ALL EXCERPTS ARE FROM CHAPTER 23, PAGE 207 OF MARK TWAIN’S A CONNECTICUT YANKEE AT KING ARTHUR’S COURT
Saturday noon I went to the well and looked on a while. Merlin was still burning smoke-powders, and pawing the air, and muttering gibberish as hard as ever, but looking pretty down-hearted, for of course he had not started even a perspiration in that well yet.
At first glance, the diction in this excerpt suggests that Hank thinks Merlin is a joke, as he describes Merlin’s attempts with phrases such as “pawing at the air” and “muttering gibberish as hard as ever” and “of course he had not started even a perspiration in that well yet.” He is made to be read as a spastic, flailing old coot. However, looking more closely at the word choice, Hank, or perhaps Twain, purposely uses the word “yet,” suggesting that there is some chance in the future that he might be successful in his endeavors. The phrase “hard as ever” also lends the reader to give Merlin some respect; although his spells are exercises in futility, he is persistent and must have faith in himself to continue conjuring them with no result.
Finally I said:
‘How does the thing promise by this time, partner?’
‘Behold, I am even now busied with trial of the powerfulest enchantment known to the princes of the occult arts in the lands of the East; an it fail me, naught can avail. Peace, until I finish.’
He raised a smoke this time that darkened all the region, and must have made matters uncomfortable for the hermits, for the wind was their way, and it rolled down over their dens in a dense and billowy fog. He poured out volumes of speech to match, and contorted his body and sawed the air with his hands in a most extraordinary way. At the end of the twenty minutes he dropped down panting, and about exhausted.
This next paragraph is, in some ways, a contradiction of the one that preceded it. The imagery here makes Merlin seem powerful. His gestures that were previously described as “pawing at the air” now carry more strength, as he “sawed the air with his hands in a most extraordinary way.” One way to read this is that Merlin is putting an increasing amount of energy into his spells and that the “pawing at the air” and the “[sawing] the air” are two separate gestures. However, I am sure that Twain is describing the same enchantment. My question is, why the inconsistency? What is it suggesting about Merlin’s magical ability? What does it suggest about Hank Morgan as a narrator? What does it say about Twain?
While the imagery makes Merlin seem powerful, his dialogue with Hank leaves less to be desired. Merlin uses the word “powerfulest,” which any person with a high school diploma can recognize is not a real word. He looks foolish of his own accord, not through Hank’s descriptions of him. The insecurities he has about the enchantment that he is casting are shielded by wordy pseudo-name-dropping: “princes of the occult arts in the lands of the East” call it, apparently, the “powerfulest enchantment” known to those parts. This is to make his failures seem reasonable.
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One of the main objectives of this post is to raise the question of perspective, and of whether or not Merlin believes that he is magical. Calling Merlin "partner" alludes to the fact that Hank knows Merlin is not magical either. Merlin however may take that term suggesting that they are contenders and believe Hank to be raising him up to his own level of great sorcery. I guess my other question is why is this important? Or is it not important at all?
ReplyDeleteI think the best way i can respond to your blog is by addressing some important questions you raise. Namely, "My question is, why the inconsistency? What is it suggesting about Merlin’s magical ability? What does it suggest about Hank Morgan as a narrator? What does it say about Twain?"
ReplyDeleteThe second quotation you cite, to me, appears as an authentic moment of awe and wonder for Hank. Despite his sense of entitlement and at times self-righteous framework for viewing all individuals in the 6th century, he is, after all, a stranger in a distant land. Throughout the text there are these ceausuras, moments of breaks in time and space, where Hank, occupied by Twain's voice, is not satirically or sarcastically describing the occurences being observed. For Twain, this could be but a indulgence in the ability of imagination in writing form to be a transport or vehicle for his sense of self; to stand in an imagined space and time (this is Twain's interpretation of Arthurian england, not a non-fiction history) and to be swept up in that moment of cairos. The portion of the quoted text remarking, "He poured out volumes of speech to match, and contorted his body and sawed the air with his hands in a most extraordinary way. At the end of the twenty minutes he dropped down panting, and about exhausted", does not appear to be the same Hank-based descriptions of Merlin that appears previously or after this passage. Generally, Hank's attitude towards Merlin is centered around his ability to discredit Merlin and his magic. He blows up Merlin's tower to solidify his authority THROUGH a discrediting of Merlin's authority; he is not able to achieve his status as boss without this referential relationship to Merlin. However, absent Merlin creating the framework of magic's ability to solve social problems and alleviate issues of crisis, Hank would find himself unable to even garner the attention of the King and his confidants.
The Merlin/Hank dichotomy is an essential characteristic of the plot's ability to progress at all. The relationship is very Hegelian in the since that at moments in their dialectical relationship conflicts arise that further their chararcters into new and unexpected roles that in turn push the plot in new directions that it would otherwise might not be able to move.
For instance, the King and Hank traveling as peasants chapter has a direct correlation to Merlin's ability to manipulate appearance, as the King trusts Hank to manipulate his outward appearance while at the same time shifting his internal attitudes concerning peasantry and desolation, of which he is not a concious participant; an example of a type of magic that Hank, despite his insincere occupation of the magician's role, has access to.
Ultimately, I think Twain has a deep appreciation of how Hank and Merlin's relationship, regardless of actual magic ability or authenticity, serves as the core of his ability to imagine a past and present simultaneously in his deeply personal 6th century (personal b/c, as we have noted in class numerous times, his 6th century is a extended metaphor for social/political/economic issues of the 19th century).