Herman Melville's Benito Cereno and Its Literary Importance

Benito Cereno is a 1855 novella by American novelist, essayist and poet Herman Melville (August 1, 1819 - September 28, 1891). His enigmatic writings often draws from his experiences at sea, where the unique personality of his character and the complexity of the plot makes his works compelling and interesting. The novella is a parable of slavery that was written at the beginning of the civil war in America, about the desire of freedom by the black community. Benito Cereno depicts Captain Amassa Delano's discovery of a wayward slave ship. He investigates, intent on assisting the crew, both African slaves and Spanish sailors, who have been without food and water. He observes strange behavior, specially from the captain of the ship, Benito Cereno, but doesn't grasp what has happened.

Slavery is the major theme in the novel. “Upon a still nigher approach, this appearance was modified, and the true character of the vessel was plain - a Spanish merchantman of the first class; carrying Negro slaves, amongst other valuable freight, from one colonial port to another” (Melville, Benito Cereno 4). In the quote “As master and man stood before him, the black upholding the white, Captain Delano could not but bethink him of the beauty of that relationship,' we see Delano's ignorance in full force. He views the strangely intwined relationship between Benito Cereno, the captain of the ‘San Dominick’, and his servant, Babo, as natural. Since he is so invested in the false premise that slavery is natural and just, he does not realize Babo is the leader of the slave rebellion aboard the ship and is controlling Cereno. Even though Babo is always accompanying Benito Cereno, preventing him and Captain Delano from having a moment of privacy or even when he asks (at Babo's insistence) how many weapons are at on board the ‘Bachelor's Delight’.

Delano sees nothing wrong with slavery, and nothing of note in slaves, to the point he misses several clues aboard the slave ship ‘San Dominick’ that the slaves have revolted and taken control. He witnesses slaves whipping a sailor; Cereno is never left alone by Babo; Delano offers to buy Babo, but Cereno declines. Melville wrote the novella as the Abolitionist movement was gaining momentum in the United States. There is no clear cut stance on slavery or abolition in the novella, leading readers to infer it lobbied for both. Delano's eventual realization of the plot, and his capture of Babo might suggest a pro-slavery point of view. As the novella closes, however, we learn Cereno dies of a kind of sadness following Babo's trial and execution. “Some months after, dragged to the gibbet at the tail of a mule, the black met his voiceless end. The body was burned to ashes; but for many days, the head, that hive of subtlety, fixed on a pole in the Plaza, met, unabashed, the gaze of the whites; and across the Plaza looked toward St. Bartholomew’s church”.

In the novel, it is possible to see represented the hard situation of the slaves at that time due to the superiority of the white population. The topic of human bondage was something so normal that, as we can see on the Captain Delano aptitude, the idea that there was a revolt on the part of the slaves, or that they caused any kind of problem was unthinkable. The mentality of ​​superiority on the part of slave traders, was what caused that revolt to occur, despite the clear evidences. They were so used to treat slaves as something to take profit only that they did not stop to think that, like them, they are also humans with feelings, intelligence and memories. “Ah, I thought so. For it were strange indeed, and not very creditable to us white-skins, if a little of our blood mixed with the African’s, should, far from improving the latter’s quality, have the sad effect of pouring vitriolic acid into black broth; improving the hue, perhaps, but not the wholesomeness.” 

Apart from the criticism towards the slave situation established in America during the beginning of the civil war, in the nineteenth century, there are different interpretations about the real meaning of the novel. According to Schiffman’s interpretation, although Melville did not play a conspicuous part in the anti-slavery movement, Benito Cereno shows how deeply he was ‘implicated in the fate to the Negro’. Due to the story is construe as “suspense and horror” are all interpret through Captain Delano’s vision and it is always him who represent the Negroes and passes ratings on their movements, “Melville himself is not taking sides, though the sympathies of the reader are weighed in favor of the whites and against the cruelty and ferocity of the blacks”. Delano, exposing his blindness, is a mirror that reflects the prejudices of some of the New Englanders of a certain kind; a dramatic device. Furthermore, it is “important to recognize that Melville was willing to develop” the topic of revolt, “which underlines what we know now to be true, namely, that the Negroes far from being contented and docile under slavery, engaged in frequent revolts”.

The author, instead of putting the readers against the Negroes (specially in Babo) with thoughts of hate or rejection, he creates a complex story with mixed feelings and emotions. In where we sympathize with the situation of Don Benito and where we appreciate the spirit and soul of Babo (the incarnate picture of evil), admiring his role as a born leader, just following his owns rules; highlighting the resolve of the slaves on board the ‘San Dominick’. The narrative of Delano was a skeleton of actual reality where the events described does not reveal the author’s judgements on the events; the naked plot does not provide his interpretation. The illustration of the revolt in the novella, could be seen as something positive and healthy at that time due to it brings indirectly new literary thoughts in a moment where the dominant trend was pro-slavery. He shows an anti-slavery intention, trying to make readers open their eyes and look beyond what they are used in their cultural concerns of the times, making them reflect and create their own opinion about the existing situation with slaves; without establishing both Babo as hero or Cereno as villain. Worth noting the narrative technique of Melvilles, who tried to expand a current and specifically context into external abstractions, excluding judgement on concrete. Through the actions of the characters, we can see how the balance tilts for one side or another, depending on the development of events during the novella. For example, “On their way thither, the two captains were preceded by the mulatto, who turning round as he advanced, with continual smiles and bows, ushered them on” in this quote we see how, despite the feeling of superiority of Captain Delano, he actually looks absolutely disarmed by all the bowing and smiling; he does not really know that he is just an idiot for people treating him like an important man. “Good fellows, thought Captain Delano, a little training would make fine sailors of them.” Due to Delano is so used to be a powerful men, he assumes that people without power do not have practical knowledge; being this a wrong and very dangerous assumption.

At the same time, it is possible to see more example of the superiority that Babo and his people have on the ship. “However it was, just then the razor drew blood, spots of which stained the creamy lather under the throat: immediately the black barber drew back his steel, and, remaining in hi professional attitude”. This could be just an accident or on the other hand, could be a message to show Cereno his vulnerability. “He smote Babo's hand down, but his own heart smote him harder”. In this moment, Delano has more power than Babo physically, but at the same time, he is trying to put away the symbolic power of Babo.

As we can see, the work is full of representations that show the situation of disadvantage, cruelty and suffering to which the slaves of that time were subjected. The work has a great literary importance since it introduced a new vision, never before represented by any author, about the slave situation existing in America in the 19th century. It is full of symbols, it shows the topics of benign racism, leadership, of course slavery and it is written in three sections. The novella had a great importance in the society of the time, testing the morals and intellect of people, who however barbaric it may seem, had assumed racial difference and slavery as something normal and common. It encouraged readers to stand for a moment and think about what was really happening, but without making clear any inclination for or against the slave system established in America by the conquerors.

Bibliography

1. Emery, Allan Moore. '' Benito Cereno' and Manifest Destiny.' Nineteenth-Century Fiction 39.1 (1984): 48-68.
2. Kaplan, Sidney. 'Herman Melville and the American National Sin: The Meaning of Benito Cereno.' The Journal of Negro History 41.4 (1956): 311-338.
3. Leslie, Joshua, and Sterling Stuckey. 'The Death of Benito Cereno: A Reading of Herman Melville on Slavery: The Revolt on Board the Tryal.' The Journal of Negro History 67.4 (1982): 287-301.
4. Melville, Herman. Benito Cereno. Bur, 2011.
5. Putzel, Max. 'The Source and the Symbols of Melville's' Benito Cereno'.' American Literature 34.2 (1962): 191-206.
6. Schiffman, Joseph. 'Critical Problems in Melville's “Benito Cereno”.' Modern Language Quarterly 11.3 (1950): 317-324.
7. Scholes, Robert, and Jackson J. Benson. 'New Critical Approaches to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway.' Benson, Jackson J. Decoding Papa:'A Very Short Story'as Work and Text(1990): 33-47.