King Arthur's Court Character Analysis

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, a novel written by Mark Twain, often depicts armor as protection and a sign of nobility in King Arthur’s sixth-century Europe. The armor used for protection often times does not work during the book and many die while wearing it. Hank Morgan tries wearing armor, and decides never to wear it again because of the tremendous uncomfort and the way the armor makes him feel trapped, both mentally and physically. Despite showing tremendous protection and fortitude, armor often times traps an individual’s humanity and lacks proper defense. The Knight’s armor is tremendously clunky and immobilizing to some degree. Hank encounters these issues the first time he wears it. He can barely get on and off his horse,

They are not quick thinkers and cannot adapt, thinking on their feet. Armor not only limits individuals physically, but it certainly lowers mental ability as well. Hank, the most advanced and quick thinker in the whole kingdom, refuses to wear armor. He refuses to trap his body and also refuses to trap his mind. Hank explains the process of putting the armor on in chapter eleven and claims, “. . . a man that is packed away like that, is a nut that isn’t worth the cracking, there is so little of the meat, when you get down to it, by comparison with the shell” (Twain 75). Hank’s words precisely prove this point. Armor snatches the amazing abilities of the human out of an individual and burdens them with clunky metal, ultimately trapping the mind. When talking about the society as a whole, Hank exclaims, “. . . brains were not needed in a society like that. . . ” (Twain 22). The idea of armor continues the common theme throughout the work of enslavement of the mind. People believe anything they see or hear and cannot think on their own properly. Everyone in the society is convinced that armor equals protection and nobility. It is not until you dive into the minds of the men inside the armor that you truly understand what plagues the