Short Fiction · Chapter
Benito Cereno explained
Captain Amasa Delano, commanding a sealer, encounters a mysterious Spanish ship, the San Dominick, in the harbor of St.
What happens
Captain Amasa Delano, commanding a sealer, encounters a mysterious Spanish ship, the San Dominick, in the harbor of St. Maria. Boarding the ship, he finds a distressed crew and cargo of slaves under the command of the ailing Captain Benito Cereno. As Delano offers aid, he gradually senses underlying tensions and deceptions, culminating in a revelation of a slave revolt led by Babo. The chapter includes depositions and official documents that expose the true, violent history of the voyage.
Themes in this chapter
Appearance vs. Reality
The entire chapter revolves around the deceptive appearance of the San Dominick as a distressed ship, masking the reality of a slave revolt and the true power dynamics.
Authority and Rebellion
The slave revolt led by Babo challenges the established authority of the Spanish captain and crew, highlighting the tension between oppressors and the oppressed.
Justice and Injustice
The legal depositions and the tribunal's eventual condemnation of the rebels raise questions about the justice of the slave system and the violent rebellion against it.
Characters to notice
- Captain Amasa Delano
The American captain who boards the San Dominick, initially trusting and benevolent, but gradually unsettled by the ship's strange atmosphere.
- Benito Cereno
The Spanish captain of the San Dominick, appearing frail and mentally disturbed, later revealed to be under the control of the enslaved rebels.
- Babo
The enslaved servant of Benito Cereno, who is actually the mastermind behind the revolt and maintains a facade of loyalty.
- Atufal
A powerful enslaved African, formerly a chief, who is kept in chains as part of the deceptive performance aboard the ship.
- Alexandro Aranda
The owner of the enslaved people, mentioned in the deposition as having been killed during the revolt.
Key passages
“The morning was one peculiar to that coast. Everything was mute and calm; everything gray. The sea, though undulated into long roods of swells, seemed fixed, and was sleeked at the surface like waved lead that has cooled and set in the smelter’s mould.”
The morning was unusually still and gray, with the sea appearing motionless and metallic, like cooled lead.
Sets an ominous, foreboding atmosphere for the arrival of the strange ship.
“Whether, in view of what humanity is capable, such a trait implies, along with a benevolent heart, more than ordinary quickness and accuracy of intellectual perception, may be left to the wise to determine.”
Whether Delano's trusting nature reflects wisdom or naivety is left for the reader to judge.
Highlights the theme of appearance vs. reality and Delano's flawed perception.
“The ship, when made signally visible on the verge of the leaden-hued swells, with the shreds of fog here and there raggedly furring her, appeared like a whitewashed monastery after a thunderstorm, seen perched upon some dun cliff among the Pyrenees.”
The ship looked like a battered white monastery on a cliff, shrouded in fog.
Emphasizes the eerie, monastic appearance of the San Dominick, masking its true nature.