A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court · Chapter
King Arthur's Court explained
Hank Morgan, having been transported to the past, converses with a page named Clarence and learns that he is in King Arthur's Court in the year 528.
What happens
Hank Morgan, having been transported to the past, converses with a page named Clarence and learns that he is in King Arthur's Court in the year 528. He resolves to use his knowledge of a coming solar eclipse to establish his authority, and is taken before the Round Table where he observes the court's crude and violent customs.
Themes in this chapter
Technology vs. Superstition
Hank relies on his knowledge of astronomy (the eclipse) to navigate a superstitious medieval world.
Progress and Modernization
Hank's modern, practical mindset contrasts sharply with the backwardness of Arthurian society.
Slavery and Human Rights
The prisoners are treated brutally, and Hank compares their stoicism to that of 'white Indians,' highlighting the dehumanizing effects of oppression.
Characters to notice
- Hank Morgan
The narrator, a practical Connecticut man, who is trying to understand his situation and plans to use the eclipse to his advantage.
- Clarence
A page born in 513, who informs Hank that he is in King Arthur's Court and explains the customs.
- Sir Kay
The seneschal who captured Hank and plans to exhibit him before the king.
- King Arthur
The king of Camelot, seated at the Round Table, before whom Hank is to be presented.
Key passages
“I shall never see my friends again—never, never again. They will not be born for more than thirteen hundred years yet.”
Hank realizes he has been transported to the past and will never see his contemporaries again.
This moment captures Hank's dawning awareness of his temporal displacement.
“if it was really the sixth century, all right, I didn't want any softer thing: I would boss the whole country inside of three months; for I judged I would have the start of the best-educated man in the kingdom by a matter of thirteen hundred years and upward.”
Hank decides that if he is truly in the sixth century, his modern knowledge will allow him to take control of the kingdom.
This reveals Hank's confident, pragmatic, and imperialistic mindset.