Satire in "A Connecticut Yankee"

Paper Summary:

This paper argues that Twain's satire in "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" is not at cross-purposes, but is rather a carefully orchestrated program designed to highlight both external and internal threats to American liberal democracy. The paper explains that Twain envisages these threats to America in the form of the Church, monarchy and the vast economic disparity between rich and poor predicated upon capitalist greed. The paper contends that ultimately, Twain's satire is implying that the liberal democratic model, with its related apparatus of social and technological progress, is an extremely new and fragile system. For the purposes of the paper, it is assumed that the reader is familiar with "A Connecticut Yankee" and some of its related criticism.

From the Paper:

"In November of 1886, Samuel L. Clemens penned a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks in which he described the earliest stages of what would ultimately become A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. In light of the present version of Twain's novel, his comment that "the story isn't a satire peculiarly, it is more especially a contrast" (Ensor 296) rings in the ears of the contemporary scholar with considerable irony. Indeed, the fact that Twain's Hank Morgan is "a Yankee of Yankees," that is, thoroughly American, and yet utterly fails at his project to "flood the midnight world with light" (Twain 51), leaving it instead in a state of chaos and bloodshed, reveals Twain's complex irony. In light of Morgan's failure, the reader must necessarily ask, what is Twain ultimately satirizing, and to what extent, if any, are his satirical tendencies at cross-purposes?"

Sample of Sources Used:

• Baetzhold, Howard G. "The Composition of A Connecticut Yankee." A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Allison R. Ensor. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1982. 342-360.
• Baxter, Sylvester. "Nothing More Delicious." A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Allison R. Ensor. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1982. 321-324.
• Blair, Walter. "Burlesques in Nineteenth-Century American Humor." American Literature 2.3 (November, 1930): pp. 236-247.
• Blair, Walter. "The Popularity of Nineteenth-Century American Humorists." American Literature 3.2 (May, 1931): pp. 175-194.
• Howells, William Dean. "His Wonder Story." A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Allison R. Ensor. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1982. 324-328.

More papers on Satire in "A Connecticut Yankee":

• Analytical Essay # 28730 : "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"
• Analytical Essay # 21882 : " Mark Twain's "A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court"
• Analytical Essay # 61425 : "20th Century American Science and Technology in Literature"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: