Justin Smalley
10/31/00

The Use of History in Connecticut Yankee

Twain's Connecticut Yankee as a Work of Historical Fiction

When Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court was first published in 1889, Twain provided a disclaimer on the book stating that he had no intent "of any pretense to historical accuracy" (Williams, 368). This disclaimer by Twain was probably an attempt around criticism because he wrote this novel in all actuality to portray life of sixth century Medieval Britain compared to his present day. During the composition of the novel in 1886, Twain wrote to Mrs. Mary Mason Fairbanks about his latest work involving the Arthurian legend, "The story isn't a satire peculiarly, it is more especially a contrast. It merely exhibits under high lights, the daily life of the [imaginary Arthurian] time & that of today . . . I am only after the life of that day, that is all: to picture it; to try to get into it; to see how it feels & seems" (Twain, 257-258). The irony of this statement by Twain is that he was only looking for the negative aspects of medieval life. He was doing this in an effort to demonstrate that modern civilization was better than life during the Arthurian time. "Since for the most part he was collecting examples of misery and injustice, the modernity of his material implied increasingly narrow chronological limits for his theme of social and moral progress" (Williams, 369). Twain was looking for a way to proclaim that modern times were better than life during the Middle Ages. Because of this fact, Twain does not offer a correct portrayal of sixth century Medieval Britain.

With this aspect of an incorrect portrayal of medieval life in Britain, this Twain novel is an incomplete work of historical fiction. Instead, this work provides a philosophy of history. "Mark Twain's attempts at historical accuracy in A Connecticut Yankee were sporadic and strictly limited by the demands of farce, outrage, or the theme of progress. He drew his material largely from modern historians and largely from post-Renaissance history" (Williams, 369). Twain's main source for the Arthurian side of this work was Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte de Arthur. The philosophy of history that Twain provides through this novel involves a various amount of sources. By understanding the sources that Twain used in this work, we can acquire a clearer interpretation of the philosophy of history that Twain was hinting at in Connecticut Yankee.

Sources of Twain's Philosophy of History

There were a total of twelve secondary sources that Twain used in Connecticut Yankee to portray his philosophy of history. Nineteenth century historians produced these sources for Twain, and these sources were as follows: William Edward Hartpole Lecky's History of European Morals and History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Hammond Trumbull's The True-Blue Laws of Connecticut and New Haven, Henri Forneron's The Court of Charles II, 1639-1734, Saint Simon's Memoirs, Taine's The Ancient Regime, Carlyle's The French Revolution, Andrew Carnegie's Triumphant Democracy, George Stranding's People's History of the English Aristocracy and The Atheistic Platform, Edward Jarvis' "The Increase of Human Life," and Charles Ball's Slavery in the United States (Williams, 368-383). Twain used specific themes and ideals from these sources in various places of the Connecticut Yankee.

A description of how Twain used the W. E. H. Lecky's History of European Morals will provide a better understanding of how Twain used all these sources within Connecticut Yankee to produce a philosophy of history. Twain used Lecky's sources the most in this novel. Some of the examples that he used from Lecky are "the story of the holy fountain, most of the material on the hermit saints in the Valley of Holiness, and Boss' illustrative anecdote of the building of the Mansion House" (Williams, 371). More specifically, A History of European Morals influenced Twain's novel in both positive and negative ways. Positively, Twain took a phrase from this Lecky work that characterized the Middle Ages with a lack of intellect. Twain illustrated this point through the ignorant thinking on the part of Arthur's subjects (Williams, 371). Negatively, Lecky discussed the importance of the passive virtues of the Church and the Church's opposition to suicide as a very positive idea. Twain felt differently about both of these aspects. In Connecticut Yankee, Twain expresses his view of the Church as one that makes the people degrade themselves to the level of a slave. With his view of suicide, Twain contrasted the opposition of suicide of the Church through Hank Morgan's attitude that suicide might be the best option for those who have nothing else to live for on earth. These people would be seeking refuge in the after life (Williams, 372). With this one source from Lecky, Twain interlaced certain beliefs from this work into his own to portray his overall philosophy of history. He did the same with the other sources.

Twain's Philosophy of History in Connecticut Yankee

As mentioned earlier, Twain was using his sources to find the evils and miseries of life in the Middle Ages. Twain agreed with the nineteenth century historians that the evils and miseries of sixth century Britain were immoral and unrighteous. Ultimately, these evils and miseries were caused by the fallacies of a monarchy that was prevalent in Arthur's Britain. These fallacies of a monarchy were best indicated in Lecky's Ascetic Saints that Twain used as a reference for the hermit saints in the Valley of Holiness. Lecky wrote:

"There is, perhaps, no phase in the moral history of mankind, of a deeper or more painful interest than this ascetic epidemic. A hideous, sordid, and emaciated maniac, without knowledge, without patriotism, without natural affection, passing his life in a long routine of useless and atrocious self-torture, and quailing before the ghastly phantoms of his delirious brain, had become the ideal of the nations which had known the writings of Plato and Cicero and the lives of Socrates or Cato" (264).

Twain felt that these fallacies of a monarchy have hurt the moral and social progress of human society. When he wrote this novel, Twain "had worked himself into the position that 'there is but one civilization in the world, and it is not yet thirty years old'" (Williams, 369). This new civilization was obviously democracy and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Even with the sprouting of this new civilization and the ideals that it brought to society, Twain felt that "the next step was to rail and scoff at republics and democracies" (Twain, 81). Twain had a persistent belief that to criticize civilizations was the only way that humanity could progress toward a perfect society.

Criticisms of Twain's Use of History

There were two different criticisms that existed with Twain's use of history in Connecticut Yankee. First, putting a Yankee in King Arthur's court just does not make any sense. It is similar to putting a Knight of the Round Table in the midst of the political affairs of Washington, D.C. Twain was not a historian in the culture of the Middle Ages; therefore, he did not have the credibility to write about that time period (Lang, 336). Second, the obvious underlying theme of Twain's novel "is the glorification of American Protestant democracy" (Boston Literary World, 335). This theme seems to be the most prevalent one because Twain constantly degrades medieval life. This ridicule of life in Middle Ages clarifies that Twain's "method of writing history would justify him in picturing the Connecticut of the seventeenth century as afflicted with loose divorce customs and great corruption at the polls" (Boston Literary World, 335). Twain discusses the evils and miseries of history. This is not legitimate because the positives should be mentioned as well.

In reaction to these criticisms, Twain discussed that these evils and miseries did exist in the sixth century and that it is not his fault to make them aware to his readers. Twain even went further to portray that if one of these laws were inasmuch absent from medieval society they probably existed in some worse form. Twain said:

"It is not pretended that these laws and customs existed in England in the sixth century; no, it is only pretended that, inasmuch as they existed in English and other civilizations of far later times, it is safe to consider that it is no libel upon the sixth century to suppose them to have been in practice in that day also. One is quite justified in inferring that wherever one of these laws or customs was lacking in that it is no libel upon the sixth century to suppose them to have been in practice in that day also. One is quite justified in inferring that wherever one of these laws or customs was lacking in that remote time, its place was competently filled by a worse one" (Boston Literary World, 335-336).

With this quote, Twain was trying to bounce back from the criticism that he received from this novel in order to make his critics and readers realize that his point of view on history was the right one: to critique history and civilizations toward social and moral progress for all humanity, which would ultimately lead to a perfect society.

Works Cited

Lang, Andrew. "He Has Not the Knowledge." A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Samuel Langhorne Clemens. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1982. 336.

Lecky, William Edward Hartpole. "The Ascetic Saints." A Connecticut Yankee in King's Arthur Court. Samuel Langhorne Clemens. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1982. 264-266.

"This Melancholy Product of the American Mind." Boston Literary World. A Connecticut Yankee in King Athur's Court. Samuel Langhorne Clemens. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1982. 334-336.

Twain, Mark. Mark Twain's Own Autobiography. Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1990.

Twain, Mark. To Mrs. Fairbanks. Los Angeles: Plantin Press, 1949.

Williams, James D. "The Use of History in Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee." A Connecticut Yankee in King's Arthur Court. Samuel Langhorne Clemems. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1982. 368-383.