O'Donnell Melville Blog

In the deposition of Benito Cereno in Herman Melville's book of the same name, the slaves aboard the San Dominick are described as ruthless and calculating. This is not incorrect, of course, but in this story slavery does not only destroy the Africans aboard this ship, but their superiors as well. Melville makes the reader view slavery in another light because of the turning of tables that happens on the ship.

Babo and Atufal were formerly important, dominant people in Africa, but then they were sold into slavery--which is most likely a position they never thought they would see themselves in. Don Benito Cereno and the deceased Don Alexandro Aranda experience something very similar to this. Cereno becomes the subordinate after the revolt, and begins to realize that much that he has been taught about these slaves is incorrect. This is made clear at the beginning of the deposition when the court did not even believe all of Cereno's story, hence not really believing that the slaves could be as cunning and powerful as they really were.

"The tribunal inclined to the opinion that the deponent, not undisturbed in his mind by the recent events, raved of some things which could never have happened" (62), wrote Melville.

I believe this quote is a clue as to what really happened in the demise of Cereno. After the reader realizes (and even a bit before) that the slaves are really in charge of the ship, Cereno's life is turned upside down. Obviously his life is seriously in danger, but his view of the balance of things good and evil most likely has changed. In the end, when "three months after being dismissed by the court, Benito Cereno, borne on the bier, did, indeed follow his leader" (76). Perhaps, his realization that the slaves he was transporting were real humans, not subhumans, left him unable to cope.

Ray Melville Blog

Melville’s Benito Cereno contains elements of ambiguity in the roles in a hierarchy occupied by Benity and his companion, Babo. Much like the relationship between narrator and Queequeg in “Moby Dick,” we see an unusual pairing in rank and race in “Benito Cereno.” The typical master-slave dynamic, which usually involves a dominant master and subservient slave, is superficially existent here, but with a twist. The “slave,” Babo was an undercover master all along, simply using his inferiors (i.e. Benito and the past captains) as a place-holder to protect himself while posing as a slave. Even within the first few pages, Delano notices the unusual intimacy and power exchange between Babo and Cereno, Babo being “less a servant than a devoted companion” (Benito Cereno, 8) that was evidently allowed into restricted areas, as illustrated on page eleven-“a privileged
spot, no one being near but the servant.” (Benoti Cereno, 11)

The dynamics of Benito and Babo’s relationship are fully realized at the end, once the deposition comes into the plot. What readers thought was a grateful captain thanking his faithful servant was really a frightened crew member attempting to please his captor, Babo. This fear is carefully shown on page forty-three when Benity overreacts to Babo’s cutting him while shaving:

“immediately the black barber drew

back his steel, and remaining in his professional attitude, back to

Captain Delano, and face to Don Benito, held up the trickling

razor, saying, with a sort of half humorous sorrow, “See,

master,you shook so- here’s Babo’s first blood.” No sword drawn

before James the First of England, no assassination in that timid

King’s presence, could have produced a more terrified aspect than

was now presented by Don Benito.” (Benito Cerano, 43)

The showmanship of the scene(i.e. the fact that it seems choreographed) is not lost on Delano. The interdependence of both Benito and Babo caused them to turn to each other in times of crisis, whether Babo attempted to force Benito to continue lying or whether Benito looked to Babo, anticipating punishment. As Mr. Koehler noted, while it is obvious that Benito is innocent and Babo should be condemned in this particular story, how would a contemporary court case play out with this evidence in play?
   
It is very odd that Babo orchestrated the voyage aboard to make Benito Cereno look like the cunning/deceitful character when he was one of the most innocent characters present on the ship. We can evaluate the long-term intimate relationship shared by Benito and Babo by simply looking at the length of text written about both the deceptive relationship and the opposing deposition telling the truth-sixty plus pages make up the bulk of the story, with only the remaining ten pages acting as the deposition. The deposition was the final building block of a story that was long in the making before readers happened upon the plot. This story of role ambiguity made me consider roles in a hierarchy, physiognomy and social expectations, the use of choreographed deception, and ethics of the individual. 

Ory Melville

From the story’s opening description, Herman Melville begins to obscure the binary opposition between black and white by depicting the entire scene, awash in grey: “The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything grey […] The sky seemed a grey mantle. Flights of troubled grey fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled grey vapours among which they were mixed, skimmed low and fitfully over the waters, as swallows over meadows before storms.” This early description notes in particular “shadows present, foreshadowing deeper shadows to come,” which makes apparent that the scene’s greyness relates to the ambiguous nature of master and slave played out in the relationship between Benito Cereno and Babo.

            Delano’s perspective on the master-slave relationship seems completely unambiguous, however, and as the facts of the scenario transform, Delano fluctuates on his position, rather than appreciating the truly ambiguous nature of the events. Initially, Delano believes Babo to be an exemplary slave, ever dedicated to Cereno despite his apparent incompetence. “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 which could present such a spectacle of fidelity on the one hand and confidence on the other.” Delano admires this state of affairs, fully appreciating the typical role of white man as master, praising Babo for his honorable service to the master. The situation Delano observes is truly ambiguous and obscured, as it is actually Cereno that is the slave, merely “acting then the part of principal owner, and a free captain of the ship.” Once the hidden state of affairs is revealed to Delano, his judgment of the situation changes completely, demonstrating that the American character approves of the typical master-slave relationship, yet strongly disapproves of the black men revolting against the white men, portraying Babo as the manifestation of evil.

            The relationship between Babo and Benito Cereno is not as simple as Delano observes it to be, both in its initial state and its revealed nature. Cereno acts as master during their first encounter, however he begins on the San Dominick with more authority, playing the actual role of master. As a result, the slaves decide to protest this authority which enslaves them. It is at this point that the roles are complicated beyond the simple binary opposition, proving to reflect Melville's initial atmosphere of ambiguity. 

McGowan Melville

The ambiguity in "Benito Cerano" essentially takes root in the juxtaposition of Babo and Cerano's elusive relationship with the honesty which which Melville portrays Delano's character. Throughout the narrative, we are given hints of Delano's suspicion about the San Dominick, which are almost immediately repressed by the apparently inherent goodness and slight naivete of his character. This sense of goodness and naivete may be a means of likening Delano's character to the American sensibility. That is, America's being a relatively young country might contribute to excessive trust when dealing with foreign affairs. Delano is always assuming the best of both parties on the ship: slaves and masters. For instance, "But unwilling to leave him unsupported while yet imperfectly restored, the black with one arm still encircled his master, at the same time keeping his eye fixed on his face, as if to watch for the first sign of complete restoration, or relapse, as the event might prove."Here, we see that Delano is quick to assume the best possible attribute for a relatively alarming situation. However, this passage is full of subtle hints, which point at Babo's mastership over Cerano, specifically in the mention of his fixed eye, which peculiarly never leaves Cerano. The ambiguity of Cerano's and Babo's characters thus results from their inseparability. Because they are portrayed as the typical slave/owner relationship, their characters are never explored individually until the end. 

The deposition at the end of the novella brings to light the ominous foreshadowings present throughout the narrative, such as "'Faithful fellow!' cried Captain Delano. 'Don Benito, I envy you such a friend; slave I cannot call him.'" Not only does this foreshadow the revelation of the subversion of Cerano and Babo's roles, it also seems to pre-exonerate Cerano from the moral repugnance of slavery. The reason for which Babo is condemned as a result of the deposition is that he and his comrades are described as having displayed an almost medieval sense of brutality and dominion, specifically regarding the display of Don Alexandro's remains, "the Negro Babo took by succession each Spaniard forward, and asked him whose skeleton that was, and whether, from its whiteness, he should not think it a white’s; that each Spaniard covered his face". Cerano, in addition to his skin color as a sure reason for exoneration, took a more passive role in the slave trade, whereas Babo's actions were direct and brutal. This is important to take into account not only with respect to the time period (pre-civil war), but also regarding  what constitutes guilt apart from and in addition to skin color. 

Poelker Melville Blog

Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno employs a sense of ambiguity not only in the complicated slave-master dynamic between Babo and Benito Cereno, but in the language itself. Take this quotation form the first page of the novella: “The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything grey. The sea, though undulated into long roods of swells, seemed fixed.” First of all, the use of the color grey, while a common description for weather, is a notable choice denoting a sense of ambiguity given that this is the first physical description in the whole piece. Grey is also interesting given the black and white race distinctions with which the text deals.  Furthermore the paradox between the “fixed” ocean and the fact of its motion heightens the somewhat spooky sense of the ambiguous that Captain Amasa will sense even more once he boards the ship of Captain Cereno. There’s also a sense of ambiguity about the Cereno’s status as a gentleman. There is his obvious suspicion about the institution of slavery, especially the way he perceives that Cereno is treating the one slave in irons. The is especially complicated in the end, when we learn that the slaves are also pirates and murderers. Take this quotation from the deposition: “...that the Negro Babo warned him that if he varied in the least, or uttered any word, or gave any look that should give the least intimation of the past event or present state, he would instantly kill him.” This sentence is important because, for one thing, it explains the strange mannerism of Captain Cereno, and his ungentlemanly actions. Also though, it points to a certain violence, even bloodlust, on the part of Babo, who seems so innocent and friendly in the first part of the story. Are we to forgiven the violence and treachery because they were fighting for freedom against a grave violation of human rights? Cereno himself doesn’t seem vindicated by the deposition: “He said that he is twenty-nine years of age, and broken in body and mind; that when finally dismissed by the court, he shall not return home to Chili but betake himself to a monastery on Mount Agonia. Melville attacks slavery through ambiguity. By pointing out that there can be no victors, real or moral, he points out the grave evil in taking away basic human rights.

Dougherty-Melville blog

Melville’s Benito Cereno is written almost entirely from the perspective of Amasa Delano, the white American captain of a sealer vessel. He is a caricature for the American attitude toward black people. He is a benevolent racist and sees the world in black and white without any ambiguity. He is good natured and naïve, but his ideology is one of stereotypes. Therefore, although his observations of the vessel San Dominick , its crew and cargo of blacks is at times disturbing and threatening, he has little trouble incorporating these experiences within his view of the world. Delano views blacks as childish with little intelligence, and compares them with animals. Babo is a “shepard’s dog,” a black mother as a “doe” and her child a “fawn,” and “ his little black ship.” He views blacks as not quite human and certainly inferior to white people, but admires them nonetheless. For instance, he considers Atufal as a noble savage, Babo as a faithful slave, black people as “fun- loving,” and fond of bright colors. Delano at one point theorizes that Cereno may have been in a conspiracy with the blacks, but dismisses the thought, “who ever heard of a white so far a renegade as to apostatize from his very species almost, by leaguing in against it, with Negroes?” The testimony of Cereno, however, offers a very different perspective. Babo is characterized as a prime time performer, leader, and manipulator. Atufal in actuality was Babo’s fellow conspirator. The black women fully approved of the revolt and wanted to torture the Spaniards. Eventually, when faced with the reality of the situation, Delano has no problem in changing his view of blacks from harmless inferiors to “devils.”
Melville clearly believes that racism is more complex than Delano’s view and presents ambiguities not easily resolved. He attempts to show that black people are not inferior and may be justified in escaping slavery because of its derogation and humiliating effect on both the black people and their masters. He clearly establishes that Delano’s initial black stereotype is dangerous because it does not appreciate the pent up anger and willingness to inflict violence on the part of the enslaved black people. Delano at one point states, “Ah, this slavery breeds ugly passions in man.” This was true of the slaves and of their white captors. This is demonstrated by Delano himself when he participates in the re-capture of the slaves.
Cereno and Delano in the end believe that the black slaves are evil. However, they each have very different responses. Delano does not question his current belief about black people. There is no appreciation of the implications arising from his experience on board the San Dominick, no challenge to his beliefs. He asks Cereno, “The past is passed; why moralize upon it? Delano is effectively amoral. On the other hand, Cereno’s world has been turned upside down. He has seen the horrors of slavery and their implication for society and himself. This is evident when Delano asks him, “What has cast such a shadow upon you?” and Cereno replies, “The Negro.”
The savagery of the black and the white people is documented in the deposition of Cereno. Subsequently, Babo is executed and beheaded. His head is put on a pole looking toward the monastery inhabited by Cereno who dies within months. Both the master and the slave who traded places aboard the San Dominick now are destroyed, symbolized, perhaps, by the dark satyr in a mask on the stern of the vessel, holding his foot on the prostrate neck of a writhing figure, which begs the question as to who is the satyr and who is the writhing figure.
Melville undermined the basis for Delano’s racism and establishes that racism is demeaning for both the slave and the master with far reaching implications for society. Still, one would like to have heard Babo’s version of events and motivations. Depending on your perspective, he could be considered the hero of his novella.

Koehler, Melville post

Between Benito Cereno and Babo there lies some sub-textual character connection. The story is extremely vague on the specific details of what has happen to the Spanish ship. In doing this this the author creates a presentation of that characters that turns out to be wrong. The slaves on the ships were presented, for the most part, as well behaved, especially Babo. He was a faithful servant, and very good at his duties. As a servant he was so trusted that the Cereno never asked him for a privacy through Cereno and Captian Delano’s encounter. This of course was not the case, the truth was that the captian, as well as the crew had all been taken hostage by the slaves after they murdered their master. That is were the ambiguity arises. The reader is presented with a questionable situation, and they’re given a choice to believe the apparent peace and civility, or be suspicions of it.

Both Cereno and Babo are at times given roles of both slave and master. Cereno had his role at the beginning of the voyage when the slaves we’re still imprisoned. Babo had his time when they took over the ship, and used Cereno as a puppet to attempt to get supplies, and later, freedom. However, we never witness Cereno as a master, it’s only assumed he was one. The approach of Babo as a master was different than a white man would accept the role, mainly because his mastership had to be secret. However, Babo does present subtle threats. “And yet master knows I never yet have drawn blood”(page 43) then soon after blood was drawn. The way it’s presented, the reader would think nothing of it, but when the truth is exposed, it is apparent that this was a threat and Babo was asserting himself in the role of master. Once again in the end ,“Not Captain Delano, but Don Benito, the black, in leaping into the boat, had intended to stab.”(page 57). This was a reaction form the master to an act of betrayal from the servant. Had Babo not does this (i.e. entirely assume the role of the master) his fate may have be different. The same can be said for Cereno, who could have possibly avoided a revolt through proper, humane treatment.

The court condemned Babo for the revolt, because it was against the law and he was the villain. In the modern era, the verdict isn’t as cut and dry. Babo and the other slaves desired freedom, and thouh extreme measures where taken, they may be morally justifiable in present day. What ultimately led to the demise of Babo was his being engulfed by his role as master. If he tried to treat Cereno as an equal, then maybe Cereno’s fear wouldn’t have forced an escape. Maybe Cereno would have let Babo be free had he not assumed his role as master.

Langer Melville Blog

The ambiguity of the text becomes an annoying afterthought during the first fifty-five or so pages of "Benito Cereno" in which Delano is slowly revealed to what sort of event has taken place upon the San Dominick, but he never seems to fully put it together. From the beginning of the text, Melville tells us that it will not be a clear story through the depiction of the landscape. The day is a peculiar one, "everything was mute and calm; everything grey."(2) There are "grey fowl" and "grey vapour" amongst the "shadows present, foreshadowing deeper shadows to come."(2) The landscape is filled with ambiguity, foreshadowing the entire relationship between our two points of interest, Benito Cereno and Babo.

While the ambiguity of the text forces the reader to read between the lines a bit, the deposition at the end of the story looks to condemn Babo and his companions and exonerate Cereno. Babo and the rest of the black slaves are painted as savages, who, in the middle of the night, "successively killed eighteen men of those were sleeping upon the deck, some with handspikes and hatchets, and others by throwing them alive overboard." (63) They are framed as slaves who have revolted against there master's wishes. But the problem is not this cut and dry. The interesting part, which Delano seems to ignore and bypass very quickly after altering his worldview, is the cunning of Babo to propose and fulfill such a plan. We do not hear anything of any sort of unusually cruelty or harm, but can safely assume that it is the usual moral depravity towards slaves. After many days of the rebellion, Babo and Cereno meet Delano aboard the San Dominick. It is here that Delano is forced into "acting then the part of principal owner, and a free captain of the ship." (68) Delano is not free here, though, but it the slave to Babo and Atufal. Cereno is under the control of Babo, who shows the "point of his dagger"(69) to gain power of Cereno at every turn. Cereno goes on to paint that more clearly as savages and evil incarnate, saying that even the Negresses "sang songs and danced ... to the Negroes, and that this melancholy tone was more inflaming than a different one would have been." (71) Cereno claims that they all had parts in the rebellion and in all of the murders. Yet, in the end, they both contribute to the relationship of slavery and are victims of both sides.

Delano is unable to see past the ambiguities of the events, and quickly changes his worldview on the subject as new information arises. He always take into account what has happened and fits it into his narrow idea of what the world should be like. He searches for the simplest explanation for all of the irrational behavior that has occurred. It takes Babo trying to kill Cereno in front Delano to force a change in his ideology about what is actually happening upon the boats. Yet, he does not change his inward ideas of their necessarily existing a binary opposition. He cannot accept a world of ambiguity where both black and white can be slaves and masters and that it will not always exist upon the American optimism that he attests to.

O’Brien Melville Blog

           “Benito Cereno” is a story about control. Specifically, it is about the question of who controls whom in the relationship between a master and a slave. On the ship, the assumption is that the master in the relationship is Cereno and that the Africans on the ship are subdued slaves, a situation that the climax of the story shows to be patently false. One of Delano’s descriptions draw a comparison between the slaves and animals: “His attention had been drawn to a slumbering Negress, partly disclosed through the lace-work of some rigging, lying, with youthful limbs carelessly disposed, under the lee of the bulwarks, like a doe in the shade of a woodland rock.” Delano invests the slaves with the quality of a doe: non-confrontational, peaceful, and unthinking or at least incapable of aggression. It makes Delano feel more comfortable to degrade their humanity, even as the atmosphere abroad the San Dominick suggest some underlying emotions waiting to erupt. As it turns out, the complacency is an act. But why did the slaves wait for another ship for them to attack? They could have chosen to take to the seas and returned home, but they did not. Melville turns the ship into a time bomb, waiting to explode and it completely escapes Delano until violence actually breaks out.            

What masquerades as good versus evil is closer to a struggle between order and chaos. Delano seeks to apply order to the mysterious San Dominick and its crew and by extension to the unknown in general.  An ambiguous universe is a dangerous one, which is something of an ongoing theme throughout American literature. Going back to the Puritans through to Poe, the unknown has this dark, sinister quality. While that outlook has its own problems, Melville uses Delano to show how the same problems can arise from assuming the unknown is inherently nonthreatening.

There is a part near the end of the story where Benito begs Captain Delano not to chase after his ship, “regarding this warning as coming from one whose spirit had been crushed by misery.” Even after the violence enters the picture, Delano continues to believe that what occurred was a sudden betrayal. It does not cross his mind that the violence had been there all along. Delano cannot conceptualize that between the master and the slave, it was the slave who was in control.

Weaks - Melville Blog

In the opening passages of Benito Cereno, Melville paints a Poe like, gothic view of the pervading seascape. Everything is gray, suggesting prevailing doom. “Everything was mute and calm; everything grey…Flights of troubled grey fowl, kith and kin with flights of troubled grey vapours [Sic]…Shadows present, foreshadowing deeper shadows to come.”

In stark contrast to the gray of the pervading seascape is Captain Delano “a singularly undistrustful [Sic] good nature, not liable…to indulge in personal alarms, any way involving the imputation of malign evil in man…[a man with] a benevolent heart…” Delano is a ship captain responsible for maintaining the discipline of a ship’s crew and Melville’s description of him makes him sound more like a Boy Scout troop leader, but a troop leader capable of action when action is called for. Throughout the story Captain Delano’s, trusting good nature is reinforced. However, in an earlier novel Moby Dick, Melville paints a completely different picture of a ship’s captain.

In Chapter 54 of Moby Dick, Melville describes the captain of the Town-Ho somewhat differently as a man that will invoke harsh penalties for minor infractions. After a fight 10 men are placed in the “hole” with little food or water. “At sunrise the captain went forward and knocking on the deck, summoned the prisoners…Water was then lowered down to them, and a couple of handfuls of biscuit were tossed after it…” My point is as one reads Benito Cereno both Captain Delano and Don Cereno become characters, by their actions, that are not believable and just contrived to make the story work. Delano with his naiveté and Cereno with every malady known to man are just not believable. They both present a somewhat comic figure.

In Captain Delano, we have a man that exhibits on minor alarm when he observes a Spanish crew severely outnumbered by Negro slaves; the slaves are unshackled and continuously sharpening hatchets. “Though occasionally the four oakum-pickers would briefly address some person or persons in the crowd below, yet the six hatchet-polishers neither spoke to others, nor breathed a whisper among themselves, but sat intent upon their task, except at intervals, when, with the peculiar love in Negroes of uniting industry with pastime, two-and-two they sideways clashed their hatchets together, like cymbals, with a barbarous din. All six, unlike the generality, had the raw aspect of unsophisticated Africans.” In a real life  situation such as the one described, red flags would be flying and Captain Delano would probably leave the San Dominick immediately.

Nevertheless, Captain Delano is only mildly alarmed by the hatchet sharpening and once again dismisses it. “As during the telling of the story, Captain Delano had once or twice started at the occasional cymbal ling of the hatchet-polishers, wondering why such an interruption should be allowed, especially in that part of the ship, and in the ears of an invalid; and, moreover, as the hatchets had anything but an attractive look, and

the handlers of them still less so…” This behavior of Captain Delano is just not believable.

If one views Captain Delano from a little different perspective perhaps, he could have possibility been deceived by the behavior of Don Cereno’s doting servant Babo and what he is witnessing could be considered strange, but acceptable behavior. Captain Delano was definitely taken with Babo as the following passage illustrates. It begins with Don Cerono responding to an inquiry of Captain Delano. ‘Yes, their owner was quite right in assuring me that no fetters would be needed with his blacks…those Negroes have always remained upon deck not thrust below… from the beginning, been freely permitted to range within given bounds at their pleasure.’ Once more the faintness returned- his mind roved but, recovering, he resumed: ‘But it is Babo here to whom, under God, I owe not only my owe preservation, but likewise to him, chiefly, the merit is due, of pacifying his more ignorant brethren, when at intervals tempted to murmurings.’ ‘Ah, master,” sighed the black, bowing his face, ‘don’t speak of me; Babo is nothing; what Babo has done was but duty.”

“Faithful fellow!’ cried Captain Delano. ‘Don Benito, I envy you such a friend; slave I cannot call him.’ 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 which could

present such a spectacle of fidelity on the one hand and confidence on the other.”

In this passage it indeed appears Captain Delano has been assuaged by Babo’s dedication to his master. However, doubt lingers and while waiting for his ship Captain Delano replays, in his mind, some of the observations he has made since boarding the San Dominick.

“By way of keeping his mind out of mischief till the boat should arrive, he tried to occupy it with turning over and over, in a purely speculative sort of way, some lesser peculiarities of the captain and crew. Among others, four curious points recurred.

First, the affair of the Spanish lad assailed with a knife by the slave boy; an act winked at by Don Benito. Second, the tyranny in Don Benito’s treatment of Atufal, the black; as if a child should lead a bull of the Nile by the ring in his nose. Third, the trampling of the sailor by the two Negroes; a piece of insolence passed over without so much as a reprimand. Fourth, the cringing submission to their master of all the ship’s underlings,

mostly blacks; as if by the least inadvertence they feared to draw down his despotic displeasure. Coupling these points, they seemed somewhat contradictory. But what then, thought Captain Delano, glancing toward his now nearing boat,- what then? Why, this Don Benito is a very capricious commander.”

After careful consideration of many of the strange happenings aboard the San Dominick Captain Delano just shrugs them off and attributes them as the result of a fickle commander or as Melville writes a “very capricious commander.” Melville, by throughout the story reiterating, how kind and generous a man Captain Delano is gives some plausibility to the possibility that indeed there could be a man as naïve as Captain Delano. In painting Captain Delano as naïve, Melville is also painting the average American in the same manner as Captain Delano is the only American character in the story.

Captain Delano’s ship arrives and after he is lowered into the boat “that on shoving off, the deponent [Don Benito] sprang from the gunwale, into the boat, and fell into it,

he knows not how, God guarding him.” the, “San Dominick’ was [then] retaken.”

The retaking of the “San Dominick” leads to the deposition and the deposition leads to the conclusion that Babo is evil and must be executed.  There is no doubt that Babo is evil, but his evil should be viewed as necessary and appropriate. His evil is learned, learned from white men such as Don Alexandro Aranda who by Babo’s orders, paid the ultimate price for his evil, his life.

An interesting side note. During the disposition, Melville exhibits his Puritan influence and the Puritan belief in predestination with the following passage, “True, true,’ cried Captain Delano, starting, “you saved my life, Don Benito, more than I yours; saved it, too, against my knowledge and will.” “Nay, my friend,” rejoined the Spaniard, courteous even to the point of religion, “God charmed your life, but you saved mine. To think of some things you did- those smilings and chattings, rash pointings and gesturings. For less than these, they slew my mate, Raneds; but you had the Prince of Heaven’s safe conduct through all ambuscades.” “Yes, all is owing to Providence…”

During the deposition Don Benito’s health never fully returns. Many times assistance to him is needed and his mood is always melancholy.  When questioned by Captain Delano about his melancholy mood in spite of, “yon bright sun has forgotten it all, and the blue sea, and the blue sky; these have turned over new leaves.” “Because they have

no memory,” he [Don Benito] dejectedly replied; “because they are not human.”

Take into account this story is set in 1799 and published in 1855 and for a white man to be portrayed as appearing to morn the death of a black man is not something that was openly written. Don Benito also refuses to face Babo during the entire deposition and further re-enforces his admiration of Babo when he answers another of Captain Delano’s queries, [Captain Delano says,]“But these mild trades that now fan your cheek, Don Benito, do they not come with a human-like healing to you? Warm friends, steadfast friends are the trades.” “With their steadfastness they but waft me to my tomb, Senor,’ was the foreboding response. ‘You are saved, Don Benito,’ cried Captain Delano, more and more astonished and pained; ‘you are saved; what has cast such a shadow upon you?”

“The Negro.’ There was silence, while the moody man sat, slowly and unconsciously gathering his mantle about him, as if it were a pall. There was no more conversation that day.”

Don Benito did not recover following the execution of Babo and died, “three months after being dismissed by the court, Benito Cereno, borne on the bier, did, indeed, follow his leader.”

In addition to Melville’s revealing portrait of the relationship between Babo and Benito Cereno, Melville also allows the reader to determine for himself the tragic hero in this story. For this author, the tragic hero is not Benito Cereno, but indeed Babo for Benito Cereno had the free will to choose not to Captain a slave ship.

And, Babo had no choice and although forced to commit acts of atrocity, his motivation was pure, what he sought was freedom and he was willing to kill or die in its pursuit. In this story, set in 1799, the black man is portrayed as an equal to or superior to whites, not only in intelligence, but also in humankind. Babo was a man first and a Negro second and no man should be placed in bondage at the hands of another. Babo was not innocent of evil, but his evil was justifiable. Again, Benito Cereno is more that an indictment of slavery, it is a story that grants humanity to blacks at a time when they were viewed by many as just property.  Babo is the tragic hero of Benito Cereno.

Emig Melville Blog

For this week's reading, we look deeply into the
master-slave relationship that defined the pre-Civil War era of the United
States. In "Benito Cereno," though we mostly hear Captain Amasa Delano's point of view, Melville uses two other main characters to represent the different understandings of the master-slave relationship. A key point to this story revolves around the issue of ambiguity. Delano represents the typical American-- a practical thinker with established viewpoints on different issues, like slavery. His mindset understands something like slavery to be a definitive force. His racist stereotypes do not allow him to see the Negro as anything else but a Negro, a slave. At this time, Americans were either for or against slavery-- there really was no grey area, at least not in the public arena. Melville accounts for this grey area, the ambiguous. Through the two main characters, Don Benito Cereno, a Chilean sea captain, and Babo, his Negro slave, Melville gives his readers a different perspective on the Negro. He gives the Negro human traits that highlight the intelligence, wits, and bravery of the Negro.  At this time in American history, blacks were still regarded as property, had very little rights, and longed for equality. In "Benito Cereno," that longing for equality shifts to desperation and eventual revolt, which turns the tables in favor of the slaves. With the master-slave hierarchy reversed, the intricate details of the relationship between Babo and Benito are revealed. Each understands how it feels to be both slave and master. After all is said and done, the Negro is, of course, demonized, convicted, and killed by "civil" society. However, one person empathizes with Babo-- Benito Cereno, his captive. At the end of the story on page 75, Delano and Cereno converse about the slave rebellion that took place on board both of their ships. However, Delano seems confused by Cereno's lack of joy. After all, his life was spared. But now, Cereno understands the horrors and utter terror of slavery. Those not subjected to slavery do not know the first thing about it; this is where ambiguity comes in. Upon arriving to submit his deposition of the events of the rebellion, Don Benito Cereno "the dress so precise and costly, worn by him on the day whose events have been narrated, had not willingly been put on." The text goes onto say that Benito could talk about Babo, "but look on him he would not, or could not." In this passage, the reversal of the master-slave relationship has truly set in for Benito. This signifies the hold that slavery has over a person (even a white), a society, and a nation. If this hold, or power, is not broken, both the slave and the master will die. Without the master-slave relationship, the people, the societies in which they live, and the nation at large will inevitably collapse in due time because they know nothing else. Change the mindset, change the nation-- I think that is the message of Melville's works, particularly "Benito Cereno."

Engineer Melville's Ambiguous Narrative Blog

In "Benito Cereno," the ambiguity between Benito Cereno and Babo is played out brilliantly throughout the narrative. Cereno is the master and Babo is part of a group of slaves who are addressed in the deposition as "Negroes." After the mutiny, the roles reverse and Cereno is taken as a hostage as, "the Negroes revolted suddenly, wounded dangerously the boatswain and the carpenter." The deponent Cereno narrates, "the Negroes made themselves masters of the hatchway." Babo assumes Cereno’s role as the master to which the deponent confirms, "Negro Babo was, being the ringleader." Cereno plays the victim and suggests that the "Negroes," "threatened him to kill all the whites if they were not, at all events,carried to Senegal." "Negro Babo," appears to be a ruthless tyrant at sea and is portrayed as a pirate that preys on innocent people such as Cereno and his crew. The descriptive narration by Cereno, shows Babo and the slaves in poor light as barbaric savages, "Negro Babo commanded the Ashantee Martinqui and the Ashantee Lecbe to go and commit the murder; that those two went down with hatchets to the berth of Don Alexandro; that, yet half alive and mangled, they dragged him on deck; that they were going to throw him overboard in that state, but the Negro Babo stopped them,bidding the murder be completed on the deck before him, which was done, when, by his orders." Cereno introduces "generous Captain Amasa Delano," in good light and passes him off as an equal. Delano is oblivious to the mutiny on board and believes Cereno’s story that the ship is in disarray because, "in a subsequent fever, many Negroes had died; that also, by similar casualties, all the sea officers and the greatest part of the crew had died." "Negro Babo," is playing a two sided game by assuming his role as the slave to show Delano that everything is normal as Cereno says, "the Negro Babo, performing the office of an officious servant with all the appearance of submission of the humble slave." On the other hand, he is plotting with Cereno to capture Delano and take his ship as Cereno confesses, "the Negro Babo proposed to him to gain from Amasa Delano full particulars about his ship, and crew, and arms." When Delano contemplates on leaving to go back to his ship, Cereno sees this as a sign that he could be saved and follows him, "the deponent believes to have come from God and his angels." The "Negresses" are portrayed by the deponent as evil witches who were scheming to kill Cereno and states that, "Negresses used their utmost influence to have the deponent made away with; that, in the various acts of murder, they sang songs and danced." Cereno appears to be saving Amasa’s life as well as his when he says, "True, true," cried Captain Delano, starting, "you saved my life, Don Benito, more than I yours; saved it, too, against my knowledge and will." The mind and human nature are shown in terms of human depravity in the quote, As for the black- whose brain, not body, had schemed and led the revolt." Finally, Babo is found guilty and "Negro Babo," was put to death and his head was on display for, "the gaze of the whites; and across the Plaza looked toward St. Bartholomew’s church." In the end Cereno is dismissed by the court and "Benito Cereno, borne on the bier, did, indeed, follow his leader." The indelible relationship between Cereno and Babo switching roles from master to slave comes to an end.
　
　　
　
　
　

 

Engineer Hawthorne Blog Post

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story “Young Goodman Brown,” makes brilliant use of symbols and language to show the dark side of human’s. His narrative is based on bringing to light the Unpardonable Sin committed by civilization in violation of the human heart. In the opening of the story, the characters have names such as Young Goodman Brown which is the husband and Faith is the wife. Also, the couple are newlyweds and use loving words while addressing each other, “Dearest heart,” “My love and my Faith,” “dear husband.” The husband is going into the forest on a mysterious errand which worries Faith. Young Goodman feels guilty for not heeding her advice not to go into the forest, “Poor little Faith!" thought he, for his heart smote him. "What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand!” Young Goodman ventures into the forest on the instances of an elderly man, who is going to show him the dark secret deeds of the church going civilization. More symbols are used to identify the devil. The “fellow-traveller,” is the devil in disguise and holds a staff which Young Goodman notices immediately, “remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wriggle itself like a living serpent.” The Unpardonable Sin described here is Goodman going against his Christian faith and beliefs by following the devil into the wilderness, "My father never went into the woods on such an errand, nor his father before him. We have been a race of honest men and good Christians since the days of the martyrs; and shall I be the first of the name of Brown that ever took this path and kept." The devil is trying to convince him that his community is not all pure and have committed sin too. When he sees a pink ribbon which was worn by Faith in her hat, he is struck by despair and is more willing to follow the devil into his lair, “The young man seized it, and beheld a pink ribbon."My Faith is gone!" cried he, after one stupefied moment. "There is no good on earth; and sin is but a name. Come, devil; for to thee is this world given." During the gathering where everyone from the village has assembled and Goodman has looked up to as a child, the devil pokes the final stake into Goodman’s heart, "There," resumed the sable form, "are all whom ye have reverenced from youth. Ye deemed them holier than yourselves, and shrank from your own sin, contrasting it with their lives of righteousness and prayerful aspirations heavenward. Yet here are they all in my worshipping assembly. This night it shall be granted you to know their secret deeds: how hoary-bearded elders of the church have whispered wanton words to the young maids of their households; how many a woman, eager for widows' weeds, has given her husband a drink at bedtime and let him sleep his last sleep in her bosom; how beardless youths have made haste to inherit their fathers' wealth;” The devil has convinced and opened Goodman’s eyes that “Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness. Welcome again, my children, to the communion of your race." This ugly truth revealed Goodman returns to his village and his faith in his community and church people is destroyed, “Goodman Brown snatched away the child as from the grasp of the fiend himself.” When his wife Faith with her pink ribbons, looks at him with joy, “But Goodman Brown looked sternly and sadly into her face, and passed on without a greeting.” “it was a dream of evil omen for young Goodman Brown. A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream.” When he died, “they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was gloom.”

In “The Birthmark,” the Unpardonable Sin is Aylmer’s quest to achieve human perfection at the expense and life of his beautiful wife Georgiana who has a birthmark. Aylmer  is a scientist who thinks he can play God and control nature, “Aylmer possessed this degree of faith in man's ultimate control over Nature.” Aylmer is obsessed with removing the mark upon her cheek as he considers it a defect of nature and he remarks, "Georgiana," said he, "has it never occurred to you that the mark upon your cheek might be removed?" She is surprised by his request, because she believes that it is a “token of the magic endowments that were to give her such sway over all hearts and symbol of her existence.” But Aylmer believed that “affirmed that the bloody hand, as they chose to call it, quite destroyed the effect of Georgiana's beauty, and rendered her countenance even hideous.” Aylmer saw the birthmark as symbols of evil and human imperfection, “In this manner, selecting it as the symbol of his wife's liability to sin, sorrow, decay, and death.” Georgiana knows that removing the birthmark will kill her, but out of love for her husband agrees to have it removed to please him. Aylmer is delighted and begins a grand experiment in a secluded room. Aylmer is successful in removing the mark and remarks, "My peerless bride, it is successful! You are perfect!" But a great tragedy unfolds and she is dying, “Aylmer, dearest Aylmer, I am dying!" Alas! it was too true! The fatal hand had grappled with the mystery of life, and was the bond by which an angelic spirit kept itself in union with a mortal frame.” This violation of the human heart destroys both; Aylmer as he has lost his wife due to his manic obsession and Georgiana has lost her life, “The momentary circumstance was too strong for him; he failed to look beyond the shadowy scope of time, and, living once for all in eternity, to find the perfect future in the present.”

 “Roger Malvin’s Burial,” is a story of two soldiers who survive and are returning home injured from battle. On their way, the elder of the two men Malvin, who is severely wounded and feels his end is near, “Reuben, my boy," said he, "this rock beneath which we sit will serve for an old hunter's gravestone.” Malvin believes that he has been defeated by the wilderness and Indian’s and his time is up, “There is many and many a long mile of howling wilderness before us yet; nor would it avail me anything if the smoke of my own chimney were but on the other side of that swell of land. The Indian bullet was deadlier than I thought." Malvin narrates the story of how, "it is now twenty years since I escaped with one dear friend from Indian captivity near Montreal. We journeyed many days through the woods, till at length overcome with hunger and weariness, my friend lay down and besought me to leave him; for he knew that, if I remained, we both must perish; and, with but little hope of obtaining succor, I heaped a pillow of dry leaves beneath his head and hastened on." Rueben asks, "And did you return in time to save him?" malvin replied "I did," answered the other. "I came upon the camp of a hunting party before sunset of the same day. I guided them to the spot where my comrade was expecting death; and he is now a hale and hearty man upon his own farm, far within the frontiers, while I lie wounded here in the depths of the wilderness." Reuben vowed to return to save or bury Malvin if he were alive, “he vowed by the blood that stained it that he would return, either to save his companion's life or to lay his body in the grave.” Malvin’s daughter Dorcas on hearing the news of her father not returning is considered whether he was given a Christian burial, “Dorcas, perceiving the wildness of his latter words, inquired no further at the time; but her heart found ease in the thought that Roger Malvin had not lacked such funeral rites as it was possible to bestow.” The Unpardonable Sin is Reuben not keeping his vow to return to bury Dorcas’s father as promised, “He regretted, deeply and bitterly, the moral cowardice that had restrained his words when he was about to disclose the truth to Dorcas; but pride, the fear of losing her affection, the dread of universal scorn, forbade him to rectify this falsehood.” The feelings of guilt were overwhelming, “Reuben, while reason told him that he had done right, experienced in no small degree the mental horrors which punish the perpetrator of undiscovered crime.” Reuben’s procrastination kept him from following up on his, “deep vow unredeemed, and that an unburied corpse was calling to him out of the wilderness.” Reuben’s guilt was beginning to take its toll, “for Reuben's secret thoughts and insulated emotions had gradually made him a selfish man, and he could no longer love deeply except where he saw or imagined some reflection or likeness of his own mind.” Reuben’s goes into the forest with his family and surprisingly finds himself at exactly the same spot he had left Malvin to die. The oak is a symbol of strength and sustenance and used to demonstrate that the will of man could endeavor the most hostile of elements. In this case, the oak was a reminder that Malvin’s spirit was still present and waiting for Reuben to complete his vow of conducting a decent burial. By accident, Reuben had shot his son who had fallen dead at the very same spot where his father’s bones remained. This was the curse that Reuben had to suffer for violation of the human heart, “His sin was expiated,--the curse was gone from him; and in the hour when he had shed blood dearer to him than his own, a prayer, the first for years, went up to Heaven from the lips of Reuben Bourne.”

Hutchinson Hawthorne Blog

Young Goodman Brown

For Hawthorne, the affections, the identity, and the very soul of a person resides in the heart. For this sacred place to be violated in any way is the most unforgivable or "unpardonable" sin.  This kind of sin not only affects the one being violated, but also the violator.  In Hawthorne's short story, "Young Goodman Brown," these roles get blurred. It is clear that Goodman Brown is the one who has been violated.  As he tries to resist the advances of his companion, he repeatedly gets betrayed by those whom he admires and respects.  The level of betrayal progresses throughout the story.  First, he finds out that Good Cloyse, "a very pious and exemplary dame, who had taught him his catechism in youth, and was still his moral and spiritual adviser" has been secretly having rendezvouses with the devil, and that she knows him personally.  This revelation shocks him and his resolve to return home, "'That old woman taught me my catechism,' said the young man; and there was a world of meaning in this simple comment." This is the initial crack in Brown's foundation of faith. Instead of turning around, like he was just planning to do, Goodman Brown continues with his dark companion. The blows keep coming, as every time he tries to return home, another betrayal is revealed to him, until he ultimately finds himself at his destination deep within the forest:  "Either sudden gleams of light flashing over the obscured field bedazzled Goodman brown, or he recognized a score of the church members of Salem Village famous for their especial sanctity...irreverently consorting with these grave, reputable, and pious people, these elders of the church, these chaste dames and dewy virgins, there were men of dissolute lives and women of spotted fame, wretches given over to all mean and filthy vice, and suspected even of horrid crimes." Everything he knows has been completely shattered at this point, for even the deacon and the minister were in the company of these "fiendish worshipers." The crushing blow comes, though, when it is Goodman Brown's own wife, his own stronghold of support and resistance, his Faith, is brought among the crowd to be initiated. However, Hawthorne writes that this is all a dream, leading the reader to believe that none of the good, pious people of Salem have really partaken in these heinous acts. Goodman Brown, though, sees this as "a dream of evil omen," and "a stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not desperate man did he become fromt he night of that fearful dream." After the dream, he looks upon every person with distrust and wariness, and refuses to even greet his own wife at the door.  So it could be argued that though the entire story up to the end leads the reader to believer that Brown has been the victim of the unpardonable sin, the dream stemming from his guilt for taking the meeting in the first place is the perpetrator, and therefor he is the victim of himself.  He violated and betrayed his faith, and his Faith - though the two are really one in the same, as his wife is an allegorical character - and his guilt manifested itself in the form of a dream, which led him to lead a sad, lonely, distrustful life. Hawthorne ends his story with "they carved no hopeful verse upon his tombstone, for his dying hour was filled with gloom." The "omen dream" followed him for the rest of his life, causing him to lose his own identity, but to mistrust the identities of those around him, and to lose the affections for his wife and neighbors.

The Minister's Black Veil

In Hawthorne's story "The Minister's Black Veil," the "unpardonable sin" is much more difficult to decipher.  It seems as though the sin itself is never revealed to the reader. The only information given is that Mr. Hooper's veil is reminiscent of another New England clergyman who wore his because "in early life he had accidentally killed a beloved friends, and from that day till the hour of his own death, he hid his face from man." No such insight is available for Mr. Hooper, as the story starts already in progress, and his congregation is surprised to see him outfitted in such a way as he approaches the pulpit. It is speculated by the people of the town that he wears it as atonement for some scandalous sin, but that is pretty unbelievable given the innocent and "gentlemanly" nature of his character. So as is the case in "Young Goodman Brown," the main character is both the violated and the violator. However, there could be another explanation.  Upon his first appearance, Mr. Hooper is described as "a gentlemanly person, of about thirty, though still a bachelor...dressed...as if a careful wife had starched his band, and brushed the weekly dust from his Sunday's garb." As a bachelor minister, it is customary for him to have Sabbath dinner with people of his congregation, namely Old Squire Saunders.  He acts as a bachelor would, mingling with the congregation and not running home to his wife and family - or he did before the veil.  But Hawthorne makes clear that there is no woman in Mr. Hooper's life, as he writes that Mr. Hooper "returned, therefore, to the parsonage," having no where to go for Sabbath lunch. Later, though, Hawthorne writes that "there was one person in the village unappalled by the awe with which the black veil had impressed all beside herself...As his plighted wife, it should be her privilege to know what the black veil concealed." This is contradictory to the picture given of the minister at the beginning of the story, which leads one to wonder if the veil is to atone for the marriage he has concealed from the community. If this is the case, his refusal to remove his veil and confide in his wife betrays her heart, violates it.  Furthermore, he allows her to leave him instead of admitting his reasoning behind his wearing of the veil.  He has become the violator of not only his heart, but his wife's as well. And he must live forever with not only the sins behind the veil, but with the betrayal of his wife as well.   No matter what his secret is, it is clear that Mr. Hooper's identity has been covered and skewed by his veil.  His heart, his soul, has been violated in some way, and perhaps it is by his own doing, which leads to his eternally covered face.

The Birthmark

Unlike his other two stories, Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" has a clearly defined sinner and victim.  Aylmer's single-minded, scientific vision forces him to see the only fault on his wife's otherwise immaculate person, and obsess about it night and day.  Georgiana, his wife, at first does not seem bothered by it, "To tell you the truth it has been so often called a charm that i was simple enough to imagine it might be so." Georgiana, so beloved by all, has been content to have this small blemish upon her face for the majority of her life.  However, her husband's constant obsession and revulsion has turned her own complacency into utter loathing. A woman so happy and secure in herself has been made insecure and repulsed by her own reflection, thanks to Aylmer, "It needed but a glance with the peculiar expression that his face often wore to change the roses of her cheek into a deathlike paleness, amid which the crimson hand was brought strongly out, like a bass-relief of ruby on the whitest marble." He as committed the Unpardonable Sin - he has violated her heart and her soul; he has destroyed her self-worth.  Instead of loving her as she is, he has not only insulted her, but warped her mind to believe that true acceptance of one's lover is the more evil, less preferred to a lover who demands perfection: "Her heart exulted...at his honorable love -- so pure and lofty that it would accept nothing less than perfection nor miserably make itself contented with an earthlier nature than her had dreamed of. She felt how much more precious was such a sentiment than that meaner kind which would have borne with the imperfection for her sake, and have been guilty of treason to holy love by degrading its perfect idea to the level of the actual.." He has completely twisted her mind, her now believing that it would be an "unpardonable sin" to love itself if he did not seek to correct her imperfections. He has brainwashed his so called beloved, and in his attempt to rid her of nature's scar, he became compulsively obsessive, going mad with power.  However, Aylmer not only ruined his wife, but also himself. For in his quest to get rid of Georgiana's birthmark, he also got rid of her life.  He destroyed the one thing that could truly have brought him joy in this life, "had Aylmer reached a profounder wisdom, he need not thus have flung away the happiness which would have woven his mortal life of the selfsame texture with the celestial."

Ray Hawthorne Blog

The unpardonable sin, according to Hawthorne, is the violation or deception of the human heart. This occurs in the stories we’ve read, by a voluntary article of clothing, a physical defect, and through personal associations with unsavory company. The violation of hearts and the subsequent harm done to both the victim and perpetrator is evident throughout Hawthorne’s work. I now examine this dynamic theme in the stories Young Goodman Brown, The Minister’s Black Veil, and The Birthmark. 

The story of Goodman Brown begins with his deception of his own wife. While they clearly love each other, Brown must leave her alone for the night to fulfill his end of an agreement he made with the older male character. He denies her request that he stay, and does not tell her why.  He violates the trust his wife felt, and thus violated her heart which she’d reserved for him. It is interesting to me that he only violated her trust to be honest to someone else. However, the consequences of his deception of his wife are soon realized when he and the older gentleman venture into the woods, a place Brown shares the Puritanical “barbarism” attitude towards nature: 

”Whither, then, could these holy men be journeying so deep into the heathen wilderness? Young Goodman Brown caught hold of a tree for support, being ready to sink down on the ground, faint and overburdened with the heavy sickness of his heart.” (Young Goodman Brown, p.8)

Within this heathen wilderness they find an evil ritualistic gathering taking place. Here, the barbaric nature of the wilderness is personified by this meeting of many familiar townspeople participating in taboo activities. The violation of his wife’s trust has led Mr. Brown right into the dwelling of the devil; he does not go unpunished for his lie. After the traumatic trip into the wild, his emotions, faith, and daily life never returned to normal. 

Aylmer from The Birthmark, also violates his wife, but this time due to a physical imperfection rather than the desire to remain an honest person, like Mr. Brown. He violated her thoughts by telling her that her birthmark is not a "charm" as she thought, but the one thing that stands in the way of her perfection. Aylmer further violates her by subjecting her to toxic elements without her knowledge: 

"These questions had such a particular drift that Georgiana began to conjecture that she was already subjected to certain physical influences, either breathed in with the fragrant air or taken with her food. She fancied likewise, but it might be altogether fancy, that there was a stirring up of her system--a strange, indefinite sensation creeping through her veins, and tingling, half painfully, half pleasurably, at her heart." (The Birthmark) 

The consequences of Aylmer's actions are all too severe-he not only acted unethically, but also killed his beloved wife. While he successfully removed the birthmark, he lost something much more important. He is obviously parted with his wife by death, and on the macrocosmic side of that coin, he sacrificed his future for some petty detail of the present. The imperfection of Georgiana's skin was the vivid sign of her humanity. The short-sightedness, the vanity, and the veil of secrecy created on the part of her husband is ultimately what lead to Georgiana's death. 

A tangible object is also involved in The Minister's Black Veil. While a physical attribute in Georgiana's case, it is a veil worn voluntarily in the minister's case. The congregation feels betrayed and frightened by the Minister's veil; thus violating their relationship with their religious leader, proclaiming things like "Our parson has gone mad!". The community not only has to live with this fear, but the minister is ostracized. The minister's identity is ultimately what makes the obstruction of his face so upsetting; the community believed that there must be some grave reason for the hiding of his face. From the minister the community expects truth and transparency, but instead the black veil interrupts (i.e. violates) this open relationship: 

"How strange," said a lady, "that a simple black veil, such as any woman might wear on her bonnet, should become such a terrible thing on Mr. Hooper's face!"

The veil darkened joyous occasions, caused interpersonal distance, and offended the minister's wife. "Love or sympathy could never reach him" as he grew old with his secret. In the end we never truly know what the minister's secret was, or if he even truly had one. We are left to consider the black veils that plague everyone in some way or another. 

McGowan Hawthorne

Throughout Hawthorne's stories, "Young Goodman Brown", "The Minister's Black Veil", and "My Kinsman, Major Molineux", we see a consistently large emphasis on one's place in the community as the definition of one's identity within. These stories all trace the Unpardonable Sin, or corruption of the human heart, to some disruption in a given character's identity. In "Young Goodman Brown", this disruption in character stems from Goodman Brown's face to face experience with the devil, in which he is told that "Evil is the nature of mankind. Evil must be your only happiness." In this apparition, Goodman Brown sees all of the respectable, Christian members of his community partaking in this wicked ceremony. Goodman Brown's subsequent perception of his community upon his return marks the effects of the corruption of his heart as a result of the Unpardonable Sin of trekking deep into the woods. It is important to note that throughout this story, Goodman Brown's outer character always matches his inner feelings. Specifically, he is described in the end as: "A stern, a sad, a darkly meditative, a distrustful, if not a desperate man did he become from the night of that fearful dream". 

In "The Minister's Black Veil", Hawthorne takes a somewhat different perspective on the disruption of one's identity. For the people in his community, the once respectable and gentlemanly Mr. Hooper becomes an ominously secretive man all because of his choice to always wear a black veil. "Such was the effect of this simple piece of crape, that more than one woman of delicate nerves was forced to leave the meeting-house. Yet perhaps the pale-faced congregation was almost as fearful a sight to the minister, as his black veil to them." For the members of his community, Mr. Hooper's choice to wear the black veil must signify some dark abhorrent secret and therefore his soul must be profoundly corrupt; "The black veil, though it covers only our pastor's face, throws its influence over his whole person, and makes him ghostlike from head to foot. Do you not feel it so?" The conclusion one might draw from this perception is that for Hawthorne, one's outward appearance is symbolic of or one and the same as one's inner self. Therefore, Mr. Hooper's choice to wear the veil represents some dark projection of his inner corruption, possibly an Unpardonable Sin. 

"My Kinsman, Major Molineux" tackles this issue from a familial perspective. Robin's intention in looking for his kinsman stems from his hopefulness regarding what identity Major Molineux takes in his community."'This low hovel cannot be my kinsman's dwelling,' thought he, 'nor yonder old house, where the moonlight enters at the broken casement; and truly I see none hereabouts that might be worthy of him.'" We see in the beginning that Robin is interested in taking on this very same identity, as family constitutes most of what makes up one's identity and Robin is presently unknown. The reveal at the end of the story, however, is met with Robin's adamance toward leaving this community, as the only place for him within it is that of scrutiny. The message here is that one cannot escape one's own family. However, it is possible for one to make a positive name for oneself apart from family. At the end of the story, a man says to Robin, "Or, if you prefer to remain with us, perhaps, as you are a shrewd youth, you may rise in the world without the help of your kinsman, Major Molineux." This reflects a sense of hope in the ability to rise in one's community despite Robin's very negative precedence. 

 

O'Donnell Hawthorne Post

In three of Nathaniel Hawthorne's stories, "Young Goodman Brown," "The Birthmark," and "Roger Malvin's Burial," the protagonist's life is ruined because of a violation of the human heart. Also, in all three, the male protagonist causes his own marriage to fail. In "Roger Malvin's Burial," Reuben listens to his much older fellow soldier, Roger Malvin, and leaves him in the woods to die after battle. At first, this act seems innocent, since Reuben is so concerned about stay, but is convinced to leave. However, when he returns to his town, he tells a different story, like Malvin told him, and claimed to stay by the old man until his death. Malvin's daughter, Dorcas, was moved and eventually married the young frontiersman. However, the man cannot live with the guilt and often alienates his faithful wife. Perhaps in this story, Reuban's unpardonable sin is the lie that lasted for 18 years that haunted the main character. Or perhaps it was the cowardice he exhibited by leaving Dorcas' father in the woods to die. Either way, it eventually lead to his family losing everything they had, which resulted in him accidently killing his son in the woods when they were moving in order to start a new life.

The main character in "The Birthmark" is a much less sympathetic character, for he is cruel and hurtful to his wife. Aylmer, a scientist, decides that his beautiful wife, Georgiana, has a birthmark that is too hideous to remain on her face. He insists that she has a surgery to remove it, and after a long time of degradation, she cannot take the constant insults and would rather die than have the hand-shaped mark on her face. As surgery and medicine is not understood to the same extent it is today, Aylmer kills his wife by accident. I believe that the unpardonable sin in this story is Aylmer's inability to acknowledge Georgiana's beauty, and putting science before reason. In the story, it is often said that the protagonist loves science and experimentation. Also, he seems to be the only one who wishes to remove this birthmark from her face. Therefore, it could be logically assumed that deep down, the scientist just wanted to begin experimenting again, and used his innocent wife to quench his lust for science. However, in doing so, he sacrifices something more important than scientific reason: his wife's life and her love.

"Young Goodman Brown" depicts a newly married young man who ventures into the woods to achieve some unnamed task. He runs into a man similar to himself as well as many other members of his church. These people turn out to be witches who are meeting for a magical gathering. Goodman Brown is so traumatized by the sight of this that it drives him mad. He loses faith in God, and eventually loses his wife as well. His wife Faith seems to be a symbol, and the loss of her could be directly related to an unpardonable sin. Perhaps this sin is doubting god and losing faith. His mysterious walk through the woods could symbolize self analyzation and inward thinking. By the end of this walk he loses Faith-- his wife, as well as what she symbolizes.