Consider the role of the narrator in both Benito Cereno and Bartleby.
Follow your leader – three words that echo through both of these texts and symbolise Melville’s role as a narrator in distinct ways. His narrative diction in Benito Cereno and Bartleby is mechanically impressive but speaks volumes as to how he felt in relation to the new capitalist society America was rapidly evolving into and the problem of slavery to which the old America was clinging to. In these texts the lawyer in Bartleby and Captain Delano in Benito Cereno are both so blinded by pre-conceived notions which have been hammered into them by society that they are blatantly unaware of the reality that is staring them in the face. They have become so accustomed to following …show more content…
Phrases like “Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2371) and “I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2371) have a sinister self-interest element to them. This idea of charitable actions to those deemed ineffectual to the capitalist machine was a counter movement to the “scope of corporate responsibility … being narrowed in the courts by business-friendly judges who routinely ruled against plaintiffs in cases of workplace injury and property loss” (Delbanco, 2006, p.220) whose mantra was “the sufferings of some people must be the business of all people” (Delbanco, 2006, p.220). Melville makes it clear through his power as the narrator however that this movement is doomed to succeed. The enticement to embrace the instinctive role paved out by society as dominating master is all too real an issue for the lawyer: “I felt additional incentives tempting me to my fate. I burned to be rebelled against again” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2372). This instinct is continually lessened however by Bartleby being perceived as the ultimate corporate copying drone: “his …show more content…
From the onset Melville creates an unsettling and uncomfortable atmosphere which is consistent throughout the novella, immediately tipping the reader off to something not being right: “the ship … with the shreds of fog here and there raggedly furring her, appeared like a white-washed monastery after a thunder storm, seen perched upon some dun cliff among the Pyrenees” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2406). The tone set here makes way for the revelation that “the strangeness of the ship is an element of the soul’s delusion” (Chase, 1965, p.120). With Captain Delano, he introduces a character similarly blinded by pre conceived notions about society as the lawyer was in Bartleby. The Captains views on slavery are incredibly opaque by today’s standards and present a disturbing view of what was perceived normal in many American states at the time. It is shown that “he carries in his head a parcel of platitudes that the historian George Fredrickson has called ‘romantic racialism’” (Delbanco, 2006, p.235) through his misinterpreted views of the Spaniards personal slave Babo as “a black of small stature, in whose rude face, as occasionally, like a shepherd’s dog, he mutely turned it up into the Spaniard’s, sorrow and affection were equally blended” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2409) and as someone “whom a
Follow your leader – three words that echo through both of these texts and symbolise Melville’s role as a narrator in distinct ways. His narrative diction in Benito Cereno and Bartleby is mechanically impressive but speaks volumes as to how he felt in relation to the new capitalist society America was rapidly evolving into and the problem of slavery to which the old America was clinging to. In these texts the lawyer in Bartleby and Captain Delano in Benito Cereno are both so blinded by pre-conceived notions which have been hammered into them by society that they are blatantly unaware of the reality that is staring them in the face. They have become so accustomed to following …show more content…
Phrases like “Here I can cheaply purchase a delicious self-approval” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2371) and “I lay up in my soul what will eventually prove a sweet morsel for my conscience” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2371) have a sinister self-interest element to them. This idea of charitable actions to those deemed ineffectual to the capitalist machine was a counter movement to the “scope of corporate responsibility … being narrowed in the courts by business-friendly judges who routinely ruled against plaintiffs in cases of workplace injury and property loss” (Delbanco, 2006, p.220) whose mantra was “the sufferings of some people must be the business of all people” (Delbanco, 2006, p.220). Melville makes it clear through his power as the narrator however that this movement is doomed to succeed. The enticement to embrace the instinctive role paved out by society as dominating master is all too real an issue for the lawyer: “I felt additional incentives tempting me to my fate. I burned to be rebelled against again” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2372). This instinct is continually lessened however by Bartleby being perceived as the ultimate corporate copying drone: “his …show more content…
From the onset Melville creates an unsettling and uncomfortable atmosphere which is consistent throughout the novella, immediately tipping the reader off to something not being right: “the ship … with the shreds of fog here and there raggedly furring her, appeared like a white-washed monastery after a thunder storm, seen perched upon some dun cliff among the Pyrenees” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2406). The tone set here makes way for the revelation that “the strangeness of the ship is an element of the soul’s delusion” (Chase, 1965, p.120). With Captain Delano, he introduces a character similarly blinded by pre conceived notions about society as the lawyer was in Bartleby. The Captains views on slavery are incredibly opaque by today’s standards and present a disturbing view of what was perceived normal in many American states at the time. It is shown that “he carries in his head a parcel of platitudes that the historian George Fredrickson has called ‘romantic racialism’” (Delbanco, 2006, p.235) through his misinterpreted views of the Spaniards personal slave Babo as “a black of small stature, in whose rude face, as occasionally, like a shepherd’s dog, he mutely turned it up into the Spaniard’s, sorrow and affection were equally blended” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2409) and as someone “whom a