In Benito Cereno, Captain Delano is immediately unsettled by the social hierarchies that seem to have dissolved on board Don Benito’s ship. He notices that “evidently reduced from scarcity of water and provisions; while long continued suffering seemed to have brought out the less goodnatured qualities of the Negroes, besides, at the same time, impairing the Spaniard’s authority over them.” This physical and structural deterioration of Benito is mirrored by the physical decay of the ship itself which Captain Delano surveys at length. He further philosophizes that “In armies, navies, cities, or families- in nature herself- nothing more relaxes good order than misery.” I think a ship is particularly apt scene to analyze the social hierarchies that emerge and dissolve when everybody is facing the same uncontrollable “misery” caused by outside forces.
While surveying the physical deterioration of the ship itself, it seems ironic that one of Captain Delano’s initial observations is a pedestal with the words “Seguid vuestro jefe” (follow your leader) “rudely painted” along the side. On a ship that has clearly lost the formal constraints of a hierarchy between the “leader” and his people, it seems ironic that the supposed “followers” would advertise the very norms they dissolved. Although, it seems that despite the lack of formal constraints, Benito still find himself in the company of the loyal servant Babo.
Hi Eliza!
I thought your point that a ship is a place where social hierarchies were uncovered and broken down because of the extenuating circumstances that affect everyone on a human level was extremely interesting. I was personally intrigued by the passage on the bottom of page 1514 where the narrator emphasizes that while both a house and a ship hide its inhabitants, they differ in that a ship located within the “black ocean which zones it, something of the effect of enchantment. The ship seems unreal; these strange costumes, gestures, and faces” (Melville, 1514). I interpreted this quote to mean that without the grounding of hierarchies embedded within a settled culture, there is more ambiguity in social norms. The ocean is “blank” and thus does not have established norms that govern its inhabitants’ behaviors. This might explain why after Captain Delano witnessed a slave on board the ship slashes a white man on board, he is confused by the scene, but does not speculate the reality of the situation: there has been a slave rebellion. If this situation was to have taken place at a house located within a location where the culture had a clear hierarchy, I wonder if Delano would have thought differently about the interaction.