A Connecticut Yankee

In the first ten chapters of Twains "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" several things came to my mind. First of all was the practicality of the main character. Most characters in more modern stories would probably have panicked or refused to believe it at least for the first few chapters, but Twain's character thought about it for a few minutes and then began planning how he would take power and rebuild the country to his own liking. So the question is was this a common viewpoint among literary characters of that period. Did they take things in stride no matter what? Or was it even a viewpoint of the actual people of that period. If a factory foreman had been dropped into the past would he have begun doing the same thing or at least trying or would he have gone insane. Or was this simply a literary device used by Twain to keep the story moving. Also another thing that struck was the speed and efficiency with which the main character was able to build up industry. It only took him four years to develop massive factories and even start laying telegraph wires. And at the same time all of this was carried out in secret from the church and the general public. For modern readers this would be the strangest thing about it. The Internet, TV, radio, and a reliable mail system connect us. So we know what’s going on everywhere and even when something is kept secret we know something is going simply because of the lack of information in a world where information is everywhere. And when modern authors write novels set in the medieval world they tend to gloss over the lack of communications in those times. Of course they don't provide them with radios or the Internet, but they always seem to assume that they at least have reliable roads, some form of mail, and at the very least maps. On the other hand Mark Twain gave the characters in his version of King Arthur’s court none of these things. Historically his version is probably more accurate, but why is that? Also the way the main character is treated. He is respected and obeyed because of his power and position, but the viewed as an animal because he has no pedigree. Whereas the main character views everyone else in more or less the opposite view. The question isn't why they are doing this, but how they can accomplish this split in they're thinking. Is this split between the office and the person in it something that was prevalent in Twain's day? Of course it occurs in modern times as well. The most obvious example is the president. As a person he may or may not be liked and respected, but the actual title of president is respected either way. However in this case it’s more of respecting the title and power and being almost repulsed by the person in it. In the modern age the two blend together, but this is almost a total separation of the two. So is this a product of the period in which Twain was living in, or did Twain himself think this way.