The Confidence Man (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)

At a glance:

Characters Discussed

The Confidence Man, masquerading, in turn, as a deaf-mute beggar; as a crippled beggar named Black Guinea; as John Ringman; as a solicitor of funds for the Seminole Widow and Orphan Society; as Mr. Truman, president of the Black Rapids Coal Company; as an herb doctor; as a representative of the Philosophical Intelligence Office; and as Francis Goodman, world traveler. By means of his glib tongue and show of sympathetic camaraderie, he succeeds in duping the passengers on board theFidele even as a placard offering a reward for the impostor is posted on the steamship’s deck.

Mr. Roberts, a kindly, gullible merchant swindled by the confidence man.

An Episcopal Clergyman, an officious demander of references who is blandly gulled out of alms for “Black Guinea” as well as a contribution to the Seminole Widow and Orphan Society.

Pitch, a misanthropic frontiersman inspired by the confidence man’s glib tongue to hire a boy through the impostor’s “employment agency.”

Charles Noble, a garrulous passenger who succeeds in evading the confidence man’s appeals for a loan.

Mark Winsome, a mystic philosopher who accuses Charles Noble of being the confidence man.

Egbert, a disciple of Mark Winsome. He disgusts the confidence man by relating a long story concerning the folly of making loans between friends.

Bibliography:

Leyda, Jay. The Melville Log. 2 vols. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1951. A collection of documents important to the life and career of Melville, including excerpts from letters, reviews of his work, and passages from Melville’s novels that allude to biographical data.

Lindberg, Gary. The Confidence-Man in American Literature. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. A discussion of Melville’s novel frames this investigation of the confidence man in American literature and history. Includes discussions of Huckleberry Finn, P. T. Barnum, Walt Whitman, and Thomas Jefferson among others.

Melville, Herman. The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade. Edited by Bruce Franklin. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1967. Franklin’s edition of this novel contains substantial footnotes to the main text, giving the reader reliable critical elucidations of the text’s complex symbolic structure and historical and mythic allusions.

Melville, Herman. Journals. Edited by Howard C. Horsford and Lynn Horth. Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1989. Includes entries and passages written soon after Melville finished The Confidence Man.

Rogin, Michael Paul. Subversive Genealogy: The Politics and Art of Herman Melville. Berke-ley: University of California Press, 1979. Incisive psychological and Marxist reading of Melville’s life and work, arguing that Melville was one of the leading thinkers of his age. The reading of Melville’s family’s place in the historical context of the 1840’s is unparalleled. Includes an excellent discussion of The Confidence Man.