Today we’re going to talk about the settings and the moods of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, while also giving a book-report style summary of the book.
First we have to tackle the prologue. A tourist (it is implied to be Mark Twain, the author) meets a man, Hank Morgan. Hank says that he worked in a factory in Connecticut until he got into a fight. He was hit in the head by a man with a crowbar. Then, he woke up under an apple tree. Hank stops his story to give the tourist the full manuscript, before he has to move on. The mood of this setting is quite cozy. (I could be slightly incorrect here, as I am writing this essay several months after reading the book)
The second setting in this book begins in 5th Century England in a country field. Hank Morgan wakes up under an apple tree in the 5th century. Sir Kay of the Round Table takes him prisoner to Camelot (for what reason I do not remember). On the way he meets a boy named Clarence, and he will become more important to the story later. The mood of this setting, riding to Camelot, is quite a bewildered mood, as Hank has no idea where he is or where he is going.
The next setting is when Sir Kay and Hank arrive at Camelot and the round table, and it is decided that Hank will be thrown in the dungeon. The mood of this setting is very serious, as his entire fate is being decided.
Hank then gets thrown into the dungeon, changing the setting, to, obviously, a dungeon. He is told that he will be executed on the 21st. He then remembers that there is a solar eclipse on the 21st of that year (he learned the year from Clarence earlier). He finds a way to send word to Clarence to tell Arthur that he is a very powerful magician and will blot out the sun if he has to. He does not, however, escape his sentence. The mood is very gloomy as he tries to think of a way to escape, and converses with some of the other prisoners.
The next setting is when Hank is brought out to the stake to burn (either that or he was to be boiled, I don’t remember), and it is the day of the eclipse. Hank tells the executioner and onlookers that he will blot out the sun if they try to execute him. The solar eclipse starts, and Arthur promises to elevate Hank to the near king-like role of prime minister. Hank delays, letting the Knights of the Round table fear that he will not let the sun shine, so that they are more grateful for it. Hank agrees to undo the spell exactly when the eclipse is total, and that his “spell” will begin to reverse the change it caused.
Hank then is elevated to a much greater rank. Rather than becoming the prime minister, he asks to simply be referred to as The Boss. There was a great Juxtaposition between The Boss and King Arthur, as The Boss had a lot more technical advancement then the king. The Boss taught a lot of modern technology to the 5th century English. The setting is the Palace of Camelot, and the mood is one of general contentedness, although there are some slight changes throughout the fairly long time he dwells there.
The setting changes again when he takes a random girl, Sandy, on the mission to save her “princesses”, as they pass through many towns and regions on their wild goose chase. The mood is generally one of doubt or of unhappiness of the course of the journey, because Hank is unsure where Sandy is taking him and his armor is very uncomfortable. I am not going to include all of the small stops they make on their trip, as that would take a really long time.
The setting changes yet again when they arrive at the valley of holiness, where the “Holy Well” has gone dry. The setting is, obviously, the valley of holiness. The problem with the well is clearly that a bit of the wall is broken lower down in the well. He sends a note to Camelot that will get him materials to fix the well, and, shortly after the supplies arrive, has his helpers fix the well, before playing it off as another miracle. The mood of this time in the valley of holiness is a little bit anxious, as The Boss has to stall for the supplies to arrive.
King Arthur asks Hank to go into disguise with him, to see what the people think of their King. Again, I’m not going to go into detail about every place they stop on this journey, but generally the setting is the many fields they ride through, a few of the houses they stop at. The mood is generally one of discomfort and worry, as Hank has to keep reminding the King not to act like a king, and instead act like a peasant. They come out of hiding, and, after some jousting matches (again, I would rather not go into great detail about these), life goes on pretty much as it did before Hank’s journey with Sandy.
The Boss, after a while, marries Sandy, and they have a daughter. When their daughter grows ill, Hank takes her to the sea on the coast of France. When she has healed, Hank takes her back to England. Hank is suspicious because the supplies that were supposed to come from England for him never arrived. He goes back to England to find everyone disliking the customs that The Boss incorporated, and so the country of England waged war with him. Hank was able to kill over 20,000 knights with his modern technology, but eventually, they breached his stronghold and his small army was slain. Another magician cast a spell over him, that caused him to sleep for thirteen hundred years, and the book ends with the tourist finding Hank, dying in modern England, calling for Sandy and their daughter. This final fight is the climax of the book, and the mood is one of anxiousness, worry, and ingenuity, as Hank comes up with ways to fight that the other knights could not have dreamed of.