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The entire novel expands Hank’s observation as to the court’s ironic use of storytelling language. Through its humor and wit, A Connecticut Yankee tells a tale of blood and suffering so winsome as to make its readers forget to shudder. (Lydia, 2009:67)
So in the following paragraphs, the author will analyze in detail Twain’s writing skills in achieving humor and satire in A Connecticut Yankee from the aspects of the elaborate application of narrative perspective, rhetorical devices and the careful designation of novelistic elements (character, plot and setting).The reason why the author has classified the novelistic elements as a different angle is because the previous two aspects have added some sketchy “special effect” to Twain’s humor and satire respectively in the first place while the well designation of the novel’s characters, plot and setting has strengthened that effect in a deeper sense that the content of the novel is closely involved.
2.1 Humor and Satire Embodied in Narrative Perspective and Rhetorical Devices
Mark Twain has been regarded as a milestone in American literature not only because he can make people laugh, but because he is able to wield the “laughter” as a weapon and fill it with deeper meaning for the readers to excavate (Wang Te, 2011:1). In A Connecticut Yankee, Twain uses several special writing techniques to create this humorous and satiric atmosphere in which he has formed his own style and established himself as a real language master.
2.1.1 The Authenticity of Humor: The Use of First Person Narrator
First person narrator is often used by Twain in his long novels and A Connecticut Yankee is no exception. This kind of writing technique has its merits in that the readers will find themselves personally on the scene and gradually forget that they are actually reading another person’s story, thus an authentic sense arises. In A Connecticut Yankee, Hank Morgan, the Yankee from 19th century America, is the point-of-view character, but the novel starts and ends perfectly through the narration of the author (Twain), which makes the humor more real and the story told more convinced. For example, at the beginning of the novel, as Twain writes, he (the author) comes across a curious stranger (Hank) in England who has once been transmigrated to King Arthur’s court in the 6th century. The stranger gives Twain his own journal to read, which also introduces readers to the whole story through the eyes of Hank by reading his own manuscript:
I am an American. I was born and reared in Hartford, in the state of ConnecticutIt was during a misunderstanding conducted with crowbars with a fellow we used to call HerculesWhen I came to again, I was sitting under an oak treethere was a fellow on a horse, looking down at me.(9)
It is through first person narrator that the comic effect is intensified and actualized. The very form of the work is conditioned by the point of view to which Twain limits the narrator Hank Morgan. The readers will see as Hank sees, feel as Hank feels and potentially think as Hank thinks. For instance, when he is riding with full armors during an adventure, such resonance naturally appears:
Well, you know, when you perspire that way, in rivers, there comes a time when youitch. You are inside, your hands are outside; so there you are; nothing but iron betweena fly got in through the bars and settled on my noseand I could only shake my headand the fly only minded the shaking long enough to change from nose to lip, and lip to ear and buzz and buzz all around. (79)
Meanwhile, living in 6th century, Hank finds it unbearable that there is no soap, no matches, no looking glass and chromos, not even a bell or speaking tube or any daily conveniences in the so-called best decorated room. Employing first person narrator, Twain let his protagonist grumble in a humorous way in which we can easily feel his inner emotion: