Irony and Power in Melville's "Benito Cereno"
This essay examines the central irony in Herman Melville's novella "Benito Cereno," focusing on the inverted power relationship between the African slave Babo and the Spanish captain Benito Cereno. Through close readings of three key scenes — Babo's physical control over Cereno, the shaving scene, and the lunch episode — the essay demonstrates how Melville deliberately deceives both Captain Delano and the reader by presenting Babo as a subservient attendant while he is, in fact, the true master of the San Dominick. The analysis also considers how Delano's credulous narration sustains the story's dramatic irony until the concluding deposition reveals the truth.
- Introduction: The Irony at the Heart of the Story: Thesis: Babo controls Cereno in an ironic reversal
- Babo's Physical Control and Delano's Credulous Narration: Babo physically encircles Cereno to suppress truth
- The Shaving Scene: Menace Disguised as Servitude: Razor scene reveals Babo's threatening dominance
- The Lunch Episode and Babo's Complete Mastery: Babo's presence prevents Cereno from confiding in Delano
- Conclusion: Irony as the Engine of Surprise: Slave-as-master irony enables Melville's surprise ending
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay builds its argument progressively through three distinct textual examples, each one deepening the reader's understanding of the master-slave reversal before reaching a unified conclusion.
- Direct quotations from the primary text are used precisely, with close attention to specific word choices (e.g., "encircled," "disservice," "confidant") that support the interpretive claims.
- The paper links the literary technique of dramatic irony to a structural narrative function — Delano's credulity — showing how character and form work together to produce the story's effect.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The essay demonstrates close reading as its primary method: it selects short, telling passages and unpacks their language at the level of diction and tone, showing how surface meaning (apparent subservience) contradicts underlying meaning (actual control). This technique is ideal for literary analysis assignments that ask students to move beyond plot summary toward interpretive argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a classic five-part literary analysis structure: an introduction establishing the central irony and thesis, three body paragraphs each built around a distinct quotation and scene, and a brief conclusion tying the irony back to Melville's authorial craft. Each body paragraph follows the same pattern — introduce the scene, quote the text, analyze the language, and explain the ironic effect — making the structure easy to replicate as a model for similar assignments.
Introduction: The Irony at the Heart of the Story
Herman Melville's "Benito Cereno" is a fascinating novella that employs a surprising ending to elucidate aspects of the tale that are otherwise enigmatic and confusing for the reader. It is only once Cereno gives his deposition at the conclusion of the story — subsequent to his warning Captain Delano about the planned attack of the slaves on the former's ship against the latter's — that the rich sense of irony spanning the course of "Benito Cereno" is fully revealed. A thorough analysis of this story, aided by the clarity of hindsight, shows that the irony upon which the plot hinges is typified by the relationship between Cereno, who appears to be the ship's captain and leader, and Babo, who appears to be Cereno's slave.
In actuality, however, Babo has Cereno under his power: the African is the true master while the European is his slave, all in service of Babo's bid to return to Senegal. The irony of this situation, and of the relationship between these two men, is essential to the story's surprise ending and is one of the most powerful aspects of "Benito Cereno."
Babo's Physical Control and Delano's Credulous Narration
One of the ways Melville utilizes this ironic relationship as the basis of the plot is as the central means of explaining to Captain Delano — and thereby to the reader — what allegedly took place on board the San Dominick. Cereno explains these fictitious circumstances to Delano with an authority that the reader assumes belongs to him as the ship's master. However, a closer look at the following passage demonstrates that this authority is not necessarily his:
"…there was a sudden fainting attack of his cough, brought on, no doubt, by his mental distress. His servant sustained him, and drawing a cordial from his pocket placed it to his lips. He a little revived. But unwilling to leave him unsupported while yet imperfectly restored, the black with one arm still encircled his master, at the same time keeping his eye fixed on his face, as if to watch for the first sign of complete restoration, or relapse, as the event might prove" (Melville 1856).
This passage indicates that, ironically, it is Babo who is actually in control of the ship's captain. His looming presence, which "encircled" Cereno, is there to ensure that the latter does not reveal the actual circumstances surrounding the ragged condition of the San Dominick. What is integral to this interpretation is Melville's use of Delano as the story's narrator. It is Delano who tells the reader that the sudden coughing spell triggered while Cereno recounts the tale is due to the latter's "mental distress." Had Delano been a more incisive narrator, the irony of the relationship between Babo and Cereno would have become apparent to the reader far sooner. However, Melville deliberately makes Delano credulous rather than incisive, using this quality of his narration to conceal the true dynamic between Babo and Cereno and to set up the story's surprise ending.
The Shaving Scene: Menace Disguised as Servitude
Another salient example of the irony in the relationship between Babo and Cereno is presented when Babo shaves the ship's captain. On a literal level, this incident appears highly indicative of Babo's subservience to Cereno, since he is performing a mundane task for the captain's benefit. However, a closer examination of the diction Melville employs in this scene reveals that what appears to be concern for Cereno on Babo's part is, ironically, veiled menace:
"You must not shake so, master. — See, Don Amasa, master always shakes when I shave him. And yet master knows I never yet have drawn blood, though it's true, if master will shake so, I may some of these times" (Melville 1856).
Despite the fact that Babo refers to Cereno as "master" in the preceding quotation, it is Babo who is truly the master of this situation: he is the one wielding a sharp knife at the throat of the other, virtually controlling him to continue telling lies to Delano. Babo's apparent concern — "you must not shake so" — is actually a threatening warning, one which implies that he will cut Cereno if the truth is revealed. The irony of this situation is almost paradoxical, and represents a deliberate deception on Melville's part, designed to build suspense toward the surprise ending. This kind of sustained dramatic irony, in which the audience gradually senses a hidden truth that a character cannot or will not name, is one of Melville's most sophisticated narrative techniques in this story.
Conclusion: Irony as the Engine of Surprise
Had Cereno possessed the authority to expel Babo from the room, he would have been able to confide in Delano, and thereby ruined the surprise ending Melville had planned for the reader. By utilizing the highly ironic relationship in which the slave is the master and the master is the slave, Melville is able to preserve the surreptitious nature of the true story of the San Dominick until the very end. This inversion of expected power roles — sustained across multiple scenes and reinforced by a narrator too credulous to see through it — is what gives "Benito Cereno" its enduring power and its capacity to unsettle the reader long after the final revelation.
Works Cited
Melville, Herman. "Benito Cereno." Books Mirror. 1856. Web.
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