Now that you have finished reading Benito Cereno, how does the revelation of what actually happened onboard the San Dominick alter your perception of the narrative? Why does Melville present the story the way he does, through third-person limited narration, instead of as first-person narration, presumably with Captain Delano as the narrator? (While he could have written the story with a third-person omniscient narrator, that would have made it almost impossible to conceal the truth as long as he does.)
Consider how Melville depicts the Africans on the ship in contrast to how he has Delano interpret what he sees. I am not talking just about the named characters such as Babo and Atufal, but of the Africans in general and the comments Delano makes on their nature and behavior. Most of the narrative conveys Delano’s thoughts and confusion, but to the extent that it is possible, try to focus on what Delano sees and hears, not what he thinks about what he sees and hears. Cereno describes the Africans in ways that reflect his own bias, yet now that we know Cereno is not a reliable narrator, consider other interpretations of their behavior that are more valid.
After Benito Cereno appeared in Putnam’s, Melville eventually published it in a book as part of what he called The Piazza Tales, six stories of various length on various topics. Critics argue whether the six stories add up to a cohesive whole; some suggest Melville was merely trying to impose cohesion on what had been individual pieces written for money. If we do consider them to reflect any kind of central idea, the word Piazza is key. Originally, the word comes from a Latin root that means porch; that meaning fits the first of these tales, called “The Piazza,” in which Melville describes a man and a woman who unknowingly fantasize about each other’s situations from the vantage point of their own homes, but it doesn’t fit any of the others. A more modern meaning of piazza, though, is that it is the Italian word for a public square; other words with the same root are the Spanish plaza and the French place. One theory is that Melville was both inspired by his friend Hawthorne’s collection Mosses from an Old Manse, which he had praised extravagantly in a review. The piazza could be Melville’s counterpoint to the Old Manse, a place where he could write away from the pressures of society. Simultaneously, though, it suggests a contrast. As we saw, Hawthorne uses history and society for the purpose of allegory and parable. Melville, on the other hand, writes much more realistically about history and places in which people from different societies encounter each other. Consider this contrast between Hawthorne and Melville and its relevance to Benito Cereno.
Melville based this novella on multiple historial incidents, including the cases of the Amistad, a ship slaves had seized in 1839 (former president John Quincy Adams defended them in court and won the case, which resulted in those who had survived the mutiny being repatriated to Sierra Leone) and of the Creole, a ship slaves had seized in 1841 and taken to Nassau, where the British (who had outlawed slavery) allowed them to go free. Most obviously, a Captain named Amasa Delano did encounter a Spanish ship (with a different name, the Tryal) captained by a Benito Cereno that had been captured by slaves. Melville changed numerous features of the story, including the date and the depiction of both Cereno and Delano. But by fictionalizing a historical narrative, Melville creates a work of indeterminate genre. Examine some of Delano’s narrative and the accompanying historical documents on pages 111 and conside how Melville both depends on and alters them for his own purposes.