Benito Cereno, Herman Melville - Jon Hauss (essay date 1988)

Jon Hauss (essay date 1988)

SOURCE: “Masquerades of Language in Melville's Benito Cereno,” in Arizona Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2, Summer, 1988, pp. 5-21.

[In the following essay, Hauss probes the link between language and political oppression in “Benito Cereno.”]

… the principle relic of faded grandeur was the ample oval of the shield-like stern-piece, intricately carved with the arms of Castille and Leon, medallioned about by groups of mythological or symbolical devices; uppermost and central of which was a dark satyr in a mask, holding his foot on the prostrate neck of a writhing figure, likewise masked.1

This image, on the stern of the Spanish slave-ship in Melville's “Benito Cereno,” focuses the central subject of Melville's story—masquerade. At the same time, it embodies the story's central insights. Masquerades, constructed of various “mythological and symbolical...

[The entire page is 5886 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:

eNotes Pass