A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
...us, not completely ignorant, the king will want to see his magic and Hank does not have an actual plan. Just as Hank suspected when Clarence returned the king wanted to know what Hank’s calamity would be: “Go back and tell the king that at that hour I will smother the whole world in the dead blackness of midnight; I will blot out the sun, and he shall never shine again; the fruits of the earth shall rot for lack of light and warmth, and the peoples of the earth shall famish and die, to the last man!” (42) Hank remembers an eclipse will occur the exact date and time he was to be burned. He uses his knowledge of history and science and a little luck to instill fear into the king. Because the king and his people are superstitious and do not have knowledge of what an eclipse actually is, or the common sense to figure it out, Hank is successful when the eclipse occurs just as he was to be burned and lives to continue his journey in the sixth century. Without these contrasting ideals Twain would have had to contrive a different scheme for Hank to overcome this circumstance. The next situation Hank uses science to overcome superstition is when he uses dynamite with the combination of lightning to blow up Merlin’s tower for revenge: “I took Clarence into my confidence, to a certain degree, and we went to work privately. I told him that this was a sort of miracle that required a trifle of preparation; and that it would be sudden death to ever talk about these preparations to anybody. That made his mouth safe enough.” (57-58) With his knowledge of science, lightning, lightning rods and dynamite Hank mesmerizes the very superstitious people by blowing Merlin’s tower to kingdom come. Because the uneducated people were childlike and did not question Hank’s magic, he was able to instill a fear. Their sixth century superstitions cause them to be almost ignorant and completely gullible and Hank is able to parley the luck of a lightning storm occurring and his knowledge of science to awe his onlookers. Through his continuing journeys Hank arrives at another situation in which his knowledge of science and just plain common sense made him a hero. The holy fountain quit flowing the holy water and the monks needed Hank to perform his magic to restore the fountain: “When the chain was all paid out, the candle confirmed my suspicion; a considerable section of the wall was gone, exposing a good big fissure.” (209) Hank fixed the hole with mortar after Merlin’s magic was unsuccessful. Because of their superstitions and lack of common sense the monks believe Hank’s actions were actually magical and supernatural. I feel Twain is putting his beliefs into the text as science and technology were a very important part of his life and it is revealed in his story. In all of the circumstances I discussed Twain is showing that...