Benito Cereno by Herman Melville - Essay Example

?Benito Cereno Introduction. From the opening paragraph of the novella Benito Cereno onwards, the reader is regularly made aware of the atmospheric presence of sea and sky. Far from being a mere decorative background to the main plot, these elements of nature play an important role in defining the moral tone of the narrative. Set against the political scene of the mid 1850s, Melville’s story explores the tensions surrounding the so-called “Compromise” of 1850 and its potential to resolve the differences between for the Northern and Southern States of America. In particular the much contested “Fugitive Slave Law”, which was a crucial part of that accommodation, stirred up huge moral dilemmas which citizens in both North and South had to consider. This paper analyses the shifting nature of sea and sky throughout the novel and shows that the sea and the sky provide the key which unlocks the moral message of the story. The opening page of the novella presents the perspective of Amasa Delano, a relaxed and fair-minded ship’s captain who looks out into the harbour and notices the natural colors of the sea and sky. The key feature of the seascape is its grayness. The sea is described as being “fixed … sleeked at the surface like waved lead that has cooled and set in the smelter’s mould” (Melville, 1959, p. 107) while the sky “seemed a grey surtout” (Melville, 1959, p. 107) which is a formal piece of clothing. The overwhelming impression is of an abnormal stillness, which for a captain of a sailing ship means an enforced pause, since there is no wind to drive him forward. The underlying message here is that the location of the story is a backwater where the normal cut and thrust of life has stopped. The eerie stillness gives Delano and a feeling of foreboding: “Shadows present, foreshadowing deeper shadows to come.” (Melville,m 1959, p. 107). The surroundings are deliberately neutral and vaguely threatening. Into this exceptional setting sails the mysterious slaving ship. The grayness signifies that the story cannot be located in any firm context of dark or light, or indeed black and white, since gray is half way between the two. This moral uncertainty has been picked up critics: “Benito Cereno has always been a problematical text to its critical readers … Melville is one reader’s racist while being another’s abolitionist, and the text of the story has been cited as evidence in support of both of these.” [Weiner, p. 114] The San Dominick is a slave ship in which the hierarchy of master and slaves is in disarray. Captain Cereno loses his wits from time to time, and the slaves behave with a mixture of nobility and impudence, upsetting the usual order of things. Captain Delano’s inability to work out exactly what is going on creates a sense of disorientation in the reader. This lack of clear direction is again reflected in the natural surroundings. Cereno’s ship is not sailing free it is caught in a frame of green sea weed “ribbon grass- straight as a border of green box” (Melvile, 1959, p. 140). This implies that instead of sailing the oceans freely, as one might expect, the ship is itself captured. The slaver has become enslaved, and the plot of the story gradually reveals just how trapped Cereno is by the very cargo he is supposed to be transporting. Melville makes this repeatedly clear through Delano’s perception of unusual images of the sea “Though upon the wide sea he (=Delano) seemed in some far inland country.” (Melville, 1959, p. 141) The world is turned upside down, and nature reflects this state of affairs. In the middle part of the novella, nature appears to return to its normal and peaceful state. Delano reproaches himself for suspecting something amiss. He interprets the calm surroundings as divine providence: “… he saw the benign aspect of nature, taking her innocent repose in the evening, the screened sun in the quiet camp of the west shining out like the mild light from Abraham’s tent…” (Melville, 1959, p. 167). The religious imagery continues as Delano reflects that his suspicions might “have betrayed an atheist doubt of the ever-watchful Providence above.” (Melville, 1959, p. 167). At this stage in the plot of the novella, readers are encouraged to think of the story as a demonstration of the orderly ideal of southern slavery. Masters govern wisely, and slaves work industriously, under the approving gaze of a Christian God in his heaven. This recalls the strong belief that confederate states professed in their right, and indeed their duty, as Christians to keep slaves, since they saw themselves as a force of law and order, bringing purpose and civilization to savage creatures. In a paternalistic way, like the patriarch Abraham, confederate slave masters assume authority over all other creatures and see no harm in that. This part of the story supports the Southern states’ position on slavery, and their consistent and logical claim that the American constitution guarantees their right to pursue fugitives even outside their own state boundaries. (Campbell, 1970, p. 5) As the story progresses, however, the greyness resolves into something altogether more dangerous. Delano realizes that he has been deliberately deceived by slaves and master alike on the San Dominick. The whole idyllic scenario turns out to have been faked, and nothing was what it seemed to be. The apparent harmony between nature and human action was nothing more than a delusion, and this could be interpreted as a rather radical critique of the political compromises that were made by the government in Washington to smooth over relations between the North and South. The denouement of the plot shows Cereno leaping towards Delano for protection, and calling into question all that Delano has assumed to be the case so far. This part of the novel raises doubts about the divine approval of slavery, and suggests that underneath a superficially secure legal and moral position, there is a seething rebellion waiting to happen. Melville’s depiction of the nobility of some of the black characters underlines this anti-slavery reading of the text. So far, therefore, the story has a somewhat ambiguous moral tone, leaving the reader wondering what, if any, the message regarding slaves, rebellion, and the capturing of fugitive slaves really is intended to be. Once again, the metaphors of the natural world of sky and sea give a clue to the interpretation that Melville wants the reader to choose. The pitiful figure of Cereno at the end of the novella is urged by Delano to forget the anomaly of the slave rebellion, and look at the reassuring natural world. The the slaves have been captured and punished, everything looks normal again: “But the past is passed; why moralize upon it. Forget it. See, yon bright sun has forgotten it all, and the blue sea, and the blue sky; these have turned over new leaves.” (Melville, 1959, p. 192) The suggestion between these lines is that all the grey areas have disappeared, and that now the sky and sea are clear, innocent and cheerful blue again. If Melville had wanted to make the book an argument in favour of the Fugitive Slave Law, then surely the ending would have seen Cereno recover his composure and sail off into the blue sea and sky. As it is, however, Cereno is marked by the experience of the rebellion, and he refuses to be lulled into reassurances from nature, which has no memory and is not human. The shadow that haunts him is revealed to be “The negro,” and the memory of what happened. Melville appears to be saying that human beings, black and white, slave and free, must make moral decisions, and must bear the consequences of them. Melville’s story turns the assumptions of the mid nineteenth century upside down. The point of the story is to take the issue of slavery out of the geographical location of North and South, into neutral territory where the deeper moral undercurrents are set free. The grey natural backdrop is like a blank page, on which the human sufferings are painted, so that the reader can step out of preconceived ideas and look at the main issues. Delano he has no moral compass any more but the incorruptible sea and sky decode the message: slavery and rebellion are both dreadful and anomalous states which bring harm to slavers and slaves alike. The consequences are death and destruction for all of them, regardless of blame or innocence. The captain appears weak and pathetic, while the slave leader Babo has nobility and courage, especially in defeat when he is captured. The tale of the ship that was captured and then saved has no happy ending, and the reader is left with the lingering impression that all is not well with the world. The grey compromises are no solution, and the moral of the tale is surely that the leaders in Washington need to go back to the drawing board and work out a solution which takes account of the human cost of slavery in the past, and the long, dark shadow that it casts on the future. References Campbell, Stanley W. The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law 1850-1860. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1970. Melville, Herman. Benito Cereno. In Four Short Novels. New York: Bantam Books, 1959, pp. 107-194. [First published in 1855]. Weiner, Susan. Law in Art: Melville’s Major Fiction and Nineteenth-Century American Law. New York: Lang, 1992. Read More