lroads to Camelot. But those advancements turn out to be his undoing, and as he lies on his deathbed, all he wants to do is return to the peaceful, tranquil countryside of Camelotùwhich he destroyed with his factories, railroads, and modern weaponry.
These contradictions aside, Twain levels some very serious broadsides throughout Connecticut Yankee. Institutions rather than individuals are the main targets of Twain's diatribes, and no institution receives more abuse than the Roman Catholic Church. Another target is the monarchy because it represses individuals and relies on lineage rather than merit in awarding spoils. Nonetheless, King Arthur is portrayed in a sympathetic light. Similarly, knighthood also is rapped, though some individual knights are depicted in a sympathetic manner.
Whether employing satire or diatribe, Twain's true target is authoritarian societies that enslave their people via religion and aristocracy. As The Boss says early in his reign, ôin two or three centuries [the Roman Catholic Church] had converted a nation of men to a nation of worms.ö The Boss also blames the church for conferring privilege based on lineage, declaring ô[b]efore the day of the Church's supremacy in the worldàwhat of greatness and position a person got, he got mainly by achievement, not by birthö (Twain 55).
Twain also condemns monarchy, although with much less vitriol and more eloquence. When the King comes to administer examinations, it prompts The Boss to examine the status of Arthur's kingdom. Even though Arthur was a decent and just person, his kingdom was indecent and full of injustice. ôMen write many fine and plausible arguments in support of monarchy, but the fact remains that where every man in a State has a vote, brutal laws are impossible,ö Hank observes after witnessing the cruel execution of a woman. But The Boss also notes that ôArthur's people were of course poor material for a republic, bec...