Hank the Celebrity

Throughout Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court it has been difficult to decipher the motives behind the actions of the story’s main character, Hank. Although he has vastly improved the lives of the citizens in Arthur’s kingdom, he takes advantage of their naiveté in order to gain a celebrity status. He often seems more focused on pleasing the crowd with his flashy displays than improving the kingdom. For example, Hank easily fixes the well, but is dissatisfies because it does not require an impressive show. Despite its simplicity, he waits for a large crowd to form so that he can set off fireworks to impress the citizens. He loves being a spectacle and being admired by everyone in the kingdom. However, with every advancement he introduces he maintains his superiority by failing to educate the people. Hank takes advantage of their naiveté by claiming that everything he does is magic instead of trying to explain the mechanics. In doing so, he hinders the kingdom by making them perpetually reliant on his knowledge instead of being able to do things for themselves. If Hank does not inform the people as to how to build and fix things for themselves they will fall back into the cycle of being dependent on the monarchy as soon as Hank leaves. Therefore his time spent there would ultimately be useless. By failing to educate the citizens Hank is also comparable to the monarchy and the church, which he was originally fighting against. I wonder if, by the end of the book, Hank will realize this mistake and stop using his knowledge for flashy shows and celebrity status.