when Hank abolishes slavery by introducing education, the church asks him to stops his progress and asks him to destroy it.
Training vs. Nature
This theme centers all the satires of this novel. Twain shows that the power of inherent nature can never be changed. Hank thinks by giving good training to ignorant people he can improve their lifestyle and their way of thinking which is the cause of their slavery and injustice of society. He gives them technological advancements, economic developments, and most importantly educational institutes to build their mind but he fails to stop them from the superstitions of the church. Their nature also develops Hank as a dictator in the end and his dream of peace becomes a dream of destruction.
Injustice and Inequality
Twain by representing the suppressed class highlights the theme of injustice and inequality in this novel. Nothing can make someone slave but his own acceptance of slavery. In this novel, the oppressed class faces inequality and injustice because it blindly follows the rules and power of the church and the ruling class. In return, these dominating forces exploit the lower class for their personal gains.
Literary Analysis
Two Inconsistencies in the Novel
A Connecticut Yankee has been alluded to as Twain’s most sublime disappointment. Although it is not a complete failure, yet what has upset numerous critics is the way that the novel contains two significant concerns and these worries appear to repudiate one another.
The first inconsistency happens when Hank Morgan, a person living in the modern era of Nineteenth-Century, is tossed into the 6th century, where he deploys his Yankee resourcefulness and innovativeness to evacuate the uncouth numbness and superstitions of that heartless and shameful world. He should illuminate and improve these blameless individuals using his aptitudes and the creations and political perspectives on his time. At long last, he fails and devastates wonderful human progress (Camelot) that existed so calmly and ideally before his appearance.
The second inconsistency happens upon Morgan’s arrival in the nineteenth century. In the last part, the readers hear him causing a ruckus; his deathbed wish is to be allowed to come back to his Camelot, his lost land, and his companions. He needs to be allowed to come back to all that is cherished. His last desire is to rejoin Sandy, and their youngster, Hello-Central. At the point when he feels that he holds her, he imagines that everything is great: Everything is harmony, and he is cheerful once more.
Therefore, every judgment against Camelot, each cruel explanation concerning the states of Camelot, each judgment rendered against the whole medieval society of 6th century England and every other protest are repudiated by Hank Morgan’s nostalgic longings to come back to that cheerful and blameless land.
We have two unique perspectives in this novel. The first is Twain’s own judgments of specific parts of primitive England. The second is Hank Morgan’s nostalgic yearning for the magnificence of an unadulterated, straightforward, and guiltless society. This is outlined in the novel from multiple points of view. There are long questioning diversions against knight-errantry, and close by these deviations, Twain explains the positive, chivalric honorability of Sir Launcelot. We hear different judgments against the idea of government, including the possibility that when two individuals are dressed the same, nobody can differentiate between an average person and an imperial personage.
In inconsistency, Hank Morgan continually emphasizes the way that it can’t hide the fact that King Arthur has imperial blood and a soul that can’t be lowered or brought to the burden. In this manner, the novel is regularly alluded to as a glorious disappointment. Twain’s social analysis is splendid and pointed; Hank Morgan’s perspective on Camelot, in any case, doesn’t concur with the reactions which Twain levels against Camelot and its foundations.
Modern Man: A Symbol of Destruction
Twain’s enduring example is the tale of the advancement of present-day development over feudalism, witnessed and impelled by an American time-traveler. It is a record of the valid justifications for this advancement, of the gifts which it brings, and of the fulfillment delighted in by the individuals who feel answerable for its triumphant walk. It is the introduction of modernity into a small amount of life expectancy.
The protagonist is Hank Morgan who is an agreeable youngster from Connecticut, blessed with the characterizing sensibilities. Having provoked a colleague who hits him with a crowbar sufficiently hard to send him to the Middle Ages, he comes into the darkness of primitive England. This Camelot is a place of practically incomprehensible cruelty. Hank finds servitude, poverty, obliviousness, cruelty, and a governing class set portraying incompetence. The honest people are in jail while the ruling class is not even interested in the poor.
He gets impressed with these issues; Hank accepts that and thinks that he is an educated man with a modern man so he should help these people. He attempts to fabricate an educational framework, support inventions, build up a free press, and improve transportation, and decrease suffering and foul play.
The book finishes up with the enormous demise and obliteration brought on when Hank’s changes meet with brutal civil war. Hank’s following, which increases since his appearance, falls at last, and just fifty-four young men stay faithful to him. They are as enough to murder twenty-five thousand knights. However, at long last, the Yankee’s changes are undone and every one of his processing plants obliterated.
He and his couple of supporters stay encompassed by three circles of bodies, and they infer that they will die in the event that they leave their defensive border. Fervor and fulfillment at their underlying triumphs offer a path to the acknowledgment that these heroes have now conquered. A great part of the novel seems, by all accounts, to be a festival of change, progress, and Yankee`s creativity, the end is unmistakably otherwise.
Hank is a hopeful individual, slow to complain, and engaged in present-day accommodation. He thinks that all issues can be comprehended logically and he thinks that he can solve all the problems of Camelot. He is focused on the republican government, present-day science and innovation and open papers to make information accessible to all.
Intuitively disinclined to human torment, his heart goes out to victims of foul play and malady. He undergoes risk for good purposes, for example, the freedom of treacherously oppressed detainees and the instruction of the lord.
He is shocked by the treacheries of rule by a stupid privileged and a degenerate set up Church. He accepts that the individuals of this dull age are to be excused for their habits and in any event, for their cold-bloodedness. At some point, he sees that it is absurd to anticipate that they should join him quickly to oppose the organizations and rules that have formed their lives. A large number of his ameliorative estimates he starts stealthily because he realizes that they will resist them.
Hank’s aspiration ascends to the surface every once in a while, and he admits a craving to control England. Because of his shrewdness and his fitness for political theater, he organized himself to have himself selected as the prime minister of King Arthur. He considers himself to be a passionate protector of reason and common sense. Besides, Hank seems willing and ready to abridge his desire both in reverence to the current ruler and out of a conviction that constraining the official force is vital for the acceptable government.
Hank and his advanced standards absolutely don’t bear full duty regarding the horrendous unforeseen development. The last catastrophe happens before the Civil war among the Knights of the Round Table. The Civil war breaks out while the Yankee is out of the nation and one which is battled out with indecencies and weapons that are completely customary. Keeping in mind that the knights are executing each other in their own way, the Church holds onto the chance to reassert its position.
It might be hard to envision that anyone in the nineteenth century is particularly stressed over the dangers of weapons of mass decimation, even of moderately rough ones, yet towards the end of the novel, these dangers are insightfully uncovered. Twain’s evaluation of bondage, nobility, and superstition is coordinated by a similarly genuine study of the brutal capability of current innovation. The Yankee’s fifty-four stalwarts are outfitted with a blend of incredible present-day weapons and called to fight.
While they don’t wish to annihilate their own country, they are calmed to learn they will obliterate just the 30,000 knights. When Hank closes his motivational speech by saying until one of these Knights stays alive, their assignment isn’t done, the war isn’t finished. They have to execute them all. This advanced weaponry is brutalizing even to the individuals who employ it.
These incredible weapons have a risky relationship with democratic standards, for they empower the few to execute many. Brought into being so as to help a development ostensibly given to a republic and to the rules that all men are precisely equivalent, the Yankee’s weaponry is employed in the absolute notion of the country and turns into an extraordinary un-equalizer.
It is a grave incongruity that the upheaval for the benefit of republican standards is constrained forward by a small unit of committed and equipped devotees. Anxious to free the society of backwardness, the Yankee’s transformation gets ready to grasp even ruthless intentions to do as such. The enthusiasm for progress consumes in certain hearts with the power religion does in others.
Connecticut Yankee is normally pursued as a festival of the triumph of innovation and an assault on wistful connection to the past. Hank is attempting to manufacture a superior world and has the right to be appreciated for his endeavors. What’s more, if there is murkiness in advancement, there are flickers of light in the Dark Ages.
Indeed, even the Yankee is influenced by the honorable culture, coming to be upset by the lowbrow tone of the paper he established. He never thinks in such enlarged terms as the right of the people to know. In any case, Hank feels that something is lost when such a challenge and crash turns into a significant impact on open taste.
The Yankee and his writer both denounce the foul play and superstition of Arthurian England, and we may go along with them in cheering current freedom and progress. Then again, with the gifts of modern age bring incredible dangers. Neglectful of these dangers, the Yankee pulverizes Camelot, companions, and enemies the same, without monitoring what he is doing.
However, with Twain’s notice, we are most certainly not. Blending incredible innovations unreflecting with present-day belief systems makes for a harmful mix. Keeping in mind that our innocent positive thinking and fair tastes can be enchanting, they may not get the job done to fight off decimation.
Sandy as a Social Guide of Hank
Sandy is a character of the novel who needs the attention of the readers. She starts as simply a disturbance to Hank as he starts his knight-errantry, however in the long run demonstrates her incentive to him by going about as a sort of social guide. At the point when he beats a few knights in a fight, Sandy diverts them for him and sends them off to King Arthur’s court in Hank’s name.
Hank starts to have respect for Sandy’s utilization of language, his contempt going to applaud when he guarantees as it comes upon him that he was remaining in the horrendous nearness of the Mother of the German Language. In the long run, Sandy turns into an affectionate enthusiasm for Hank, yet this just happens as a result of her undaunted devotion to him.
Along these lines, in light of a legitimate concern for respectability, Hank orchestrates a wedding. Generally, Sandy appears to portray the misanthropic feelings of Hank. Because of Hank’s gradually changing disposition toward Sandy, and on account of the multiple occasions he flips to and fro between appreciating and being embarrassed about her, Sandy should most likely portray Hank’s very own externalized variant clashing passionate development.
This guess is bolstered by Sandy supplanting Puss as Hank’s lover. Hank absorbs the 6th century; he develops perceptually and grows out of his craving for Puss. Sandy, going about as a substitution, gives Hank the perfect comradeship. In any case, similarly, as Hank is torn away from Puss, he is torn away from Sandy, by Merlin.
Merlin and Morgan Le Fay`s Case
Merlin and Morgan le Fay encounter the readers with abnormal cases. Neither one of the characters appears to be ready to remain on their own without Hank, yet neither speaks to anything great about human instinct, recommending that they figure rather darker parts of the legend. For instance, Merlin’s capacity in the realm lays on his confidence in the superstitions of people.
Despite the fact that Hank claims to loathe this kind of thoughtless ineptitude, he takes part in it himself by obscuring the sun with his capacity. He also explodes Merlin’s pinnacle and fixes the well with an enchantment that ends up being just roman candles. Merlin presents Hank’s essential conundrum. He typifies the very thing Hank needs to see crushed in his bloodless insurgency. But then Hank depends on indistinguishable control over the individuals from the magician so as to establish that revolution.
Ironically, it is Merlin who bargains with Hank for his last blow in the 6th century, recommending that Hank’s inability to be a superior man than his adversaries is the thing that in the end wrecks him.
Morgan le Fay presents a similarly odd case. Hank’s name appears to suggest a type of association between them. Morgan Fay represents the evil side of Hank Morgan. Her quality in the book appears to recommend a type of division in Hank’s mind, or maybe she rather anticipate his later brutalities. Morgan le Fay motivates Hank’s discourse with respect to the amount of a man is himself, and what amount is acquired.
Hank is by all accounts pardoning Morgan le Fay and in himself, of each grievous wrongdoing that has been or will be submitted starting now and into the foreseeable future time in the novel. By pardoning her, he liberates himself to keep utilizing Merlin’s alarm strategies so as to run Camelot.
Structure of the Plot
Twain has been blamed for the structure, or absence of structure in this novel. In the broadest term, the story has a reasonable structure, start, and end with the speaker, Twain, visiting England, at that point presenting the character of the Yankee and afterward sinking into the story that the Yankee has worked out, which takes up a large portion of the book. The book comes back to Twain towards the end and at that point, Yankee dies as well.
Inside the story of Yankee, the consistency is very little. Plot components start and end erratically, the entry and return of the characters are with no notice, and long scenes helpfully emerge similarly as others end. The most terrible of these irregularities is the way that the character of Sandy vanishes from the story sometime around the Restoration of the Fountain, and afterward returns, shockingly, in excess of a hundred pages later, as the wife of Hank Morgan.
The plot’s irregularities, and its portioned position, are ascribed to the way that Twain composed this novel in segments, through the span of three years. Rather than having natural solidarity in the plot it does not have because of the reason that each part is edited separately. The last product mirrors a developing comprehension of the ramifications of what began as a light dream.
