A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Characters

Hank is the manager of a munitions factory in Connecticut, a man "nearly barren of sentiment" (0.5), but very smart and practical. In other words, the perfect person to take the stuffing out of all...

Clarence begins life as a page in Arthur's court: "an airy slim boy in shrimp-colored tights that made him look like a forked carrot" (2.2). Luckily for him, he has an interest in strangely dressed...

Like the other characters in the book, Twain doesn't waste much time on Merlin's physical description. He looks pretty much like we all expect: "a very old and white-bearded man, clothed in a flowi...

Sandy is Hank's girlfriend, wife, and all-around best gal. She's very pretty, a bit of ditz, and possibly crazy to boot: She was a comely enough creature, and soft and modest, but, if signs went fo...

King Arthur rules all of Britain, and while he seems decent enough, Hank doesn't think much of his intelligence: Well, I liked the king, and as king I respected him—respected the office; at least...

Sir Sagramor challenges Hank to a duel after overhearing what he thinks is an insult. This—and his general pig-headedness—make him a very typical knight in Arthur's Camelot. He's a knight-erran...

Sir Kay is Arthur's stepbrother in the old stories as well as this one. He captures Hank and takes him back to Camelot to be executed… only to fall into line with the rest of Camelot when Hank un...

Yet another knight from Camelot, Sir Dinadan isn't much different from Kay or Sagramor in the field… or maybe he is. We wouldn't know because we almost never see him anywhere but at the dinner ta...

Historically, Morgan le Fay was one of the biggest villains in all of literature—Arthur's half-sister who ultimately mothers Mordred and destroys the kingdom—and Twain doesn't dispute that here...

Sir Launcelot is a pretty minor character in this book. We hear a little bit about his great deeds in the first few chapters, and they sort of set the ground rules for Twain's satire: some examples...

Guenever is Arthur's queen… and if you know the legends, then you know that she sleeps around with Sir Launcelot and brings the whole kingdom down in the process. Twain doesn't have much use for...

Marco is a charcoal burner, Dowley is a blacksmith, and they both represent the underclass—the peasantry whom Hank wants to free. They're also a pain in his butt. Dowley has money and Marco hangs...

The narrator doesn't play much of a role in the story itself, instead just presenting it to us after the Yankee dies by delivering the story to us as a journal written by the Yankee. The narrator f...