Narrative Essay: Nostalgia In King Arthur's Court

Nostalgia in King Arthur’s Court

Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain is about Hank Morgan, a man from nineteenth century America who is sent backwards in time to sixth century England. Upon finding himself transported to the medieval society of the sixth century England, Hank Morgan uses his nineteenth century knowledge to his advantage to manipulate the people of the sixth century to his will. Morgan, states in the opening pages of the novel that he is a character, “barren of sentiment,” yet this statement becomes complicated as Morgan switches from repulsion to sentiment throughout the novel until he reveals which is truest to his character (Twain 3) (Pressman 59). The source of Morgan’s homesickness, which is not the sixth century, but rather the sixth century that he created, is an important distinction to make. Being able to distinguish the source of Morgan’s homesickness for the sixth century of his own creation from the actual sixth century allows the reader to experience Morgan’s obsession with capitalism and the social myth of the self-made man. It is an obsession that reflected the nineteenth century’s own obsession with capitalism and the myth of the self-made man.

Before discussing Hank Morgan and his connection to nostalgia and repulsion, it would be prudent to first define these terms. Nostalgia is defined as “the state of being homesick or wistful or excessively sentimental, yearning for a return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition” while repulsion is “a feeling of strong dislike or disgust” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nostalgia). Hank Morgan is constantly in a state of homesickness as he yearns first for his nineteenth century then later for his sixth ce...

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...he novel there are clear instances when Morgan blatantly contradicts himself by being nostalgic. Morgan’s derisive attitude is used to mask his true emotions of nostalgia over repulsion. This derisive attitude and Morgan’s true nostalgic self in revealed only, in glimpses until Morgan’s death bed confession in which he openly laments his separation from the sixth century he created. Morgan’s nostalgia for a time he was more prosperous can be interpreted as Mark Twain’s harking back to a more prosperous time, namely before his investment in the Paige typesetter. Morgan’s climb to success that ultimately ends in failure represents Mark Twain’s as well as the whole of the nineteenth century America’s combined fear of failure and optimism of success that were connected to their obsession with capitalism and the socially constructed myth of the self-made man.