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A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court: Hank as a 'Born-Again Entrepreneur' and the Critique of the Gilded AgeKyesoon ShimThe main purpose of this paper is to examine Twain's criticism of the Gilded Age, which is expressed through the mechanism of the backward-in-time travel to the Arthurian England. One may get an impression that the author supports and praises the modern civilization in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. On closer reading, however, we can figure out that his real intention is to criticize the negative aspects of the machine culture and the modernization.Hank Morgan acts as a typical American who symbolizes various social characteristics of his times. He is a Connecticut Yankee who represents industrialism, democracy, individualism, and capitalism prevalent in the later years of the 19th century. In this novel, Twain explores the role of entrepreneur and his complex significance for industry. However, Hank's attempt to develop industry and to introduce democracy into the Arthurian kingdom resulted in a catastrophic failure, despite his democratic ideals and technical skill. As a result of the holocaust he brought about, all the 'miracles' he had constructed utilizing modern technology were destroyed completely. This tragic ending of the novel reflects Twain's loss of faith in modern culture and technology. Here, Yankee acts as a kind of device for Twain to criticize the dominant American social assumptions including capitalism and technology.