A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

 [Retro from around 1991]

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court is an excellent example of Mark Twain's humorous style. His humor, coupled with his satire make this novel one of the best ever written.

Mark Twain's style is best exemplified by his humor and satire. Twain style allows him to place examples of the things that he loves in positions that require everyone to like them. He also uses his talents at satire to criticize his enemies in such a manner that sneaks past the readers realm of immediate recognition, to find a place of eternal dwelling inside their brain. From it's origin, the setting of this novel made it difficult for it to be anything but a comedy. But Even though there are many occasion in which Twain details serious occurrences, they are quickly followed up by humorous events.

Satire, too, is an integral part of Twain's style. The omnipotent Catholic church is one of Mark Twain's prime target of satire. Mark Twain is a strong believer in personal freedoms, thus he is against an established church. Twain's strong protestant beliefs are the background for his satire against the Roman Catholic church. He believes that the catholic church is not only teaching untruths, but is also destroying the lives of many innocent people. Through his satire, Twain portrays the church as a group of pit- bulls, ready to obey everything their master says, and destroy anyone that gets in their way.

The king, even though he is portrayed as a friend of the yankee, is one of Mark Twain's targets. Once as a freeman, the king is reduced to the less- than-average person that Twain believes all kings really are. Once his crown and cape are stripped from him, the king no longer has the great power that he had before. He is shown to lack some important skills, along with some basic farming knowledge that is common to all peasants. The king also is difficult to teach. Even with the extended coaching of the yankee concerning how a peasant should act, the king still reverted to his kingly ways.

Twain is also satirizes the beliefs of the middle age people. He is strongly against the middle age people's belief in magic rather than technology and facts. At the conclusion of the yankee's knightly trek to rescue princess, Sandy informs him that some pigs are actually princesses. Sandy, a typical middle age citizen, still believes that they are princesses, even though they are most certainly pigs. Finally, Twain's satire attacks the populace's resistance to change. Even with the great advancements that the yankee has given the people, they still revert back to their medieval war methods.

In the beginning, this Twain was set on creating a completely humorous novel, but gradually, he changed course, and ended up with a serious criticism of the period of King Arthur. Other than this minor flaw of inconsistency, Twain created a superb novel. In their works, Tennyson and Malory paint a picture of the middle ages being filled with brave, and almost god-like knights. On the other hand, Twain paints a picture of how life really was in the middle ages. He also allows common sense to prevail among his star character, the yankee. Instead of having him use dress in armor, and fight with medieval weapons, the yankee fights his duel wearing tights, and using modern weapons. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court one of the finest pieces of literature ever written.