Benito Cereno is a story by Melville Herman, and the work was serialized for the first time in the Putnam’s monthly in early 1855. In developing Benito Cereno, Melville relies solely on the biography of the real Captain Amasa Delano, whom Melville depicts as the principal character and also as the main protagonist (www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/benitocereno). Delano relates how in 1805, his vessel that was named Perseverance bump into the Spanish Tryal. It was a ship whose captives had overthrown the Spanish seamen. The tale of the events in the novel closely trails the actual events (Schiffman, p.17). The paper seeks to analyze the moral questions raised in Benito Cereno. Main questions may include; how can evil and good be differentiated in Benito Cereno? To what extent can a person earn the title “evil person” or “good person”? It will also incorporate theories of philosophical essays as far as ethics is concerned.
It is Melville’s only fictional work that concentrates on slavery. Therefore, it is incommodious to Melville scholars that the tale is so maddening enigmatic. …show more content…
Babo and the slaves are seen as the incarnation of the evil that Delano’s blithe innocence and ignorance even in his concluding talk with Cereno, refuse to see. Then, there is the reaction of the Spaniards when the slave ship was retaken. The Spaniards desire to impose the kind of violence they suffered at the hands of recaptured slaves designates the skeptical nature of violence when the positions of slave and master are reversed. If the story shows that slavery breeds ugly passion in man, it remains much more reserved in typifying Babo and the slaves.
It is Melville’s only fictional work that concentrates on slavery. Therefore, it is incommodious to Melville scholars that the tale is so maddening enigmatic. …show more content…
Babo and the slaves are seen as the incarnation of the evil that Delano’s blithe innocence and ignorance even in his concluding talk with Cereno, refuse to see. Then, there is the reaction of the Spaniards when the slave ship was retaken. The Spaniards desire to impose the kind of violence they suffered at the hands of recaptured slaves designates the skeptical nature of violence when the positions of slave and master are reversed. If the story shows that slavery breeds ugly passion in man, it remains much more reserved in typifying Babo and the slaves.