Themes. Black represents evil, although the story also recognizes the correctness of the slaves’ impulse toward freedom and disputes the stereotype of blacks as incompetent and happy-go-lucky. Whenever he has these spells, Babo catches his master in his arms. The tale, slightly revised, was included in his short story … Cereno reports that the San Dominick set out one hundred and ninety days before from Buenos Aires for Lima filled with cargo, fifty Spanish sailors and three hundred black slaves. "Benito Cereno" is, like "Bartleby the Scrivener," one of Melville's most hotly debated short stories. There is some indication that he considered making it into a novel but was discouraged by his potential publisher. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Briefly, Cereno falters, staring down at the deck. He tells Delano that the ship had left Buenos Aires six months earlier, bound for Lima. After distributing his baskets of fish, Delano orders the men in his whaleboat to return to the Bachelor's Delight, Delano's ship, and fetch water and provisions for Cereno and his crew.

Summary Analysis In 1799, an American ship captain, Amasa Delano, from Duxbury, …

After a revolt, the slaves kill most of the Spaniards and plan to sail the ship to their freedom.

Après jugement, Babo est exécuté et Benito Cereno se retire dans un monastère.

Imagine if Spielberg had tried to make a film where the black slaves are the bad guys and the slavers, heroically defending themselves with pistols and rifles against the swords and hatchets of the slaves, are the good guys.

Although he is not injured, he experiences a grim foreboding as he passes. As Delano casts off, Don Benito leaps into the longboat, pursued by the knife-wielding Babo. A "white noddy"-an albatross, which is a nautical symbol of the supernatural (see "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner")-is perched in the ship's riggings. The new ship seems to be floating rather listlessly, and her sails are torn. Since then, Cereno claims he had continually attempted to reach land, but had always been prevented from doing so by bad weather or bad seamanship by the remaining sailors. The whole truth about the San Dominick’s voyage is not revealed until the end of the novel, creating occasion after occasion in which Melville can employ literary irony. As they were rounding Cape Horn, Cereno says that they were caught in violent storms that killed many of his sailors. Delano is not so sure; however, ever the optimist, he dismisses these apprehensions. Although he takes pride in his enlightened attitude toward the Africans on board, Delano’s racist assumptions regarding the limited capabilities of blacks lead him to suspect that the Spaniard is plotting some evil. As critic Warner Berthoff has pointed out, figuring out Melville's attitude is nearly impossible—one could fairly argue that his attitude is forgiving, patronizing, or contemptuous of blacks and/or slavery. However, Cereno manages to single out the black men and women aboard his ship as deserving of special praise for their conduct during the hardships of the last months.

He boards the ship, and he is immediately accosted by sailors and black slaves, all begging for water and supplies. Son nom même connote le san benito jaune des autodafés, la tunique infamante dont étaient revêtus les réprouvés frappés d’inhabilité, autrement … However, few critics believe that "Benito Cereno" is a pro-slavery story. Delano wonders if Cereno is an aristocrat who was given command of a ship, even though he doesn't seem to be a very good captain. After resupplying the San Dominick, Delano prepares to depart and promises to tow the disabled ship to safe anchor next to the Bachelor’s Delight. Please provide a list of details that show suspicious activity in Benito Cereno. Benito Cereno is a novella by Herman Melville, a fictionalized account about the revolt on a Spanish slave ship captained by Don Benito Cereno, first published in three installments in Putnam's Monthly in 1855.

As the story unfolds, with his ship docked in the harbor of a small island, Captain... eNotes.com will help you with any book or any question. The ship shows no flag and steers erratically; Delano determines to investigate.


Critics have pondered the most puzzling of the three major characters. Delano is particularly struck by the image of the pleasant, strong black slave upholding the weak, well-dressed white captain. The six Ashanti conjurers sharpen and polish hatchets as though Cereno has assigned them busy-work while Delano wanders the deck in an optimistic stupor. What seem to be some of the purposes of Herman Melville's Benito Cereno? Rebels and Non-comformists in the Short Stories of Herman Melville, The Barber's Mastery in Melville's Benito Cereno, The Importance of Setting in Melville's "Benito Cereno", The Demise of the 19th Century American Liberal: Representations in ”Benito Cereno” and Our Nig, Perception as Plot: A Structural Account of the Level of Action, Character, and the Narrative of Suspicion in Benito Cereno, View Wikipedia Entries for Benito Cereno….

Slavery and freedom emerges as yet a third central dichotomy in Melville’s text.

Cereno is ruined by the experience. Cereno, in his usual, sickly way, dismisses the offence as mere fun between children. Babo smiles devotedly at his master's thanks, and Delano, who appreciates such shows of servility, praises Babo as well. Please let us know if you have any suggestions or comments or would like any additional information. But "Benito Cereno," published in 1855 (during a time of great political turmoil over the issue of slavery, six years before the Civil War), provides that very scenario: the slaves, who are portrayed as both brutal and cunning, revolt against their masters and are thwarted by the efforts of well-armed white men. But Delano is a patient and forgiving man, so he persuades himself that Cereno's behavior is a result of the trouble Cereno and his ship have suffered.