Introduction

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court was the last of Twain's novels written during the apex of his career. As a work it shows his more mature writing, hinting at some of the cynical and dark themes that he would obsess over in his final years. He thought it would be his last book, but he went on to write many more stories and novelettes. Twain had developed an interest in the Arthurian canon after a friend gave him an edition of the medieval Morte D'Arthure of Thomas Malory around 1884. While widely recognized as a satire, Twain himself wrote that "the story isn't a satire peculiarly, it is more especially a contrast." After all, what would it satirize? a bygone legendary era whose characters may have never existed? Twain writes in the preface, "The ungentle laws and customes touched upon in this tale are historical"? but they are not necessary of the 6th century or even necessarily about England. Instead, the scenes of pathos and injustice become generalized as contradictions and faults of human behavior throughout the ages is contrasted against the modern man's view of himself and his enlightened age. For example, the slavery scenes of the book most likely never existed in Britain at all, but they are true to life descriptions of Russian serfdom as well as American slavery in the South. Of the protagonist, Hank the Yankee, Twain writes that he is modern, knowledgeable but is nonetheless "an ignoramus." His voice is not necessarily Twain's, and Twain uses his self-assured, strong willed American to criticize modern society's penchant for destructive progress. Twain at the time of the book already growing more cynical of man's capacity to act sensibly, injects A Connecticut Yankee with a dark prophecy of the political faults he saw in his own time. As the Yankee grows in power and conviction that his way is the best way, he becomes more totalitarian, more violent and less in control of his circumstances until the only way out is a war of mass destruction. However, like Huckleberry Finn, A Connecticut Yankee was not popular or remembered for its darker undercurrents, but for its brilliant and glistening imagination, witty invention and forthright American storytelling. Full of the contradictions of right and wrong that certainly plagued Twain in his later years, the novel of "contrasts" enjoys the love of children more than of the adults it often criticized.

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Summary

The story is told in a frame format.‹Twain meets a stranger while touring Warwick Castle, England, who presents him with a manuscript of his memoirs. The stranger is Hank Morgan, a Connecticut factory superintendent and self declared "Yankee of the Yankees" who fights with one of his men, Hercules, and is knocked out when he is hit in the head with a crowbar. He awakes to find himself in a bucolic landscape being charged by a knight in armor. Hank is taken prisoner by Sir Kay, the seneschal of Arthur's court and brought to Camelot. Thinking that he has landed in an asylum , Hank goes along with his captor, determined to escape or "run the show." He enters Arthur's court and meets a garrulous paige named Clarence who immediately befriends him and tells him that it is the year 528. Hank decides to test if this statement is true by waiting for a solar eclipse that is supposed to occur on the 21st of June, two days away. When he is presented as Kay's prisoner, he is described as a horrible ogre and sentenced to die. Hank concocts the lie that he is a great and terrible magician, and will blot out the sun if he is not released. When Clarence reports his lie to the King, they decide to execute him a day earlier than they had planned. When Hank is taken to the stake he thinks that it is only the twentieth and that his bluff has backfired. But when the sun begins to blacken under the shadow of the eclipse, he jumps on the opportunity and majestically claims that he is responsible for the calamity. The crowd and court panic, agreeing to make Hank the king's executor in exchange for the sun.Hank immediately uses his new position of power to institute modern conveniences and structures that he was accustomed to in Connecticut and to bring 19th c. civilization to 6th c. England. He sets up clandestine schools, factories and works hidden from the eyes of the Church, which he fears above everything else. Hank also undermines Merlin's influence on the people by exploding his tower and relegating him to obscurity. Hank takes on the title, The Boss, signifying his role as person who will run the country and direct it into modernity.As Hank reviews a tournament, he mutters an insult at the court clown that is heard by another of Arthur's knights. Sir Sagramore challenges Hank to armed combat to occur after he has quested for the Holy Grail for about four years. During this time, Hank carefully incubates his civilization. Towards the end of the period, Arthur sends the Yankee on a quest of adventures to gain merit and honor before meeting Sir Sagramore in combat. To do this, Hank is assigned a damsel named Alisande (whom he calls Sandy) to help her rescue some forty maidens from a castle ruled by ogres. Having no choice but to ride with her, he dons armor and sets off from Camelot. The task of wearing the armor proves to be almost impossible as he spends hot days and cold nights encased in the heavy hardware. He needs to be lifted onto his horse and despairs at not having pockets.The pair encounter adventures of a comic sort, such as vanquishing challenger knights with the smoke from Hanks pipe, to meeting up with Hank's "missionary knights" who peddle soap, stove polish and toothbrushes around the country.Along the way, they also see many pitiable episodes of abuse and injustice, and Hank sets a dungeon full of prisoners free when he encounters them in Morgan Le Fay's castle. Finally Hank

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and Sandy reach the object of their task‹the ogre's castle. It is no more than a pigsty, and its captives hogs.After 'liberating the castle,' Hank sets off for the Valley of Holiness to restore a fountain that has suddenly stopped flowing. He telephones Camelot and tells Clarence (his now trusty sidekick) to send him chemicals and supplies to perform the "miracle." Hank knows that Merlin is already in the Valley making a magical attempt to restore the waters, and Hank plays up the opportunity to embarrass Merlin while elevating his status with the people. When he successfully restores the fountain‹a mere leaky well‹with fireworks and drama, he is an instant hero. Hank next decides to leave the talkative Sandy in the Valley while he travels through the countryside incognito to see how the people live. King Arthur thinks it is a splendid idea and decides to go too. The pair fall into all sorts of mishaps since Arthur knows nothing about being a humble peasant and shows it. Hank constantly has to look out for him and even throws a bomb at two knights who charged at the disguised king.In their travels, the King and his Minister meet with a downtrodden and oppressed people. Day after day they see heartbreaking scenes of death and injustice. The King proves to be a noble hearted man with genuine compassion for his subjects; in the book's most melodramatic scene, he braves exposure to smallpox to carry a dying girl to her mother. During this time, Hank grows to respect Arthur for his character, even though philosophically, he detests the idea of monarchy.After a fight with some townsmen, Hank and Arthur are taken by an earl and sold into slavery against their will. During a month of horrible subjugation and suffering, Hank and Arthur travel from town to town as the lowest subjects in the kingdom. Arthur declares that he will abolish slavery as soon as he returns to his position, and a heartened Hank sets his mind to work for their escape. The chain-gang arrives in London and Hank spots a telegraph wire of one of his subordinates on a rooftop. He gets the idea of beating their master after everyone has gone to sleep and escaping into London to contact Camelot. His plan backfires however, when he is unable to free Arthur and must flee alone. Instead of beating his owner, Hank accidentally fights with a peasant in the dark and lands in jail for the night. The next morning, he hears news that the slaves had tried to escape and in the process, killed their master. Once the missing slave, Hank, was found, the whole lot was to be hanged. Hank telegraphs Camelot and tells Clarence to send Launcelot to their rescue.Hank is caught trying to buy a costume and the execution is set to take place before Launcelot and his knights can reach London in time. Just as the sheriffs place a noose around Arthur's neck, Hank spies an amazing sight‹Launcelot and 500 knights streaming into the square on bicycles. The day is saved in a ridiculous and spectacular show‹just as Hank wanted it.Upon his return to Camelot, the Yankee receives notice that Sir Sagramore has returned and has set a date for their combat. The battle is to take place in front of the court and spectators, and the combatants are to bring the weapons of their choice. Sir Sagramore enters the lists with 'magical' armor and tools created by Merlin while Hank comes in gymnast tights and a lasso. He succeeds in tying Sir Sagramore and eight other knights, but Merlin steals his lariat through sleight of hand and Sir Sagramore challenges him again. This time, Hank pulls out a pistol and kills all challengers. After his ninth casualty, the knights of the Round Table back down and cede him supremacy. For Hank, he has "broken the back of knight errantry."The very next day, Hank unveils his civilization. Slavery is abolished and Hank openly works to make England and industrial, modern nation. Over the next three years, he builds a stock

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exchange, a train system and puts the knights and nobility in new functions in his economy. He also marries Sandy and they have a child named Hello-Central; Sandy believed the words were the names of a lost loved-one when Hank cried them out in his sleep. Hello-Central falls ill and the doctors advise Hank to take her to the French seaside for her recuperation. When a supply ship Hank sends to England never returns, he becomes suspicious and sails home himself. He finds England ghastly and changed. The streets are dark, the people scurry about frightened. When he goes to Camelot and finds Clarence, he learns that King Arthur and most of the knights of the Round Table have died in a civil war against his treacherous nephew, Mordred. The Church has intervened into the chaos and placed an interdict on England until both Mordred and their enemy, Hank are dead.Clarence, unable to get word to Hank, was nevertheless able to prepare for the coming crisis. He has outfitted a power plant in Merlin's Cave for a siege, and has weapons and supplies ready for war. He and Hank declare a republic and retreat to their cave with fifty-two young men to wait for the battle. In order to prevent their use by the enemy, Hank blows up his beloved factories, schools, colonies and mines, effectively self-destructing his civilization. His crew creates a series of electric fences around their compound as well as a bank of land mines as the Church rallies knights to march against them.When the knights do come, the destruction is horrible and complete. Eleven thousand are electrocuted en masse in the fences while ten thousand more are drowned in a ditch flooded with water. In wreaking this terrible destruction however, Hank has locked himself in to their own doom. If they stay, the stench and disease of the dead will kill them; if they leave, they are vulnerable to the new forces gathering against them in the Church's name.Hank is stabbed by a survivor knight and is bedridden. An old woman comes to tend to him while he writes his memoirs. The old woman turns out to be Merlin in disguise, and he ekes out his revenge on Hank by placing him in a sleep for 1300 years. Clarence hides Hank deep in the cave and places his memoirs with him‹signing a postscript in his own hand. Mark Twain closes the book to visit Hank, now returned to the nineteenth century. He finds the Yankee sleeping, disturbed by terrible nightmares of the battle and dreaming of his lost wife and child. The wretched Hank is slipping into death as he dreams of a past he can never reclaim.

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Major Themes

A Connecticut Yankee derives its brilliance, its humor and its themes from one source: a juxtaposition of times and its attendant values. Just as the mythic King Arthur embodies his age, the age of romantic chivalry, Hank Morgan is a type figure of the nineteenth century man‹ "nearly barren of sentiment," freedom minded, shrewd and technocratic. Within this context several topics and themes recur:

The Church Twain's Yankee's greatest fear and ultimate enemy is the Roman Catholic Church, which to him embodies the evils of manipulating religion for political purposes. He states that "the established church is only a political machine," bereft of the spiritual functions that it purports to serve. Hank accuses the church for shoring up the ills of the sixth century society: superstition; hereditary nobility; social inequality; the meek subservience of the masses to authority and tradition.Slavery Slavery appears prominently in the work as a social ill that Hank seeks to abolish. The scenes Twain writes about the oppression and dehumanization of slaves are drawn largely from Russian and German sources, but also share its universal points with slavery in the United States. Hank and King Arthur become slaves themselves and are made empathetic to the plights of slaves; Twain uses their story as a condemnation of those who can claim the morality of a matter only on a superficial level, but who cannot move to action unless prodded by real experience.

Merlin (magician) v. Hank (technocrat) In the book, Merlin represents superstition, bogus magic and the old order while Hank is the banner-bearer of "the magic of science," of civilization and progress. Their constant rivalry is the embodiment of the larger social project that Hank is trying to achieve in making England into an industrialized nation. But in proclaiming the eclipse and in the restoration of the Holy Fountain, Hank uses the same reliance on superstition that Merlin does against him. Hank's 'industrial miracles' can be just as manipulative Merlin's smoke-and-mirrors hoaxes. Although Merlin appears to be soundly defeated each time he challenges Hank's authority, he gets the last laugh as Hank's civilization destroys itself.

Training v. Nature A theme central to all of Twain's satires is the question of the power of training against an inherent human nature. On most levels, Hank believes that training and influence determine the good or bad outcome of a society; his project of civilization is based on the belief that he can train the English people to think and thus, live differently. But he is at a loss to explain why, despite training, people revert to foolish and destructive practices.. Even after giving them a new world of technological and economic improvement, Hank finds that this is insufficient to keep them from abandoning his system for the Church's favor. Or, when considering hereditary nobility, he cannot explain why intelligent people bow and scrape to 'their betters' when it is only a superficial title that distinguishes them. Hank himself becomes an object of this line of criticism as he becomes a dictator, using violence to shore up his power. In the end, his creation folds in on itself‹from the dream of a peaceful democratic evolution, he emerges with the stench and destruction of total war. For Twain, the contradictions and depth of the problem are

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enough to make one "want to hang the entire human race" for its foolishness; against his own belief that people can improve his Yankee says, "Men are all fools. Born so, I guess."

Arthur The person of Arthur is an interesting, yet subtle theme in the work. While Hank, The Boss, is at the center of all of the action, Arthur and his relationship to the legend that Twain parodies are strong undercurrents. It is interesting to note that while Twain might have satirized and reduced Arthur to a cuckold king, impotent and useless to Hank's new England, he did not shrivel the beloved character of the legend. It is true that the King Arthur Hank serves yields his political authority to the Yankee, but he retains the authority of character that shines out in the legendary accounts. For Hank, the draw of Arthur is not his military exploits or the magical elements relating to his reign, but the idea that he represented an ideal of integrity and courage. When Hank frees a peasant family from Morgan Le Fay's dungeon, they exclaim that it is Arthur's word, "which is gold," rather than the weight of authority that Hank carries as The Boss that they trust. Arthur is described as a "just and fair" judge who does the best "according to his lights." Twain himself seems to acknowledge the best part of the Arthurian canon‹the sense of honor and valor that surrounds the person of Arthur himself, even as he ravages the time and its conventions and laws.

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Character List

Hank Morgan Hank is the Connecticut Yankee, a self-assured factory superintendent who knows how to make anything. When given power over sixth-century England, he uses it to improve society in the American industrial model, using a combination of technical know-how, flash, and ultimately the threat of violence to achieve his end. His strength is in creating impressive "effects" ‹miracles and wonders‹with his scientific knowledge to gain the respect and awe of the people. He goes to great lengths and risks to do everything with flair, showmanship and over-the top-style. He wants to create a democracy and rails against the backwards injustices he sees. He does what he does in the name of the people and is ostensibly a humanitarian, but it is often in a grand, visionary sense rather than a personal one. He considers himself superior to everyone in Arthur's England, and looks down on that society as children at best and animals at worst. However, he grows to respect the human aspects of Arthur and his court, and even marries and has a family in the sixth century.

Clarence The young page who befriends Hank when he first appears as a prisoner in Arthur's court. He trusts and respects Hank like a mentor and father, and becomes his right-hand man. Clarence is trained in Hank's modern ways and helps run the budding network of factories, telephone lines, and schools that make-up the new civilization. He helps Hank achieve his effects and saves him from dire situations. During the Battle of the Sand-Belt, it is Clarence who organizes and outfits the war as Hank would have done it himself. He is the ultimate apprentice and faithful sidekick who loyally hides his boss's body and finishes his memoirs.

Merlin Rather than the mysterious and powerful sorcerer of Arthurian legend, Twain's Merlin is an old and worn charlatan, impotent against Hank's science and technology. Despite his presentation as a useless old fogy, Merlin nevertheless represents the power of superstition and the old way of life in Arthur's England, thus he is Hank's main rival. In each challenge however, Hank wins with flair. Merlin's magic works only once in the story when he succeeds in sending Hank back to the future by putting him in a magical sleep.

Sandy (Demoiselle Alisande de la Carteloise) The damsel in distress that is assigned to Hank as he seeks out adventures. She is talkative, conversing "as steady as a mill." In one episode, Hank calls her "the mother of the German language" because of her interminable sentences. She believes that she has been sent to rescue forty-four maidens from an Ogre's Castle, but when she and Hank find it, the castle is only a pigsty with a bunch of hogs in it, a grave display of the power of superstition. Hank marries her out of a sense of embarrassment (she cannot leave him until another knight vanquishes him) but grows to love and adore her.

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King Arthur The Arthur of Twain's novel is as brave, 'kingly' and steadfast as the Arthur of legend, but is outshone and outdone by Hank's intelligence and education. Hank considers him at first to be no more than an 'artificiality,' a big child who knows only foolish jousting and knight-errantry. But as the book progresses, he comes to respect his golden character. Eventually, despite his hatred of titled nobility, Hank recognizes that there is something about Arthur that makes him great even when he is stripped of his crown and kingly accoutrements‹Hank calls this characteristic his manliness.

Launcelot Arthur's most brave and powerful knight. Lancelot has an affair with Guenevere that eventually becomes the downfall of the kingdom. In Hank's new civilization he sits on the Stock Board.

Sir Sagramore le Desirous The knight who challenges Hank to armed combat after mistaking an insult meant for another knight as being directed at him. He leaves to search for the Holy Grail for over four years before coming back to pursue his challenge.

Morgan Le Fay A wicked and cold-hearted Queen who harbors Hank and Sandy for two days while they traveled to the Ogre's Castle. During their stay, Hank forces her to release her prisoners and saves an old woman from her vengeful hand.

Mordred King Arthur's nephew who is responsible for the eventual discovery of Launcelot's and Guenevere's adultery.

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Conclusion

Throughout different adaptations of A Connecticut Yankee, a common trait is painstakingly clear: Hank is not the character that Twain originally wrote him to be. Although different elements of the original are changed in each adaptation, Hank is generally either dry and boring, or simply a flat funnyman with little humanitarian intent. His cruelty, and connection with Morgan le Fay, is generally omitted in the comic book versions of the story. And it is also clear that the modifications to the other characters affect Hank, as well. When Sandy does not parallel Hank (or, when Hank shows no change in perception towards Sandy), his growth throughout the story is diminished; there is little to no character development for Hank in those texts where Sandy plays a more minor role. In the case of Clarence, the sexual ambivalence of the original is generally lost, and Hank's entire past is ignored, including Puss Flanagan and the conflict between Hank's feelings for his "lost darling" and his growing feelings for Sandy. Clarence's role in the adaptations is generally to guide Hank through the first scene with the King and to bring news to him in his dungeon cell before the eclipse. As Clarence is reduced from a page to a paragraph, to borrow Twain's pun, Hank's corresponding depth of character is reduced. The only way in which Clarence maintains any depth is when he is portrayed, as in the Classics Illustrated version, as possibly gender-crossing. Changes in the depiction of Merlin have a similar effect on Hank's depictions. Since Merlin represents the superstition that Hank scorns but uses to his own advantage, any different treatment of Merlin's character alters Hank's adopted use of this power. Changing Merlin unavoidably changes Hank's original perception of whether or not using Merlin's form of power is wrong. None of the comic book adaptations of A Connecticut Yankee capture the complexity and ambiguity of Twain's novel. Generally, each version seems to champion one of two specific characters in order to challenge or promote Hank's personality. If my analysis sounds overly-critical at times, it is only because Twain's original story offered us much material to work with in the first place. Sifting through all the possible variations of how to adapt this story, I came to find that the characters which most radically changed the story – if drawn and written poorly – are Clarence and Merlin. Clarence has the potential to alter Hank's connection to his past, and thus alter his perception of his current situation. Merlin, on the other hand, must embody unquestioning superstition in order for Hank to revolt against such an idea while simultaneously using it to his advantage. In short, each comic captures different and varying aspects of Twain's original tale; however, no two versions are identical in which character is developed in order to support the Yankee. At the end of the day, each offers us a different lens by which to view the novel, whether the lens is Merlin's superstitions, Clarence's offering of a transitional relationship, or Sandy's potential for equality in relationships. Twain's novel is, of course, only one of countless texts that have been adapted to the comic book medium. Classics Illustrated, Graphic Classics, Pocket Classics, and King's Classics are only a few of the various companies that heavily rely on classic works of literature as their source material, and their popularity among comic book aficionados and scholars alike belies the attraction readers feel for these adapted texts. But in most of these cases, the original stories are substantially flattened; they are limited by the physical space onto which they hope to transpose

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the story (such as the number of pages they have to work with and the comic book's dimensions) and by the projected readership, generally expected to be young readers.

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