The Aptitude of Implication; Textual and Biographical Interpretations of Melville’s Benito Cereno


Independent of any reading beyond the text, Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno is predominately interpreted as abolitionist. Captain Delano’s ignorance, Babo’s embodiment of evil, and Benito Cereno’s self-characterization as the tragic result of the system of slavery prove Melville’s implication of the potential damage of slavery. When one is familiar with Herman Melville’s, there is a risk of significant textual misinterpretation, yet in Melville’s instance, it is only noteworthy. Familiarity with many events of Melville’s life, including his sea adventures, his encounter with the Polynesians and cannibals, and his friendship with Hawthorne, facilitate an informed perspective. Yet, neither familiarity with, nor unawareness of Herman Melville’s life would result in significant textual misinterpretation. Instead, Melville seeks to impart his standpoint through the text alone. Although knowing about Melville’s life might enhance minor aspects of Benito Cereno, our comprehension of the work’s stance on slavery as a problem within society is not radically altered.
Although the text can be conflictingly interpreted as either, Melville leans more towards the abolition of rather than the support of slavery. Melville narrates a tale of merciless deception by ship invasion. His abolitionist views may be seen through Captain Delano’s naïvely innocent character. Delano describes the slaves as inhumane commodities, characterizing them as animals, which should be kept on a tight leash: “His attention had been drawn to a slumbering negress, partly disclosed through the lace-work of some rigging, lying, with youthful limbs carelessly disposed, under the lee of the bulwarks, like a doe in the shade of a woodland rock. Sprawling at her lapped breasts was her wide-awake fawn, stark naked, its black little body half lifted from the deck, crosswise with its dam’s; its hands, like two paws, clambering upon her’ its mouth and nose ineffectually rooting to get at the mark; and meantime giving a vexatious half-grunt, blending with the composed snore of the negress”(Melville 1139). Melville mocks Delano’s white mindset, as his limitations and racist disposition leads to his downfall. There were twice as many blacks as there were whites, but Delano’s demise was a result of his naive notions; he did not deem them capable of revolt, asking “could Don Benito be any way in complicity with the blacks?” and reasoning, “But they were too stupid. Besides, who ever heard of a white so far a renegade as to apostatize from his very species almost, by leaguing in against it with negroes?” (Melville 1141). The system of slavery that he ignorantly endorses deceives him. Through this limited perspective of the tale, Melville admonishes society step out of the “Delano mindset” and altar this system lest similarly drastic consequences may occur. Moreover, Babo, as the embodiment of evil, emerges with his inescapable flaw as a product of the system of slavery. In the legal disposition, Cereno describes the ruthlessness of the slave: “the negro Babo warned him that if he varied in the least, or uttered any word, or gave any look that should give the least intimidation of the past events or present state, he would instantly kill him, with all his companions, showing a dagger, which he carried hid, saying something which, as he understood it, meant that the dagger would be alerst as his eye” (Melville 1168). Through this mastermind, Melville presents the beginnings of the international slave trade as a product of the enlightenment, revealing the treacherous consequences that the system potentially holds. Although the legal disposition, based on Benito Cereno’s word, serves as a justification of slavery, it also accounts for the tragedy that occurs within the system. Doctor Rozas closes with Cereno’s description of his final fate: “He said that he is twenty-nine years of age, and broken in body and mind” (Melville 1172). Through Cereno’s account, the reader may interpret Melville’s Benito Cereno as a cautionary tale, a warning of the ugly consequences of such a system.
While Benito Cereno remains best read as abolitionist, it is by interpretation alone. Although familiarity with Melville’s life makes the story’s interpretation more stable, the text does not provide sufficient evidence to support any radical stance Melville had concerning slavery. In his early twenties, Melville left the poverty of his New York family, for his first sea-bound voyage that would lead to many adventures (Lee, par. 1). He had “seen the great Atlantic and Pacific whale fisheries, and…[had been] a common sailor before the mast, a harpooner, a deserter from the crew of a whaling ship, a freebooter in the Marquesas, Tahiti, and Honolulu”(Lee, par. 1). If any course of events within his life significantly impacted his writing, his adventures at sea would come to be his most influential experience. The grotesque symbolism and events of a ship invasion, by treacherous barbarians in Benito Cereno, are unmistakably linked to such experiences (Lee, par. 1). The occurrences of such events, however, fail to impart his standpoint on abolition (Lee, par. 1). Notably, Melville’s adventure at sea led to acquaintance with the Polynesians: “In near desperation, in January 1841 he sailed out of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, as a whalerman and harpooner aboard the Acushnet, the beginning of four years of Polynesian and whaling adventure”(Lee, par.6). The culture and oppression that he saw within this culture will significantly impact his writing. In addition, Melville and a friend mistakenly “took refuge in the valley of the Typees, who were notorious as a tribe of cannibals, and Melville remained in captivity for a month before being rescued by an Australian whaler, the Lucy Ann.” (Howard, par.5). These cultural relations, both positive and negative, serve to explain his views on slavery, but do not single-handedly create a basis for them. It is possible that awareness of these cultural encounters might lead the reader to textual misinterpretation. Although these influential events remain noteworthy, that is their only function within the text. Another significant influence in Melville’s life was his acquaintance with Nathaniel Hawthorne. In his biography, Robert Lee mentions that when “he had discovered that Hawthorne was living in nearby Lenox. There began a friendship, a short-lived but momentous encounter between two of America's major authors” (par.13), and a “personal intimacy sprang up between the two men that sustained Melville's spirit” (Herbert par. 29). The influence each writer had upon the other most certainly helped to sculpt their writing, concerning their themes of the darker elements of romantic literature. The stance each had on slavery, or the possible discussion they might have had concerning the system, however, remains unknown (Herbert, par. 29-30).
An extensive knowledge of Melville’s experiences and relationships, however, cannot give us all of the answers. Furthermore, familiarity with Herman Melville’s life may potentially result in significant textual misinterpretation, yet it is perceptibly only noteworthy. While an awareness of Melville’s life at sea, his cultural relations, and his friendship with Hawthorne, might enhance minor aspects of Benito Cereno, our comprehension of the work’s stance on slavery as a problem within society is not radically altered. Through Captain Delano’s naïve ignorance, Babo’s deceptive ruthlessness, and Benito Cereno’s tragic insensibility, the reader may interpret Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno as principally abolitionist. The text can powerfully stand on it’s own in illustrating Melville’s stance on slavery as potentially detrimental to society: “Benito Cereno, borne on the bier, did, indeed, follow his leader.” (Melville 1174).

© 2010 by Rachel Lowry. All rights reserved.
Works Cited

Herbert, Walter T. “Herman Melville.” American Writers, 1998: 243-262. Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group. Harold B. Lee Lib., Brigham Young U. 1 Mar. 2008
Howard, Leon. “Herman Melville.” American Writers, Volume 3. 1974: 74-98. Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group. Harold B. Lee Lib., Brigham Young U. 1 Mar. 2008
Lee, Robert A. “American Short-Story Writers Before 1880.” Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 74. 1988: 249-267. Literature Resource Center. The Gale Group. Harold B. Lee Lib., Brigham Young U. 1 Mar. 2008
Melville, Herman. “The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter 7th Edition, Volume 1.” Benito Cereno. New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2008.

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