Benito Cereno (Masterplots II: Drama, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Robert Lowell
- First Published: 1965
- Type of Plot: History
- Time of Work: c. 1800
- Setting: Two sailing vessels anchored near Trinidad
- Principal Characters: Amasa Delano, John Perkins, Don Benito Cereno, Babu, Atufal, Francesco
- Genres: Drama, Postcolonial literature, History play
- Subjects: Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Ships, Sailing or sailors, Sea or seafaring life, Mutiny
- Locales: Trinidad, Seas
The Play
Robert Lowell’s dramatized version of Herman Melville’s novella opens around 1800 on the deck of the sailing vessel the President Adams, anchored near Trinidad. Captain Amasa Delano, from Duxbury, Massachusetts, sits in a cane chair smoking a corncob pipe and talking with John Perkins, his bosun (a multipurpose boatswain or petty officer). In their idle talk, Perkins remarks that he would feel safer if John Adams, rather than Thomas Jefferson, was president, and Delano, boasting of his own worldliness, informs Perkins that he will educate him in the ways of...
[The entire page is 2147 words long]
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