A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Term Paper Example

?A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court ENG 241: American Literature I A thesis ment on the Novel Introduction The Yankee, a 19th century product of America detects the unjust inherent in 16th century’s institutions of social and rank stratification. The author blames the Roman Catholic for enhancing justifications in social inequality; his main target is breaking down the church by forming many small groups for people to join. Yankee is a man who believes in technology because it has a greater impact on people’s lives developments than the so called Catholic Religion (Tuck 89). He is an idealist in nature and aims at positive changes in his life as well as the lives of the people around him. At the end of the book, the idealist tone lowers, while the technology promise falls, for the first time this mocks the British monarchy and the monarchy of Hank Morgan hope for moral improvement through technology drowns Characters The central character in the novel is (Hank Morgan) Yankee; he also acts as the narrator in most parts of the novel. The author hides his name till the end of the novel where he discloses it. Yankee is identified in different ways throughout the book by different characters; the common title used to identify him by the people from England is “The Boss”. Practically, he is determined, hardworking, business-minded, intelligent, resourceful, and posses good memory. His decision of right and wrong is quite strong, and posses capitalistic and democratic proponents of an American. All through his life, he believed in the power of progress and technology and hardly believed in superstitions nor gave his adherence to it. He is a devoted Christian who is a role model of dedicated protestant and honors religious freedom; he also blamed catholic religion for causing several ill and unfair acts to medieval community (Twain 45). Amyas the Poulet/Clarence He was the most trusted friend to Yankee. Their friendship grows through fair treatment but slightly ignorant but later starts liking Yankee and made himself available to help him any time when he was in need. Yankee’s tutelage is magnificently responded by Clarence, and at the end of the book, he turns to be thoroughly indoctrinated as far as speech, ideology, and skills of 19th century are concerned (Twain 75). Alisande or Sandy She is pretty but damsel in a way, she ends up being the author’s court seeking assistant and this makes her to be close to Yankee. In the beginning, the Yankee finds her to be annoying, but really works hard and proves to be pleasant and useful. She always made sure that she is a product of that time in all her under takings, she also fully believe in righteousness as well as supernatural power. As time goes by, her ideologies change and as a result of their association with the Yankee, who goes ahead and teaches her different things (Twain 85). King Arthur He is a gracious and wise king. He does all he can, but ultimately has the superstitions and prejudice of the day. According to the Yankee’s opinion, he is of intellectual capacity, and also capable of correcting and learning from his errors and mistakes (Twain 90). Merlin He is a hack magician, people relate him with fatal flaw from his believes in his hand sleight. He is petty and deceptive and also terribly vindictive; according to his thoughts, he would be very dangerous if any of his tricks worked. Sir Launcelot He is also known as the “Inconvincible,” with shinning chivalry pinnacle. He is associated with nobility and graciousness and common good to every one in his era, with an exception of his passion for the queen (Twain 99). Guenever She is the beautiful queen to Arthur. All people in the country are aware of Guenever’s indiscretions except the king. Note and Preface of Explanation The introduction is a disclaimer put down by Twain, it stated that he was not sure all the undertakings in England in the 6th century in the book’s inscription. He has a clue that all these vices and values existed in England but was not sure of the regions where evidence could be depicted. He has also added that, the divine role of the king has not been emphasized in the book because he was not sure about it, and therefore found it wiser to ignore it other than giving contradictory or biased information. The author states that he will look at it, and give detailed information about it in the next edition. The explanation states that the author engages with a stranger while out for a tour in Warwick Castle, this man talks in a familiar way about medieval times as well as King’s Arthur’s court. They handled some weapon that was owned by Sir Sagramor and had a bullet opening in it, the stranger claimed that he hand placed it himself , they later leave and the narrator gets back to his room to read a documentation by d’Arthur. When the stranger appears at the door, he gives him a warm welcome by inviting him in (Allison and Ensor 72). The narrator and the stranger begin making narrations; the stranger tells the narrator how his place of birth is related to Yankee, at Connecticut and later grew up training in practical work and machinery. He narrated one of his memorable times when he was involved in a fight and got his fore head knocked hard with a crowbar. When he woke up, he found himself in prison as a knight amour had carried him to Camelot. He assumed that the knight was crazy, at this time the stranger begins to doze off and so the narrator takes him back to his room. With him, he carries a manuscript with his story and leaves it with the stranger. The other part of this story is derived from this manuscript (Twain i75). Contemporary Anti-monarchical sentiments of Twain is clearly shown on the preface, just as what many chronological curiosity books do. According to the narrator’s description, the stranger’s smile looked like it belonged to another period, while the patterns of his speech sounded archaic. Practically, the Yankee belonged to the 6th century; this was supported by his physical appearance and his trend in making narrations. He exactly portrayed the opposite of the processes experienced by the narrator’s friend; Clarence, who seemed to have transformed from the 6th century to the 19th century. The documentation by d’Arthur that the narrator selects and starts reading before the arrival of the strange is appropriate; this is because it offers background information of the following episode that is to occur in Yankee’s narrations. Including this, among others excerpts by Malory all over the book appreciates Twain’s debt to earlier authors and also provides firm background information as far as Arthurian traditions are concerned (Tuck 74). Chapter analysis The chapter analysis is the continuation of the contents in the manuscript given to the stranger by the narrator as details of his life. Hank starts leaning about the medieval superstitions and practices after being given the title “The Boss.” Using this knowledge on superstitions, he is in a position to do miracle-working and alleged sorcery to church officials. A point comes where everyone has gathered to see Hank do another miracle, Merlin out of envy as a result of Hank being made the King’s legal advisor as well as having power to perform miracles, spread some rumors that, Hank is a fake magician and he cannot perform another miracle. For revenge purposes, Hank prepares gun powder, explosive charges, and a lighting rode at Merlin’s tower. He later positions the lighting rode it the top of Merlin’s roof with a wire running to the explosive charge, this is followed by an announcement that he will call down fire to punish Merlin and therefore Merlin should use his sorcery to put down the fire. It was obvious Merlin could not help it but just drown by shame and his reputation diminished (Once Upon a Classic 74). Hank uses his position as a King’s minister to alienate the medieval ideas; he makes good use of his authority to technologically industrialize the country behind the scenes of his fellow royalties. He educates a young boy by the name Clarence; they met in a court in the early life of the boy. The boy learns up to university level and become of great help to him. He also forms schools secretively to impact technology, and get lead of the medieval ruling. Secrets weapons were manufactured under the covers and supported the young generation in all things that he could (Once Upon a Classic 65). With time, Hank adjusts to his situations; he made sure that he attended all medieval meetings and tournaments. Misunderstanding lead to Hank’s life being threatened by Sir Sagramore, he gives in to his will and spends time constructing the 19th century infrastructures without the knowledge of the royalties. In his undertakings, he meets Sandy and think of securing her from her mistress and the ogre. As they disappear, he straggles with different inconveniences of the medieval and Morgan Fay as well. In the book, the “ogre”, “princess”, and the “castles” are represented as pig herded by peasants in swineherds, to Sandy, the were royal. Hank decides to buy the pigs from the peasants and they both leave (Twain 125). On their way to Camelot, pilgrims headed to the Holy Valley, they all claimed that all the very dry and could no longer support human survival. In reference to the narrative, Merlin had tried all to could handle the calamity but all was in vain, when Hank was asked to come and perform miracles to end the dry spell, he claimed that Merlin made the demons corrupt the fountain and therefore no miracle could work. They all decides to go leave that land for Holy Valley as it would favor them, at this point he met King Arthur who had great difficulties in behaving like the peasants. Unluckily, they meet a nobleman who arrests them and decides to sell them to slavery, Hank makes out a plan to free himself, the King, beat up the slave drivers and run to Camelot together with Sandy. He plans gets through and he is able to save Sandy and later married and had a baby with her. Sandy names the baby in reference to Hank’s dream, where he dreamt making a telephone call (Once Upon a Classic 61). As the baby grows up, it feels ill and Hank’s personal doctor advices him to go look for advanced medication in overseas. This makes him and the wife think of leaving the country until the baby recovers but the suggestion does not make him happy because he will be leaving a country under unfair leadership of the Roman Catholics. While out of the country, misunderstandings between Arthur and Lancelot rise and eventually Sir Mordred kills Arthur. This is followed by church campaigns against Hank and this information reaches Hank through his great friend Clarence. Subsequently, war begins where Hank’s followers are killed. They end up running to hide in caves where accidentally a man stamps him with a knife making him bedridden. Clarence and other followers take care of him but they all die in the cave as a result of some infectious disease (Brian Attebery 88). After a millennium, the narrator completes the manuscript and immediately finds hank dead having dreamt about Sandy. He tries to make any movements but dies before making any. Conclusion This is a book that has been designed with a lot of humor. It is interesting from the beginning to the end. The thesis above gives us the details information of the book and also touches all values which can be depicted easily from his book. Authors should emulate the author be coming up with such interesting literature styles to communicate to the audience. The book is also a reach educative material that impacts bravery in fighting for change in our communities. Work cited Primary sources Twain, M. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. USA: Mcgraw hill, 1945. Secondary sources Allison, R. and Ensor, A. Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, and Sources, Composition and Publication, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton (1982). Brian Attebery. The Fantasy Tradition in American Literature, pp. 80-81, 1988. Tuck, D. H. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. pp. 104, 1974. Once Upon a Classic, 2011. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Retrieved on 14th November 14th 2001. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0315868/ Read More