Discussion Question
Write 250-300 words on one of the following questions.
1. In The Times of Melville and Whitman (1947), critic Van Wyck Brooks asserts that Melville “spoiled the finest of his shorter stories, the otherwise superb Benito Cereno, by including an eighteen-page legal report towards the end.” Some readers might still agree, yet these latter pages are critical for a reading of Benito Cereno. Does the Deposition suggest alternative reasons for why the black slaves revolted? What does it state about the aims of the revolt? How do the slaves attempt to achieve those aims?
2. Following the Deposition appears a dialogue between the captains. Does it suggest that either Delano or Cereno has reached any new understanding of slavery as a result of this story? Note especially the following passage:
“You are saved,” cried Captain Delano, more and
more astonished and pained; “you are saved; what has cast such a shadow
upon you?’
“The negro.”
There was a 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. (HA 2655)
3. Melville was one of the
few writers of his day to make open reference to homosexuality, which earned
him censorship of his first novel Typee, and which appears as a clear
subtext of Billy Budd. Until the 1980s, critics tended to treat as
allegory the homosocial relations in Melville stories; today these are central
to Melville studies. In Benito Cereno, how might these homosocial and
homosexual themes appear and function?