Hank Morgan Character Traits

Element Summary Textual Poster
Protagonist –
Hank Morgan
(The Yankee/The Boss) Hank Morgan, mainly referred to as The Yankee, is a practical and level-headed 19th century Connecticut factory owner and engineer who is transported to Arthurian England after he is hit on the head by a crowbar. He shows very little change over the course of the story, trying to change the primitive world around him rather than being himself changed by it. He displays great cleverness and ingenuity when faced with problems, and firmly believes in democracy and the equality and will of the people. When describing a supposedly holy well: “The “fountain” was an ordinary well, it had been dug in the ordinary way, and stoned up in the ordinary way. There was no miracle about it.” (223).
Characteristics Of The Protagonist –
• Ingenuity
• Cleverness
•

He uses quick thinking and scientific/mechanical knowledge to escape from a number of difficult and dangerous situations. He believes in the American ideals of ingenuity, industry, and democracy, even attempting to industrialize Arthurian England and transform it into a republican society similar to that of late 1800s America from when he came. He rails bitterly against the rigid class system where nobles and lords reign over the working people. He also fights against the institutions of knights, slavers, and the church, depicting them as being unnecessary, immoral, and regressive respectively. “And now here I was, in a country where a right to say how the country should be governed was restricted to six persons in each thousand of its population. For the nine hundred and ninety-four to express dissatisfaction with the regnant system and propose to change it, would have made the whole six shudder as one man, it would have been so disloyal, so dishonorable, such putrid black treason.”