Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Lesson Plan

Published in 1889, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court is a comic exaggeration and a send-up of traditional Romantic notions of chivalry and valor, calling into question the logic and usefulness of common medieval literary tropes. The novel tells the story of a 19th-century man who suffers a blow to the head and wakes up in King Arthur's England in the sixth century. Hank Morgan takes it upon himself to use the knowledge acquired from 1300 years in the future to solve the many problems he sees in this world, essentially attempting to Americanize medieval England. Through this lens, we are given glimpse at Mark Twain's own worldview, including his views on subjects like slavery,...