Introduction to A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Published
in 1889, Connecticut Yankee is one of the world's first stories about
time travel. The seed for this novel was probably planted during Mark Twain's
1884-1885 reading tour for Huck Finn, when George Washington Cable
bought him a copy of Sir Thomas Malory's Morte D'Arthur in an upstate
New York bookstore. But Mark Twain's interest in travel to "old
worlds" was a longstanding one, as his first book shows. And his interest
in the British past was also a lifelong preoccupation, as can be seen in texts
like The Prince and the Pauper, or even the
Memory-Builder game he invented and patented to help American children learn
the dates of England's various monarchies. As Twain’s fantastic attempt to
locate his time and place in terms of its imagined pasts and its possible
futures, Connecticut Yankee is perhaps his most complex book:
“A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court met with mixed reviews when it was published in 1889.
The British especially took offense at the novel, feeling that it maligned
their history and culture and disgraced the ideals of King Arthur and his Round
Table. Others hailed it as a triumph, full of genuine insight and sensitivity
to social injustices throughout the ages. Many critics call attention to the
cynical ending as evidence of Twain's own disenchantment with the promises of
technology and progress as a result of his financial hardships, particularly
the failure of an automatic typesetting machine in which he had invested. His
later works share this tone of disillusionment. He died in 1910, survived by
only one of his four children.” (Spark Notes)
Major& Minor Characters
Hank Morgan
Clarence (Amyas le Poulet)
Sandy (Alisande)
King Arthur
Merlin
Sir Launcelot
Guenevere
Sir Sagramor le Desirous
Morgan Le Fay
Sir Kay
Marco
Dowley
Primary Themes
Magic/ Superstition vs. Technology
Religion/ Church
Education/ Training vs. Nature
King Arthur/ Monarchy
Chivalry/ Round Table/ Knighthood
Justice
Slavery
Topics for
Analysis Discussion
Use of humor & satire
Role of the narrator
Contradictions
Works Cited
Spark Notes. Literature Study Guide: A Connecticut
Yankee in King Arthur's Court. 2014. Barnes & Noble. Web. 22 July
2014.
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