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Morgan le Fay
Dowley is an affluent blacksmith in a small English village. He was orphaned as a child and had odd jobs until he attracted the attention of the old blacksmith, who took him on as an apprentice. In this way, Dowley’s story is a medieval version of an American self-determination, where a person who has nothing raises his status in the world through hard work and initiative. Dowley is proud of his success and happy to brag about it to Hank Morgan when mutual acquaintance Marco introduces the two men. But Hank shames Dowley by flaunting his own wealth during a dinner party he attends at Marco’s house. And when Hank then accidentally threatens Dowley while trying to make a point about the injustice of certain medieval English laws, the blacksmith attacks Hank in an act of self-preservation.
Dowley Quotes in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
The A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court quotes below are all either spoken by Dowley or refer to Dowley. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 32
Quotes
Self-made man, you know. They know how to talk. They do deserve more credit than any other breed of men, yes, that is true; and they are among the very first to find it out, too. He told how he had begun life an orphan lad without money and without friends able to help him; how he had lived as the slaves of the meanest master lived; how his day’s work was from sixteen to eighteen hours long, and yielded him only enough black bread to keep him in a half-fed condition; how his faithful endeavors finally attracted the attention of a good blacksmith, who came near knocking him dead with kindness by suddenly offering, when he was totally unprepared, to take him as his bound apprentice for nine years and give him board and clothes and teach him the trade—or “mystery” as Dowley called it.
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Chapter 33
Quotes
Well, I was smarting under a sense of defeat. Undeserved defeat, but what of that? That didn’t soften the smart any. And to think of the circumstances! The first statesman of the age, the capablest man, the best-informed man in the entire world, the loftiest uncrowned head that had moved through the clouds of any political firmament for centuries, sitting here apparently defeated in argument by an ignorant country blacksmith! And I could see that those others were sorry for me—which made me blush till I could smell my whiskers scorching. Put yourself in my place; feel as mean as I did, as ashamed as I felt—wouldn’t you have struck below the belt to get even? Yes, you would; it is simply human nature. Well, that is what I did. I am not trying to justify it; I’m only saying that I was mad, and anybody would have done it.
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Dowley Quotes in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
The A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court quotes below are all either spoken by Dowley or refer to Dowley. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 32
Quotes
Self-made man, you know. They know how to talk. They do deserve more credit than any other breed of men, yes, that is true; and they are among the very first to find it out, too. He told how he had begun life an orphan lad without money and without friends able to help him; how he had lived as the slaves of the meanest master lived; how his day’s work was from sixteen to eighteen hours long, and yielded him only enough black bread to keep him in a half-fed condition; how his faithful endeavors finally attracted the attention of a good blacksmith, who came near knocking him dead with kindness by suddenly offering, when he was totally unprepared, to take him as his bound apprentice for nine years and give him board and clothes and teach him the trade—or “mystery” as Dowley called it.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 33
Quotes
Well, I was smarting under a sense of defeat. Undeserved defeat, but what of that? That didn’t soften the smart any. And to think of the circumstances! The first statesman of the age, the capablest man, the best-informed man in the entire world, the loftiest uncrowned head that had moved through the clouds of any political firmament for centuries, sitting here apparently defeated in argument by an ignorant country blacksmith! And I could see that those others were sorry for me—which made me blush till I could smell my whiskers scorching. Put yourself in my place; feel as mean as I did, as ashamed as I felt—wouldn’t you have struck below the belt to get even? Yes, you would; it is simply human nature. Well, that is what I did. I am not trying to justify it; I’m only saying that I was mad, and anybody would have done it.
