"I' l1 Sweeten Thy Sad Grave":
Wilderness and Social Reform in Herman Melville's The Piazza Tales
by
Molly Mande
A thesis submitted to
Sonoma State University
in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of
MASTERS OF ARTS
in
English
Dr. Kim Hester-Williams, Chair
Dr. Timothy Wandling
I
I
Date
Copyright 2013
By Molly Mande
11
Authorization for Reproduction of Master's Thesis (or Project)
I grant permission for the print or digital reproduction of this thesis in its
entirety, without further authorization from me, on the condition that the person or
agency requesting reproduction absorb the cost and provide proper acknowledgment of
authorship.
Signai&e*
Ill
"I'll Sweeten Thy Sad Grave": Wilderness and Social Reform in Herman Melville's
The Piazza Tales
Thesis by
Molly Mande
ABSTRACT
This thesis explores how Herman Melville's depiction of the relationship between Man
and Wilderness in his collection of short stories, The Piazza Tales, critiques the social
reform movements of the mid-nineteenth century. By highlighting how Melville's
portrayal of the relationship between Man and Wilderness parallels that seen in Early
American survey writing texts such as Notes on the State of Virginia as well as midnineteenth century nature writing texts such as Walden, this thesis asserts that Melville is
showing how the evolution of the relationship between Man and Wilderness retains an
inherent level of subjugation. Similarly, by showing how Melville's text parallels the
relationship between Man and Wilderness with that of Man and subjugated Man, this
thesis suggests that Melville was making a claim that, due to the inherent subjugation that
exists within the American social structure, the social reform movements of the mid-19th
century would, ultimately, be ineffective-a reality which is apparent in the persistence
of social, racial, and economical stratification in early 21st century America.
Chapter 1 synthesizes G.W.F. Hegel's Master-Slave Dialectic and Bill Brown's "Thing
Theory" in order to demonstrate how Melville's depiction of the relationship between
Man and Wilderness mirrors the relationship between Man and Subjugated Man. Chapter
2 explores the parallels between Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia,
Melville's depiction of the relationship between Man and Wilderness in "The Piazza,"
"The Lightning Rod Man," "The Encantadas," and "The Belltower," and the treatment of
subjugated peoples in pre-Westward Movement America. Chapter 3 examines how
Melville's portrayal of the relationship between Man and Wilderness in "The Piazza,"
"The Lightening Rod Man," "The Belltower," and "Bartleby the Scrivener" imitates that
of mid-nineteenth-century America
Signature
MA Program: English
Sonoma State University
iv
·Acknowledgements
A sincere and humble thanks to everyone who has encouraged me, pushed me, and held
my hand throughout my Masters program and throughout the process of writing this
thesis, especially:
To my family, for their unconditional love, support, and for understanding when I forget
to call.
To the amazing ladies of my cohort, for constantly inspiring me with friendship as well as
scholarship.
To Toby, for being there with affection, understanding, and bourbon during my moments
of success and my moments of crisis.
To Thaine Steams and John Kunat, for pushing me into the deep end and making me
realize I could swim-metaphorically.
To Scott Miller and Mira-Lisa Katz, for showing me scholarship can be empathetic and
unique.
To Tim Wandling, for following and encouraging my ever-evolving thesis topic.
To Kim Hester-Williams, for giving me my first breath of fresh air that is American
Literature, and for constant and unwavering support, enthusiasm, feedback, and handholding throughout the distance-sport that has been my writing process.
And finally, to Herman Melville who gave me a path to his heart, his mind, and his world
through the seemingly endless literary labyrinth that is The Piazza Tales.
v
Table of Contents
Section
Page
Introduction ................................................................................................ 1
Chapter I. ........................................................................................................................14
Chapter IL ................................................................................................................... 30
Chapter III. ............................................................................................ 42
Conclusion........................................................................................................................ 56
Bibliography ..................................................................................................................... 5
Vl
Introduction
"Jn these times offailingfaith and feeble knees, we
have the piazza and the pew "
"The Piazza"
Herman's Melville's collection of short stories, The Piazza Tales, is unique not
only because it is the only collection of his short stories to be published during his
lifetime, but also because it appears to represent a shift in focus and intent for the writer.
Melville's early works, such as Typee and Omoo, were well-received travel-fiction
novels, which explored the exotic worlds of the Pacific Islands he had encountered as a
sailor. His next few novels, Mardi, Whitejacket, Redburn, and Moby Dick-which also
took place at sea but were significantly more philosophical and symbol-ladened-were
not nearly so well received. Melville's frustration with his novels' lack of success was
particularly apparent in response to the minimal popularity of Moby Dick which,
compared to Whitejacket and Redburn, "two jobs which [he had] done for money," he
thought of as his masterpiece. Thus, by the time he wrote the short story, "The Piazza,"
and published the collection of stories in, The Piazza Tales, Melville was frustrated that
the novels he, and some critics, felt were monumentally better writing, were so poorly
received. However, despite the diminishing popularity of his works, Melville refused to
return to writing travel-fiction, but instead continued to write fiction that was increasingly
symbolic and heavily critical of American social structures. In "The Piazza," the title
story of The Piazza Tales, the narrator, who has journeyed into the surrounding
countryside in search of a Shakespearian fairy kingdom, states he will be "launching [his]
yawl no more for fairyland" (12). While the narrator is referencing his choice to no
2
longer seek a fantastical existence, the statement also reads as a declaration by Melville
to himself and to his readership. While the narrator journeys "no more for fairyland,"
Melville is announcing to his readers that, despite their popularity, he will produce no
more travel stories about exotic lands. Instead, he will continue to do the kind of writing
he thinks to be worthwhile: works that are complex, subversive, and focus on the plights
of America-specifically, in The Piazza Tales, social reform. In addition, the narrator's
statement can be read as a lament of Melville's own loss of optimism. Since the narrator
of "The Piazza" believes himself to be journeying to "fairy-land," and to the shining
house on the hill, his declaration that he will no longer "journey to fairy-land" can be
read as the result of realizing that there is no fairy-land-just the same reality as his own,
but further away. Considering the point in Melville's career that "The Piazza" was
written, this loss of optimistic fantasy likely mirrored his state of mind, as well as that of
the narrator. For Melville, no longer journeying "to fairy-land" alludes to his
determination not to succumb to pressures from publishers and his readership to return to
writing about the fantastical lands he encountered while at sea, as well as to no longer
holding on to the belief that his work would be appreciated for its depth, complexity, and
philosophical exploration of the American social structures.
This is not the only occurrence of Melville's voice and persona appearing within
one of his characters in The Piazza Tales. While not overt, the autobiographical elements,
which are scattered throughout the collection, serve to ground The Piazza Tales in
Melville's contemporary America, which allows the reader to draw numerous parallels
between the tales and many social issues that were ubiquitous in Pre-Civil War
America-especially those that directly affected Melville. For example, "Bartleby the
3
Scrivener," which was previously published in Putnam's in 1853 is often considered to
be about Melville's own frustrations with how the industrialization of the workforce was
changing the business of writing. Similarly, both "Benito Cereno" and "The Encantadas"
deal with the social hierarchy of a ship, which Melville, who spent many years on a
whaling ship, had vast experience with. In fact, many of Melville's critiques of social
inequality are thought to have originated with the social hierarchy he witnessed while
under way. Most specifically, according to Andrew Delbanco, Melville was wary of how
"human beings organize themselves into ranks, and how those doing the organizing
always reserve a place for themselves at the top" (157). As for "The Piazza," according to
Biographer Hershel Parker, it was "a celebration of Melville's own piazza" and The
Piazza Tales were "'written on a piazza which command[ed] a grand view northward to
[Mt.] Greylock'" (164, 273). The significance of Melville's presence in "The Piazza"which is often thought to act as a key to the collection-is that by paralleling himself
with the narrator of 'The Piazza,' Melville draws a connection between his 'view'-that
of an America which is attempting to reform its social structure in hopes of a 'truer'
democracy-and the narrator's view-the wilderness.
The Piazza Tales, published in 1856, was originally set to contain five stories:
"Benito Cereno," "Bartleby the Scrivener," ''The Encantadas," "The Lightening-Rod
Man," and "The Belltower"-all previously published in Putnam 's Magazine between
the years of 1851-1855. Originally, this five-work collection was to be titled Benito
Cerino and Other Sketches. However, the title story, "Benito Cereno," would prove a
slight complication for Melville. According to Parker's extensive biography of Melville,
Pictor, a correspondent for the Evening Post, wrote an editorial titled "The Origin of
4
Melville's 'Benito Cereno"' in which he strove to inform all of New York that "Benito
Cereno" was "founded on an incident in Amasa Delano's Voyages and Travels" and to
fill readers in on "how the story was going to end" (272). As a result, and perhaps at the
urging of his publishers, Melville decided he would include a note that would append
'Benito Cereno' and give credit to Delano. However, Melville's decision to include his
note with 'Benito Cereno' changed in early 1856 when, due to his publishers pushing him
for a new story to include in the collection, Melville composed "The Piazza." Upon
completion, Melville wrote to his publishers Dix & Edwards to let them know he would
be including "The Piazza" and changing the title to The Piazza Tales. In this letter, he
also stated that since "the book [was] now to be published as a collection of 'Tales,"' the
appended note was, "unsuitable [and] had better be omitted" (Parker 275). Through the
addition of"The Piazza," and the subsequent shift in the title, Melville's collection
gained a new layer of meaning, which rendered the note appended to "Benito Cereno"
unnecessary.
Melville's emphasis on the shift to a "collection of 'Tales,"' in his letter to his
publishers, indicates several things that are important to deciphering this new layer of
meaning within The Piazza Tales (Sealts 56). First, that Melville believed there was an
important difference between the words 'Sketches' and 'Tales.' The Oxford English
Dictionary defines 'tale' as both "a story or narrative, true or fictitious," as well as "a
mere story, as opposed to a narrative or fact," while 'sketch' is defined as "a brief
account, description, or narrative giving the main or important facts. " 1 Thus, the word
'tale' holds connotations of both truth and fiction, while 'sketch' indicates a story that is
1
"tale, n." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. 1989. OED Online., Oxford University Press. 21 February 2013
<http://dictionary .oedcom/>, "sketch, n." The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed 1989. OED Online., Oxford University Press. 21
February, 2013.
5
based on 'facts.' For Melville to determine the appended note was no longer suitable,
once the title of the collection had changed, suggests that his definition of 'tales' includes
that of a work of fiction, and, thus, does not require a citation of Delano's Voyages and
Travels as the origin of 'Benito Cereno.' Secondly, Melville's deliberate use of the word
"Tales" in the title of his collection also hints at his larger project If, as OED states,
'~tales"
refers to stories that are either "true or fictitious," Melville is bringing the truth
and fiction of each story into question through the very title The Piazza Tales. While in
the case of "Benito Cereno," the term 'tale' in the title may serve to highlight its fictitious
state; for the five other works, it also serves to bring into question the 'truth' of each tale.
As previously mentioned, ''The Piazza," "Benito Cereno," "The Encantadas," and
"Bartleby the Scrivener" can easily be read as allusions to Melville's own experiences.
However, each of these stories also contains elements that diverge from Melville's life.
For example, although ''The Piazza" might be "a celebration of Melville's own piazza,
the narrator of 'The Piazza' is also portrayed as processing a Thoreau-esque
transcendentalist approach to the surrounding wildemess---an ideology of which Melville
was a known skeptic (Parker 164). Similarly, 'Benito Cereno,' may be based on a true
occurrence, but Melville's "tale" is actually a greatly embellished fictive account, which
bears only a skeletal resemblance to Delano's original account. By allowing these tales
to resemble real-life situations---or "sketches"-while still being "tales," Melville is
blurring the line between fact and fiction and, thus, bringing the very divide between fact
and fiction-or reality and illusion-into question.
There are, in fact, many elements in 'The Piazza,' which bring reality in question
and make Melville's story, according to Parker, a "meditation on illusion and truth"
6
(273). One example is the epigraph, which is a quote from Shakespeare's Cymbeline. The
epigraph reads: "with fairest flowers/whilst summer lasts and I live here, Fidele-" ( 1).
While at first read this quote may appear to relate to 'The Piazza' because of its mention
of nature ('flowers,' 'summer'), the odd choice to leave the name, 'Fidele,' at the end
hints that the quote is being utilized for some other veiled meaning. In Cymbe/ine, Fidele
is the name taken on by Imogen, the daughter of the king of Brittan, when she flees her
home, disguised as a boy (Shakespeare 1199). At this point in Shakespeare's play,
Imogen is the target of many false accusations and assumptions: her love, Posthamus, has
accused her of infidelity because of a lie told by Posthamus' friend; she has taken on the
persona (and attire) of a boy, Fidele, in order to flee her kingdom; and she is, at the time
the quote is spoken to her, presumed to be dead because she has taken poison, which she
believes to be medicine. The speaker of the quote believes that Imogen is a boy, Fidele,
and that 'he' is dead. Thus, under the surface of this quote, are many layers of uncertain
reality and false perception. Melville was known to be an avid admirer and reader of
Shakespeare's works, and according to F.O. Matthiessen, author of American
Renaissance, had "[gone] through the whole of Shakespeare in the winter of 1849" (412).
Melville would have been thoroughly aware of the depth of meaning behind his
Shakespeare epigraph, and thus his choice to preface 'The Piazza' with it is a strong
indication of his desire to bring reality and perception into question in 'The Piazza. ' 2
Matthiessen also draws a connection between Melville's interest in Shakespeare
and Melville's desire to explore the division between reality and perception. According
to Matthiessen, "in [Melville's] examination of both society and religion he became
2
Among various proofs of Melville's admiration of Shakespeare is a painting, which Melville had in is collection, which Andrew
Delbanco includes in his Biography of Melville, Melville: His World and His Work. The painting is of"Cymbaline, Act 2, Scene 2:
'A bed chamber; Imogen in Bed."'
7
increasingly possessed by Hamlet's problem," which is "the difference between what
seems and what is" (376). The examination of this dlfference manifests throughout "The
Piazza" The narrator, in recounting his 'journey into fairy-land,' refers to it as "a true
voyage; but. .. interesting as if invented" and, after his return, he laments how he is
"haunted by Marianna's face, and many as real a story" (4, 12). In both of these
statements, Melville's use of the word 'as' serves to make the statements conditional and,
thus, leave the reader unsure whether the narrator's journey actually transpired, or if it
was imagined by him. This decentering of 'reality' becomes all the more complex due to
the juxtaposition with the narrator's own constructed reality. On one side is what, at first,
appears to be a fairly straightforward and undisputable reality: the narrator decides to
hike up a mountain, finds a decrepit house, talks to the girl who lives there, and comes
home. On the other side is the fantastical world the narrator paints through constant
allusions to fictional and allegorical works and characters as well as lamentations on the
subliminal beauty of the surrounding wilderness. For example, the narrator's description
of the surrounding wilderness includes references to a sky which holds "Orion" and his
"Democles' sword," and can be as "ominous as Hecate's cauldron"; mountains which are
"Charlamaigne" and "his peers," who "play at hide-and-seek"; a meadow where
"Macbeth and foreboding Banquo" walk; and a path to fairy-land along which the
narrator finds "Eve's Apples," and a ring where "fairies must have danced" (2, 4, 7). By
describing his world through these fanciful elements, the narrator creates a sense of
division between the reality of his world-he lives in a farmhouse, goes on a hike, and
meets a girl who lives on an adjacent mountain--and how he chooses to view the
world-he lives in a magical land surrounded by literary, mythical, and biblical
8
characters, and journeyed to fairy-land. However, because that which appears to be
reality (the 'journey,' Marianna) is later brought into question, it is suddenly the
constructed reality of the narrator that maintains a sense of stability and, thus, reality. 3
Further complicating the issue of reality in 'The Piazza' is the fact that the literary
references the narrator uses are predominately of European origin: A Midsummer's
Nights Dream, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Cymbeline by William Shakespeare, The Faerie
Queene by Edmund Spencer, and Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Considering
these references are the basis upon which he builds his constructed reality, they can be
considered crucial points of reference for his sense of reality. However, because these
stories are of European origin, the narrator is essentially overlaying a reality of European
origin upon an American landscape. While the envisioning of European literary
characters in an American wilderness may not seem problematic, it is actually
symptomatic of a larger ideological problem. Scott A. Kemp, author of"'They But
Reflect the Things': Style and Rhetorical Purpose in Melville's 'The Piazza Tale,'(sic)"
suggests that "['The Piazza'] critiques an America that had failed to overturn Old World
abuses and implement lasting republican reform" (60). Kemp's claim is further supported
by Thomas Jefferson's survey text, Notes on the State o/Virginia, where Jefferson
discusses how "The common law of England" was "made the basis" of the laws and
codes of the newly established Commonwealth of Virginia (144). Although the
democratic model of American politics boasted a divergence from Britain's Monarchy, it
3
Although it post-dares Melville, the mechanics of this juxtaposition can be explained by Jean Baudrillard's Simulacra and
Simulation. In his theoretical rext, Baudrillard discusses how what we rend to look at as ''the real" is only real in contrast to what we
see as the unreal. He gives the example of Disneyland in contrast to the surrounding Los Angeles metropolitan area. Disneyland is a
self-identified figurehead of the unreal. It is an intentionally construcred hyperfantastical. reality. However, because people look to
Disneyland as an example of non-reality, Los Angeles, which is in no way a model ofreality, seems "real." Similarly, in contrastto
the narrator of "The Piazza"' s augmenred reality, there is no reason to doubt the reality of the journey he goes on. However, once the
reality of that journey is brought into question, it is suddenly the fantastical world he has painted which retains the greater sense of
reality. Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. 1994. Print.
9
can be inferred from Jefferson's statement that much in the way of laws and political
structure was actually modeled on English law. Considering the potential conflict
between the separation from British rule and the emulation of British rule, the fact that
the narrator of "The Piazza" overlays his American landscape with European fantasy
models to create his fantastical reality, seems to be Melville implying that America's
democracy was overlaid by European ideology and social structures. This concern of the
division between how American democracy was perceived, and the ways in which it was
simply perpetuating age-old social systems, appears to be a concept Melville struggled
with, and one he explores deeply throughout The Piazza Tales.
Melville's exploration and criticism of American social reform did not begin with
The Piazza Tales. Even his early works of travel-fiction, under the pretense of exposing
readers to the exotic world of the Pacific Isles, were, according to David S. Reynolds,
author of Beneath the American Renaissance, "protest[s] against mainstream
Christianity" and "missionaries on the South Sea Islands" as well as "subversive
commentary on the norms and values of white civilization" (137). However, in The
Piazza Tales, Melville's critique of American social reform seems to be situated in a
place of personal proximity, involvement, and consequence that his prior works were not
In the years leading up to and during Melville's work on The Piazza Tales, he found
himself increasingly involved and affected by the shifts in the social and labor
movements. Melville's father-in-law, Judge Shaw was pivotal to setting and enforcing
the standards of the Fugitive Slave law when he, despite his own personal beliefs that
slavery was "abhorrent," "declined to affirm the unconstitutionality of the Fugitive Slave
Law" (Delbanco 154). Through his father-in-law, Melville saw how personal ideologies
10
about social atrocities were no match for a structure that already favored one class over
another. In addition, Melville, unlike many of his contemporaries, was caught between
his own feelings of apprehension and shame in regards to American slavery, and his
direct link to the enforcement of slavery. According to Carolyn L. Karcher, author of
Shadow Over the Promised Land: Slavery, Race and Violence in Melville's America,
Melville was unable to "openly attack racism and the federal government's policy of
buttressing slavery" because "he would have had to brave not merely public opprobrium,
but the reproaches of a betrayed mentor"-his father-in-law who had helped to fund and
support Melville and his family after Melville's father's death (10). However, for
Melville, slavery was not the only locus of American social discord. His own
professional and financial struggles led to a skepticism about the ways industrialization
was changing labor and had, according to John Evelev, author of Tolerable
Entertainment, "begun to undermine the artisan systems ... replacing its vocational
structures of 'trade' and 'calling' with unskilled and disadvantageous 'job' or 'piece'
work that offered little or no possibility of upward mobility" (ix). Because
industrialization privileged efficiency and quantity of output, it shifted the employment
model away from individual skilled craftsmen to a large, faceless, unskilled workforce
who were often paid poorly and forced to work long hours. In other words, in mid-to-late
nineteenth century there was a shift from chattel slavery to "wage" slavery. Although
Melville was never forced to work a factory job, shortly before he published The Piazza
Tales, he found himself frequently under pressure from his publishers to produce piece
after piece-much like in a factory assembly line-rather than being valued for
producing quality work. In fact, it is likely that this shift was responsible for impeding his
11
success as an author, and these concerns about the affect the industrial workforce was
having on personal liberty-a narrative which persist throughout the narrative of
"Bartleby the Scrivener"-suggests that it is speaking to Melville's own anxieties and
skepticism.
The strongest support for The Piazza Tales being representative of Melville's
personal experience in American social reform lies in his choice of title. In "The Piazza"
the narrator chooses to build a piazza from which he can observe the surrounding
wilderness without being affected by it. Although he does venture out into the world, by
the end of the story he has chosen to "stick to the piazza" because it is his "royal box" his
"amphitheatre" (12). Much in the same way, The Piazza Tales operate as Melville's
piazza. He is able to view, and even examine, the landscape of Pre-Civil War America
from the removed space of his writing. Although the same could be said about much of
his work, Melville's choice to title the collection The Piazza Tales indicates that not only
are they a collection of tales which are brought together by the themes they share with the
title story, "The Piazza," but they are, themselves, Melville's piazza. The further
significance of this parallel is in how it strongly aligns Melville's America with the
narrator's wilderness, and, thus, reveals the dominant argument of The Piazza Tales.
Where in "The Piazza" it is the wilderness that the narrator views and explores from his
piazza, in The Piazza Tales it is the various problematic elements of American Social
reform that Melville is exploring. Thus, by looking at The Piazza Tales as Melville's
piazza, a seemingly deliberate narrative equivalency is drawn between social reform and
wilderness.
12
This equivalency is reinforced by a common philosophical standpoint, which
appears in how Melville portrays relationships between both Man versus Man as well as
Man versus Wilderness. This philosophical framework is that of Gennan theorist G. W.F.
Hegel, which, in short, details the intricacies, and complexities in a relationship between
a master and a slave or, in his tenninology, a "lord" and a "bondsman" (115). Hegel's
theory is most readily apparent in the fonner title story, 'Benito Cereno,' which Sterling
Stuckey, whose essay 'Tambourine in Glory' appears in the Cambridge Companion to
Herman Melville, refers to as "the finest expression in literature of [Hegel's master-slave]
relationship" (55). Because this story deals with slavery, it also provides a clear example
of how Hegel's theory speaks to the history of subjugated peoples in America. However,
Melville's treatment of wilderness in
~The
Piazza,' as well as the other five Piazza Tales,
also emulates the Hegelian Master/Slave relationship by showing the various ways in
which wilderness was dominated, as well as the ways in which it was never truly
mastered. Thus, through showing how the Hegelian Master/Slave relationship exists in
both Man versus Man and Man versus Wilderness relationships, Melville begins to draw
a parallel between the subjugation of men and the subjugation of wilderness in America.
Throughout The Piazza Tales, Melville also shows the ways in which the
Hegelian Master/Slave relationship, and the evolution of that relationship, has penneated
the history of America. For example, 'The Encantadas,' satirizes how early American
survey writers, such as Thomas Jefferson, related to Wilderness in an effort to understand
and dominate it, and 'The Piazza' shows how the Transcendentalist reverence of
wilderness is also a fonn of dominating wilderness. The significance of Melville's
portrayal of this evolution of the relationship between Man and Wilderness in America is
13
that while the relationship between Man and Wilderness has significantly evolved, the
relationship between Man and Man has yet to evolve. However, the social reform
movements-such as abolition, and labor reform-are proof that America was, in 1856,
standing on the brink of social evolution.
Thus, I argue that through the parallel that is drawn between wilderness and social
reform in The Piazza Tales-especially between wilderness and slavery, Melville is
prophesizing the fate of a post-social reform America. By means of his clear allusions to
Hegel throughout The Piazza Tales, Melville shows how outwardly violent and
dominating Man/Wilderness relationships and seemingly benign Man/Wilderness
relationships are both still relationships where man subjugates wilderness. Furthermore,
by demonstrating the parallels between the outwardly violent relationship to Wilderness,
and the outwardly violent relationship to subjugated peoples, such as chattel slaves,
Melville situates Wilderness as analogous to subjugated peoples. Therefore, by
illustrating how the seemingly more benign treatment of Wilderness in mid-nineteenth
century America is, in fact, still a form of subjugation, Melville is also suggesting that
even if treatment of subjugated peoples becomes more benign, it will likely also continue
to be a form of subjugation. In this way, through his depiction of these two distinct
relationships between man and wilderness, Melville suggests that even a post socialreform America will still be subject to a social structure that, according to Hegel, is made
up of'Lords' and 'Bondsmen.'
14
Chapter 1
" ... on. where a huge, cross-grain block, fern-bedded,
showed where, in forgotten times man after man had tried
to split it, but lost his wedges for his pains-which wedges
yet rusted in their holes"
"The Piazza"
Melville's inspiration for "Benito Cereno"-which is about a rebellion on a slave
ship-can be easily, and often is, attributed to the pre-Civil war anxieties about slave
uprisings. However, considering Melville's penchant for subversive and complex fiction,
which often tackled social issues under the surface of the narrative, it is unlikely that his
inspiration would be so overt as the very thing the story is about. Just as his early travel
fiction actually took on the Christian missionaries, and Moby Dick was a commentary on
slavery, "Benito Cereno" discusses much more than just the potential hazards of the slave
trade. Many have theorized that when he wrote "Benito Cereno" Melville was thinking of
German philosopher and theorist G.F.W. Hegel's work Phenomenology ofSpirit. Hegel's
theory, which is commonly referred to as "the master-slave dialectic," explores the
complexities of dominate/subordinate relationships. Considering "Benito Cereno" is
about the relationship dynamics between slaves and the crew of the slave ship, it's no
surprise that, as Melville scholar Sterling Stuckey states, "the Hegelian echo ... is
deafening" (54). While Stuckey's claim was merely a theory at the time he made it, there
is now solid evidence that he was correct. According to Melville's own journals, on
October 21st, 1849, during a rainy night in Newfoundland, Melville and his friends,
"Adler and Taylor" discussed "Hegel, Schlegel, Kant [etc.] ... under the influence of the
whiskey" (8). The knowledge that Melville had read and discussed Hegel's theories
15
several years before writing "Benito Cereno," as well as the clear similarities between the
relationship dynamics in "Benito Cereno" and Hegel's theories, points almost defmitively
to the conclusion that "Benito Cereno was, in fact, strongly influenced by Hegel.
However, "Benito Cereno" is not the only one ofMelville's tales that features Hegel's
master-slave dialectic. All six of the stories in The Piazza Tales contain relationships that
mirror the relationship described in Hegel's text. Furthermore, this persistent presence of
Hegel throughout The Piazza Tales suggests an intentional paralleling of these
relationships. Through the frequent occurrence of Hegelian relationships, Melville's
words equates overt master-slave relationships with relationships that would likely not be
thought of as master-slave relationships. The result of this equivalency is a touchstone
definition of subjugation-a definition that equates all Hegelian relationships with
slavery. Thus, by utilizing Hegel's master/slave dialectic to standardize the definition of
slavery, Melville reveals how the same social hegemony of white-male domination
privileged liberated individuals to take the place of master to many non-liberated
"slaves," including women, subjugated working-class men, and even America itself-the
vast expanse whose seemingly limitless land and resources was claimed and exploited in
the foundation of the United States. In fact, it is upon the subjugation of wilderness that
Melville appears to place the greatest focus. Through its use of Hegel's theoretical
framework as a key to define and identify the many forms of mastering behavior that
occur throughout The Piazza Tales-most specifically, those between man and
wilderness-Melville's text creates a clear parallel between overt forms of slavery and
seemingly benign interactions between man and wilderness.
16
Hegel's Master/Slave dialectic comes from his theoretical text Phenomenology of
Spirit-within the section titled "Independence and Dependence of Self-Consciousness:
Lordship and Bondage." As briefly summarized above, Hegel's theory details the
mutually defining relationship of two consciousnesses, and the inevitable struggle of "life
and death" that will ultimately define their dynamic as master and slave, or "Lord" and
"Bondsman" (Hegel 111 ). This process develops thusly: first there is a point of
recognition in which each consciousness becomes defined through the awareness of its
existence by the other consciousness; secondly there is an assessment of equality-the
other consciousness is recognized as not self, and is "other"; as such, the 'other' is
unessential. Next there is a "life and death struggle" to determine the essential and the
unessential being; and lastly the outcome of the struggle determines the master and the
slave, who are defined by each other-the master believes himself to live for himself
only, while the slave's life is to work for the master (Hegel 111-19 ). However, according
to Hegel, these binary roles prove to be just the opposite of what they appear, for the
"truth" of the lord is "something quite different from an independent consciousness/' and
the truth of the "servile consciousness of the bondsman" proves to be the "independent
consciousness"-meaning that the position of the master is inherently dependent upon
the slave, while the slave is not dependent upon the master ( 116, 117). The result of this
process is that since the bondsman (or the "slave," or the "subjugated individual'') is not
reliant upon the master to define him, he is afforded agency, or, as Hegel puts it,
"independence."
The most blatant example of the Hegelian Master/Slave relationship in The Piazza
Tales is between the slaves and the ship's crew in "Benito Cereno." Prior to the
17
beginning of the story, the Spanish crew of the San Dominick was overthrown by the
slaves who "revolted suddenly," "wound[ing] the boatswain and the carpender,"
"kill[ing] eighteen men," and "throwing [others] alive overboard" (Melville 105). Thus,
at the story's start, when Captain Amasa Delano comes in contact with the ship and its
crew, a very literal life-and-death struggle has already transpired, and, through the
struggle, the slaves have "made themselves masters" while the crew members have
become the "bondsmen" (Melville 105). This transfer of power was achievable because
of what Hegel claims is an inherent contradiction in all power dynamics. Although the
crew was in a dominant position, their dominance was dependent on the slaves'
subordinance. Conversely, because the slaves had no desire to maintain their subordinate
position they were not reliant upon the crew's dominance. It is in the conflict between the
master's desire to maintain his position, and the slave's desire to change his position that
Hegel claims the slave has power over the master. Since "the truth of the independent
consciousness" is "the servile consciousness of the bondsman," the slaves were, in
actuality, the "independent consciousness" and, as such, had the power to revolt. In
addition, the slaves were willing to risk their lives to achieve independence--which,
according to Hegel, is a crucial part of the struggle. He says that it is only by "showing
that [one] is not attached to any specific existence" and "staking [one's] own life" that
one can achieve a state of "being for themselves"-which is, in essence, independence
(113, 114). However, in taking the role of "Lord," the slaves lose their independence, as
they are now dependent on the crew's subordinance. The crew members, in turn, are now
independent consciousnesses as they do not rely on the slaves to maintain their position
This new independence is evident through the crew's many attempts to alert Captain
18
Delano to their situation-each of whom is essentially "staking of [his] own life" since
their attempts at revealing the revolt result in the crew member being punished (Hegel
I 13). Near the conclusion of "Benito Cereno," the crew members manage to win back
their position as master when the title character, who has been dominated by the slave
Babo throughout the story, very literally stakes his life by suddenly leaping over to
Captain Delano's ship.
The significance of Melville's use of Hegel in "Benito Cereno" is in the way in
which it aligns Hegel's master-slave dialectic with an overt depiction of slavery. Since
"Benito Cereno" is based on a true story and explores the relationships and atrocities
involved in chattel slavery, it stands out as a representation of slavery. By showing how
Hegel's theory naturally exists within the structure of chattel slavery, Melville has
created an undeniable equivalency between chattel slavery and Hegel's master-slave
dialectic within The Piazza Tales. However, the importance of this standardized
definition lies in its manifestations throughout The Piazza Tales. By utilizing Hegel's
master-slave dialectic to depict a variety of relationships, Melville seems to suggest that
chattel slavery, however horrific, was not the only form of slavery that had transpired
throughout the history of America. For example, in "Bartleby the Scrivener," the narrator,
as Bartleby's superior, should be in a position of power over Bartleby. However, over the
course of the story, he finds that he is unable to control Bartleby. Rather than do what the
narrator requests of him, Bartleby declares that he would "prefer not to"-and does just
that. The collapse of the narrator and Bartleby's power dynamic comes from Bartleby's
decision not to play the part of the employee. Since the role of the Bondsman is to fulfill
the "action of the lord," or that which the dominant consciousness requests, Bartleby is
19
disowning his position as Bondsman. Furthermore, by "prefer[ing] not to," Bartleby
enacts the power that Hegel claims the "Bondsman" possesses. 4
Although the Hegelian relationships between humans in The Piazza Tales are the
most obvious, they are not the only manifestations--nor are they the most numerous. A
clearly Hegelian dynamic occurs in "The Belltower" between clockmaker Bannadonna
and his belltower as well as the land upon which the belltower is built Bannadonna, who
has been hired to design and oversee the building of a large belltower with a clock-the
"noblest bell-tower"-is depicted, in several instances, as dominating or mastering
someone or something (174). For example, Bannadonna is described as "mounting" his
unfinished bell-tower, and "gazing upon the white summits of blue island Alps, and
whiter crests of bluer Alps off-shore-signs invisible from the plain" ( 175). Thus, in
"mounting" the tower, Bannadonna is physically dominating it, and, simultaneously,
exerting dominance over the wilderness as his man-made object affords him an elevated
position and view he would have not gotten without it (175). In addition, the tower is
built in ''renovated earth"-meaning that the ground was dug into, softened, in order to
start the tower, and thus, was physically tamed for his purpose (174). Later, as the belltower is near completion, Bannadonna believes himself to be in complete control of the
mechanics and figures, which make up the complex bell and clock system. However, it is
these objects, the very ones he believes himself to be master of, which-through
performing the functions and movements they were programmed to enact-kill him.
Finally, the very tower and earth he had also believed himself to be master of, prove him
wrong: the tower, for which the bell was too heavy, cracked, and, a year later, an
4
Actually, through his complete lack of participation in the power dynamic, Bartleby seems to forfeit his place in the Hegelian
struggle all together. He is not the "Bondsman," because his actions are no longer those of the narrator, but he is not the "Lord"
either, because he does not attempt to dominate the narrator. See chapter 3 for further discussion.
20
earthquake felled the tower entirely. Thus, as Hegel suggests, Bannadonna, as the
master, did not have absolute power over that which he dominated. Instead, the
"slaves"-through what could be characterized as "life and death struggles" since they
ended in death and destruction-appeared to have agency because they, unlike
Bannadonna, where not reliant on him to define them.
While the examples from "Benito Cereno," "Bartleby the Scrivener," and "The
Belltower," do show how parallels can be drawn between Hegel's master/slave dialectic
and Melville's works, it is also clear that drawing a comparison becomes more complex
and convoluted when attempting to use Hegel's theory to define a relationship that is not
readily recognizable as a traditional master/slave relationship-most specifically a
"mastering" relationship between man and object or man and wilderness. This is because
while there is a parallel between man's domination, or "mastering," of nature and the
Lord's mastering of the Bondsman, the utilization of Hegel's dialectic becomes
increasingly difficult when you consider that Hegel is discussing the relationship between
two consciousnesses-an attribute objects and wilderness themselves do not possess.
Without a consciousness, the object or the wilderness cannot be mastered because it is
not participating in the Hegelian struggle. However, it is apparent in ''The Belltower"
that Bannadonna believes himself to be master over things, such as the statues and the
earth, which do not possess a consciousness. Thus, the relationship between man and
wilderness is not one of real "life and death struggle" but, rather, one of a perceived
struggle, and, subsequently a perceived "mastering." In order to demonstrate how the
perception of wilderness as something that needs to be mastered, and, subsequently,
21
something that has been mastered, is formulated, it is necessary to determine how a
consciousness perceives a non-consciousness.
Both Hegel, and Bill Brown, author of"Thing Theory," discuss the process by
which an object is perceived by a consciousness, or, in Brown's case, a person. Through
this process of perception, both Hegel and Brown show how an object, or even the
wilderness, can be transformed into something with the illusion of a consciousness-a
consciousness which, therefore, can be mastered by a true consciousness. In the section
of Phenomenology ofSpirit, titled "Perception: Or the Thing and Deception," Hegel
specifically discusses the process of a consciousness perceiving an object-a process of
perception, which establishes the Thing, and its "thinghood" (68). Hegel posits that it is
through both the "perceiving" and the "being perceived" of the object-as well as the
recognition of its "Also" (that which exists in addition to its attributes), which produces
an object's "pure universal" or "'thinghood"' (67, 69, 73). Hegel suggests that it is
through the perception of a consciousness (the liberated individual) that the object (in this
case, wilderness) gains meaning-more specifically, it gains the meaning that the
perceiver bestows on it. Although "meaning" is inherently vague and intangible, it is
Hegel's use of the word "also," to describe the meaning in addition to "the thing" that
suggests that it is a quality layered onto the thing itself--a quality formulated by
perception.
Bill Brown's "Thing Theory" almost seems to pick up where Hegel's theory of
perception left off. 5 Similar to Hegel's claims regarding how a consciousness' perception
of an object establishes the Thing and its "thinghood," Brown's Thing Theory illustrates
the difference between an "object" and a "thing" as well as the process by which an
' Brown developed "Thing Theory," and is also the author of an essay titled "Thing Theory."
22
"object" becomes a '<thing." Just as depicted by Hegel, this process relies on how the
object is perceived by the human subject. However, Brown goes on to explain how
perception bestows meaning, or, in Hegel's terms, its "also." "The story of objects
asserting themselves as things," says Brown in his essay "Thing Theory," "is the story of
a changed relation to the human subject"-that changed relationship being one of
perception and recognition (4 ). Brown's theory centers around how objects gain
"thingness" when they "assert themselves" upon human subjects (4). In the context of
Thing Theory, "assert" refers to anything which forces us to "see" the object-when "you
cut your finger on a sheet of paper, you trip over some toy, you get bopped on the head
by a falling nut"; or, in a less negative context, you notice the aesthetics of, or have a
fondness for, a particular object (4). The transformation from object to thing is, thus, the
"magic by which objects become values, fetishes, idols and totems"-or, in the case of
Bannadonna, the magic by which objects gained meaning through perception and thus
became '<things" which he could master (5).
Several scenes from "The Piazza" exemplify how perception can master
wilderness. In this story, the narrator has "removed" to a remote mountaintop home. He,
like generations of early American settlers before him, finds himself in a vast, and
untamed wilderness. This wilderness is in stark contrast to the civilization with which he
is aligned-a relationship, which is evident in the fact that the narrator "removed to the
country" or, rather, "removed" from civilization to the country-the absence of
civilization ( 1). However, despite his desire to "remove" himself from civilization and
place himself in the wilderness, he, as a free white male, represents civilization and
cannot also be aligned with wilderness. Therefore, rather than simply enjoy the
23
wilderness, he oscillates between---0r rather experiences the paradoxical duality offeeling both awe at the sublimity, and terror at the wildness, of the sprawling landscape
around him-a conflict he attempts to rectify through aligning wilderness with himself
( 1). He does this by perceiving the parallels between natural objects-which are
unfamiliar and not part of civilization-and material objects-which are familiar and
identifiable as belonging to man. 6 For instance, the "limestone hills" are "galleries hung,"
his favorite seat upon a "hillside bank" is a "green velvet lounge," "road-side golden
rods" are "guide-posts" and a "hopper-like hollow" of a mountain-side is a "purpled
breast-pocket" (Melville 2, 4, 6). By creating a link between natural and material objects,
the narrator thrusts these disconcertingly wild, natural objects into the realm of the
familiar-that which is already 'owned' by man, and, more importantly, that which he
has a relationship with because they are his-and bestows them with ''thingness." This
act is vital to the narrator's ability to feel he has mastered the wilderness around him, as
the process ofthingifying results in objects having the imposed illusion of a
consciousness.
As previously suggested, another way, according to Brown, in which an object
gains ''thingness" is when the object is perceived as "[asserting] their presence and
power" (4). Brown further explains that, "we begin to confront the thingness of objects
when they stop working for us," and that objects "assert themselves as things" when "the
drill breaks, when the car stalls, when the windows get filthy" (4 ). This very act of
"asserting" is evident throughout "The Piazza." For example, on the first page, when the
narrator describes the creation of his mountaintop home-which sits amidst a vast
6
In order to differentiate between all things in wilderness and all things in civilization I am defining "natural object" as any object
found in, or that belongs to, natme (tree, rock, bird, etc.) and "material object'' as any object found in, or that belongs to, civilization
(chair, paperclip, book, etc).
24
wilderness-recounting that "in digging for the foundation the workmen used both spade
and axe, fighting the Troglodytes of those subterranean parts-sturdy roots of a sturdy
wood, encamped upon what is now a long land-slide of sleeping meadow, sloping away
off from my poppy bed" (1). Within this short passage is the full transformation of the
root from natural object, to thing, that is, to participant in a Hegelian master/slave
relationships. First, the roots are described as "not working" for the workmen--thus
forcing them to "confront the thingness" of the roots (Brown 4). The thingness of the
roots manifests in its characterization as "sturdy," which necessitates a fight in order to
remove them. Finally, the "mastering" of nature occurs in the fact that nature was fought,
defeated and, subsequently, cultivated-a conflict, which concludes in a relationship
where nature is seen as "for the other." The spot chosen was clearly unfit for building
without removal of trees~ nature was violently displaced as the workmen "fought" with
"spade and axe" until all that remained were the cast-aside corpses, the "'sturdy roots of a
sturdy wood" sitting upon the landscaped yard, which had since eroded due to removal of
the trees ( 1). Thus, through the acquisition of "thingness" because their presence
manifests through the act of "assertion," there is a built in suggestion of potential conflict
and struggle-the very makings of a Hegelian master/slave relationship. As such, these
natural objects, and wilderness as a whole, are perceived as something which can, and
must, be brought into a Hegelian struggle and, eventually, mastered.
Personification of natural objects is another perception-based means of mastering, which
is utilized by the narrator of "The Piazza" in order to align them with civilization.
Similar to the process of objectification and thingification, personification serves to pull
the natural objects out of wilderness, and position them within civilization. For example,
25
he frequently addresses the mountain ranges as if they were people: Mt. Greylock with
"all his hills about him, like Charlemagne among his peers," "certain ranges" which were
"here and there double-filed, as in platoons," and a "blue summit, peering up away
behind the rest" who will "plainly tell you" that he "considers himself. .. by several cubits
their superior" (2, 4). By choosing to perceive the individual mountains as people, the
narrator has transformed a sublimely powerful and daunting natural object into a fellow
human-something he can relate to, rather than something that threatens to dominate
him. Also, simultaneously, through continuing to view the mountains from his piazza, his
"box-royal," he is transforming the mountains into not only people, but playersperformers for his own amusement, like Jesters for a King (12).
However, as Hegel's master/slave dialectic details, the slave can never truly be
mastered. The power dynamic between the master and the slave is not an absolute binary
because the master, in actuality, needs the slave in order to exist as he does, while the
slave does not need the master-his worth comes from himself. Since the master's
identity is predicated upon his relationship as master to the slave, his identity is not
autonomous--and rather, ''the truth of the independent consciousness is accordingly the
servile consciousness of the bondsman" because the bondsman, or slave, has no
investment in staying a slave and, as such, does not rely on the master to define him
(Hegel 117). In this way, the slave is independent, whereas the master needs the slave
and, as such, is ultimately dependant. As a result, these two consciousnesses are
interlocked more intricately than if one was just dominating the other. 7 Additionally,
because the master/slave relationship between man and wilderness is actually an illusion
7
I envision this Hegelian relationship looking like the symbol of the yin·yang-filthough it still depicts the binaries of black and
white, both halves envelop a portion of the other and there is no clear top or bottom, just a sense of cyclical·ness.
26
of perception, wilderness's participation in the struggle, and wilderness's position as
"slave" are equally illusionary. Thus, wilderness has no investment in being man's slave,
in fact, wilderness just is. 8 While Man-who has built his identity, in relation to
wilderness, on being master-is dependent on wilderness. This inability for man to truly
master nature manifests itself throughout "The Piazza." Early in the story there are small
incidents of nature "rebelling" against the narrator as master: when the cold and damp of
his ''velvet lounge" allow a "sly ear-ache" to "[invade]" him; or when one of his
cultivated plants, a "Chinese creeper," becomes infested with "strange, cankerous worms
(2). In both of these cases the narrator believed himself to have civilized his immediate
wilderness. The ''velvet lounge" was the very same that he saw as his personal easychair, and the "Chinese creeper" was likely a non-native plant he chose to grow for its
aesthetic beauty. Yet, in both cases, the fact that he was not able to completely control
these elements of wilderness disrupts his sense of mastery. As the story progresses,
evidence of nature's autonomy grows: the narrator describes "blackberry brakes that tried
to pluck [him] back," a "zigzag road, half overgrown with blueberry bushes," and
"vagrant raspberry bushes-willful assertors of their right of way"-all subtle indications
of a wilderness which resists being mastered (7, 8). The most striking examples,
however, are the paradoxical occurrences of material objects, which have been all but
transformed into natural objects-mirroring the narrator's transformation of natural
objects into material objects. For example, as the narrator journeys into "fairy-land" he
encounters an "old saw-mill, bound down and hushed with vines," and, upon
encountering Marianna's cabin he is surprised to see that "the clap-boards, innocent of
8
In fact, the definition of "wilderness" dictates that it is "\Ulcultivated" and "\Ulinhabited" and thus not only doesn't need man but
ceases to be wilderness when inhabited by man.
27
paint, were yet green as the north side of lichened pines" (7, 8). In each of these
descriptions is a man-made structure or object, which attempted to impose on nature, that,
in turn, has been reclaimed by the wilderness.
In focusing on the resistance and reclamation of wilderness, Melville seems to be
alluding to two aspects of social reform. First, considering that Melville is playing with
the concept of perception throughout The Piazza Tales, the fact that the most prominent
Hegelian relationship in the text also hinges on perception is significant. Just as Melville
decenters the reader's sense of fact and fiction by bringing reality and perception into
question, he also appears to be questioning the practice of mastering wilderness, as well
as whether man has even mastered it at all. This suggestion alludes to a particular anxiety
many held in regards to the abolition of slavery, which Thomas Jefferson famously
referred to as "hav[ing] the wolf by its ears" as that they "could neither hold him, nor
safely let him go." Through his use of Hegel, Melville seems to be exploring this same
moral and social conflict While there is no question that chattel slaves were, in many
ways, very much "mastered" by slave owners, the fact that uprisings and other acts of
resistance occurred were proof that there was never complete control. Additionally, the
fact that American society had progressed to a point where the abolition of slavery was
strongly supported by a large percentage of the population further upholds the Hegelian
idea that these "Lords" did not have complete power over their "Bondsmen."
Furthermore, as Toni Morrison suggests, in the transcript of her lecture "Unspeakable
Things Unspoken," it was the very perception of natural superiority that Melville was
touching on. Morrison proposes that in writing Moby Dick Melville was particularly
concerned with questioning "whiteness idealized" and the "sin" of "racial superiority"
28
( 141, 143). The same project of deconstructing the idea of superiority appears within The
Piazza Tales in the form of the perceived mastering of wilderness. Just as with
wilderness, subjugated peoples such as chattel slaves were not choosing to participate in
the Master-Slave dialectic. As a result, a perception of mastery is, in essence, fictitious.
However, this assertion does not gloss over or negate the very real and absolutely horrific
treatment chattel slaves faced as a result of this perception. Rather, Melville is gesturing
to the fact that there was subjugation despite the illusionary nature of the Hegelian
master-slave dialectic. The way in which Melville uses Hegel throughout the text to align
the relationship between man and wilderness with the relationship between master and
slave, also suggests that he is indicating that perception, ultimately, does not matter.
Whether or not wilderness is participating in the master/slave relationship, whether or not
it is true struggle or one imagined by man, man is still actively subjugating wilderness.
Perhaps the most crucial point that Melville makes is that because wilderness is
not actively participating in the Hegelian struggle, the subjugation is coming purely from
man-from the white liberated individual. This suggests that subjugation is ultimately a
behavior or relationship dynamic that is built into the American social structure. After all,
America was built through the forceful subjugation of both wilderness and peoples and,
therefore, America was literally founded on subjugation. Similarly, Melville seems to
suggest that if subjugation is, in fact, something that is deeply ingrained in social
dynamics, it cannot simply be eliminated by amendments and social reform movements.
Thus, it is by using Hegel to show how the relationship between Man and Wilderness is
analogous to relationships in which Man is subjugated by Man, that Melville utilizes the
history of subjugated wilderness to show the likely trajectory of the social reform
29
movements which are occurring in Pre-Civil War America. Through the ways in which
Melville parallels both the Man/Wilderness relationship of early America, and the
Man/Wilderness relationships of his contemporary America that Melville suggests the
inevitable futility of social reform. It is this claim that seems to be at the center of
Melville's social criticism. From the vantage point of almost 150 years in the future it is
impossible not to recognize some poignant truth in Melville's claim. Although abolition
and suffrage both did give way to increased rights for slaves and women, and the
implementation of further civil rights acts have continued to signal the movement toward
equality for all Americans, subjugation is still a frequent, or even constant state for nonstraight, white, male Americans.
30
Chapter 2
"From the heart ofthe Hearth Stone Hills, they quarried
the Kaaba, or Holy Stone, to which, each Thanksgiving, the
social pilgrims used to come"
"The Piazza"
It is an undeniable and tragic fact that America was founded, cultivated, built, and
even defended thanks to a gruesome and horrific history of chattel slavery. While we, in
2013, might feel somewhat removed from that shameful part of our country's past, the
number of years since slavery was abolished is actually only about half the number of
years that slavery was legal and prevalent. As a result, we remain a country that is more
linked to slavery, than not. Considering how ingrained the practice of chattel slavery is in
our nation's foundation and history, it is not surprising that early Americans also acted as
"master" to other peoples and things. 9 One of these "things" was the American
Wilderness, which was often seen as 'hostile' and as something that needed to be tamed.
This attitude toward wilderness persisted up through Westward expansion and the settling
of California-at which point it seemed that the American wilderness had been tamed.
However, much like the narrator in "The Piazza"-who finds himself in a vast wilderness
within which he, a creature of civilization, has no place--the early settlers of America,
and many subsequent generations thereafter, found themselves in a vast continent of
wilderness which was unfamiliar, unknown, dangerous, and, for many, fatal. 10 In order to
9
For the purpose of this paper I am defming early Americans as people who lived before and during the Western Expansion since the
shift from aggressively "mastering" wilderness, and revering wilderness coincides with the point in time when most of lhe Nation had
been officially claimed for the United States.
10
Jamestown, the first settlement of Pilgrims experienced monumentally high mortality rates. According to Karen Ordahl
Kupperman, author of "Apathy and Death in early Jamestown," only "thirty-eight of the original 108 settlers were alive" at the end of
31
make the new world habitable, it was imperative that they believed it had been brought
out of the realm of the unknown and the wild. and into that of the known and the tamed.
The implementation of this need took the form of many different actions: some actions-such as developing towns and cities, cultivating land for agriculture, and chopping down
trees for lumber and farmland~utilized and displaced the wilderness; conversely, some
actions--such as surveying and mapping, categorizing and naming of new species of
flora and fauna, and the attributing of value to different natural resources--aimed to
transform the wilderness into something known. These same types of interactions
between man and wilderness weave throughout Melville's The Piazza Tales-especially
in "The Piazza." "The Encantadas," and "The Belltower." Throughout these stories,
Melville's depiction of man's relationship with wilderness not only mirrors Hegel's
master-slave dialectic, but also mirrors the relationship between man and wilderness that
was prevalent in the eighteenth century-as is documented in non-fiction survey texts,
such a Thomas Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia. In addition, just as Melville's
use of Hegel throughout The Piazza Tales serves to parallel the treatment of wilderness
with that of chattel slaves, the very survey texts Melville alludes to in his stories contain
similar parallels. By illuminating the overt, even violent ways in which wilderness was
subjugated and aligning them with the similar subjugation of chattel slaves--which is
depicted in both Melville's texts and the survey writing texts--The Piazza Tales creates
an undeniable parallel between the subjugation of wilderness, and the subjugation of
peoples in early America.
the first year in America. Mi1ny of these deaths were due to exposure to new diseases, exposure to severe weather, and malnutritionall of which are the result of attempting to settle in an unknown wilderness.
32
Within Melville's "The Encantadas," Salvator R. Tammoor explores and
documents the many isles that make up the Encantadas, detailing the varying flora and
fauna, as well as the "emphatic uninhabitableness" of the isles themselves-stating that
"the Encantadas refuse to harbor even the outcasts of the beasts" and that "Man and wolf
alike disown them" (127). He goes on to mention the unpredictable wind and truculent
tide, which lead to "fragments of charred wood and smoldering ribs of wrecks" as well as
"old cutlasses and daggers reduced to the mere threads of rust," and how, "mixed with
shells, fragments ofbrokenjars were lying here and there" (146). These items are all
remnants of man, who is no longer present on this island-suggesting that the island
does, in fact, refuse to harbor. The image of desolation Melville paints in this excerpt
hints at how the early Americans likely perceived the wilderness. While the American
Wilderness that the early Americans encountered did not exactly resemble the barren
Encantadas described by Tarnmoor, it was similarly deadly and unwelcoming-at least to
white men who were accustomed to the civilization of England. To them, wilderness
probably felt like it was "[refusing] to harbor" them and, thus, was an aggressor they
needed to defend themselves against. Worse, it was an unknown aggressor--0ne they
were unprepared to defend themselves against. In order to combat the fear that came from
an unfamiliar wilderness, the collection of data and information became necessary.
For early Americans, the "identification" and documentation of wilderness was
more than just a means of understanding the world around them, it was a way of feeling
in control of that terrifying unknown wilderness. In "The Encantadas," Tarnmoor
describes the flora as "tangled tickets of wiry bushes, without fruit and without a name,"
(127). Although the description of a "tangled" and "wiry" bush "without fruit" already
33
renders it uninviting, it is the fact that it is "without a name" which highlights the true
strangeness of the flora A bush "without a name" is so unknown that man has not yet
named it. This is important because, according to Christopher Looby, it is the
"knowledge of the names and qualities of the beings in nature," that was (and is), "the
basis of the American's control over his environment" (252). Because Tarnmoor's
"tangled thickets" were "without a name" they were also not something that was
controlled by man. Thus, in order to be in control of the wilderness (or in this case, the
bush), it needed to be identified, named, and documented. To achieve this control,
Americans began documenting the wilderness in a system that came to be known as the
Natural History Method which, according to Pamela Regis, author of Describing Early
America, "provided [early explorers of America] with a way oflooking at the world, with
a way of describing what they saw, and with an overarching scheme in which to fit what
they had seen" (5). Much of this documentation of the wilderness in early America took
the form of what was known as survey writing. These survey texts provided a written
"portrait" of the surrounding landscape, providing knowledge about the wilderness to
those who read it and, subsequently, demonstrating and aiding the mastery of it One such
survey writer was Thomas Jefferson.
Jefferson's well-recognized text, Notes on the State of Virginia, is comprised of
twenty-three "Queries," which explore and document everything from flora and fauna to
the local government of the state of Virginia. There are five sections that address the
natural aspects of Virginia; these are titled "Boundaries of Virginia," "Rivers,"
"Mountains," Cascades" and "Productions mineral, vegetable and animal" (3). For most
sections, there are either detailed descriptions for each of the geographical
34
features/natural objects/animals discussed, or a chart detailing what Jefferson felt to be
the pertinent information for that category. Bearing an undeniable resemblance to the
style of survey-writing and documentation of the plants and animals of Virginia that
Jefferson did in Notes, Tarnmoor, narrator of"The Encantadas," provides a chart for
those who "desire the population of [the island] Albemarle"-promising that he will
"give you, in round numbers, the statistics, according to the most reliable estimates made
upon the spot" (140). The data within the chart itself notes the population of"Men,"
"Ant-Eaters," "Man-haters," "Lizards," "Snakes," "Spiders," "Salamanders," and
"Devils"-a seemingly comical and arbitrary choice of subjects to document. However,
the similarity between Tarnmoor's chart and the charts in Jefferson's text suggest that
Melville was intentionally evoking Jefferson's survey writing in order to critique it. The
satirical contrast of "statistics" and "reliable" with "estimates" that are "made upon the
spot" directly address the potential inaccuracy of the data collected, while the humorous
subject list seeks to illuminate the potential ambiguity in the naming, categorizing and
gauging of populations for various species.
The process of controlling wilderness through survey writing may seem like a
non-invasive and benign practice, however it is through the identification, naming, and
documenting or, as it could also be called, the recognition of the natural object that it
becomes an act of mastering the wilderness. Recognition is one of the first steps in
G.F.W. Hegel's master-slave dialectic. According to Hegel, it is through the "process of
Recognition" that the consciousnesses become "extremes" with "one being only
recognized, the other only recognizing" (111, 113). By this, Hegel means that through
recognition, the two consciousnesses-or in this case, man and wilderness-first split
35
into their roles of "Lord" and "Bondsman" or "Master" and "Slave" and, as a result, the
recognition allows man to achieve dominance--or at least a perceived dominance--over
wilderness. In this way, the process of identifying, naming, and documenting wilderness
was very much a process of mastering wilderness.
Melville's intention to parallel the documentation of wilderness with slavery is
evident in his evoking of Jefferson's text. In addition to Jefferson's inventory of the
wilderness of Virginia, he also has two sections where he similarly discusses Native
tribes and slaves. Through a chart, identical to the one detailing the flora and fauna,
Jefferson reduces "the American Indians" to "mere natural historical objects" (Regis
105). Similarly, in a section on the revision of British laws for the Commonwealth of
Virginia Jefferson "uses the method of natural history to demonstrate that blacks are a
different race, one that is inferior" (Regis 97). In this section, Jefferson discusses the
physical and emotional features of "the blacks," such as the source of the "black of the
negro," the fact that they "have less hair on their face and body," that they "secrete" a
''very strong and disagreeable odor," that they "seem to require less sleep," and that while
"in memory they are equal to the whites," "in reason" they are "much inferior" (145-6).
Horrible inaccuracies aside, the categorization and documentation of peoples in
Jefferson's text serves to highlight an overt parallel in how white men treated wilderness
and people of color: as things to master.
Although the naming and categorizing of wilderness did serve to master it, there
was also a strong sense of reverence for nature that traversed much of the survey writing.
For example, Jefferson's factual and subliminal description of the "Natural bridge,"
which addresses not only the physical description and the aesthetic properties, but also
36
alludes to it having an inherent value as it is "the most sublime of nature's works"-and,
thus, something unique and awe-inspiring which exists solely in America, and, even more
specifically, in Virginia (26). Therefore, these territories are valuable because of its
presence. In fact, much of Jefferson's Notes serves to document the value of America's
vast resources. In the queries titled "Rivers" and "Productions mineral, vegetable and
animal," Jefferson extensively lists resources of great potential monetary value; his use of
the word "Productions" further highlights this agenda as it denotes these natural objects
as things which are, and will be produced and used for production for the benefit of man.
"The Mississippi," Jefferson says, "will be one of the principal channels of future
commerce for the country westward of the Alleghaney"-the transport of goods to and
from America being the main focus in his surveying of Virginia's rivers (9). By
appointing value, the value of potential business which will be possible as a result of
these waterways, Jefferson is implying that the rivers are there for the use of the
American people, and that they have they right to use it; it is a part of their dominion.
Similarly, in "Productions mineral, vegetable and animal," Jefferson lists the precious
minerals and metals; the plants that are medicinal, ornamental and "useful for
fabrication;" and provides charts which show sizes and population for many of the native
animals and birds. By assigning a potential value to these natural objects, Jefferson is
establishing them as things, which are rightfully man's to profit from and consume. Since
the idea of monetary value, and financial profit are concept that only exists within
civilization, through the attributing of value to the natural objects, they become objects of
civilization.
37
The assignment of value also implies an assumption of entitlement to utilize
and/or consume that resource. Melville touches on this in "The Encantadas" when
Tammoor laments about the "poor fish ofRodondo" who "in [their] confidence, [they]
are of the number who inconsiderately trust, while they do not understand human
nature"-the "nature" being that of entitled consumption (136). Similarly, earlier in "The
Encantadas," Tarmoor, pontificates on the bizarre majesty of the Galapagos Tortoisereferring to them as "mystic creatures" and marvels at their longevity, calling them
"citadels" which "resist the assaults of Time" ( 131 ). Yet, only a page later he recounts
how he "[sat] down with [his] shipmates, and made a merry repast from tortoise steaks
and tortoise stews" ( 132). The dichotomous pairing of reverence for the tortoise,
followed by the unabashed consumption of it, provides an apt analogy for the unique
relationship between man and nature as something man is entitled to both enjoy the
aesthetics of, and also consume. This sense of entitlement to consume the wilderness's
resources is also apparent Jefferson's text through the way in which he discusses things in
nature that do not readily fall into man's picture of comfort, convenience, and
civilization. For instance, Jefferson, while talking about the rivers that will be used for
trade and industry, mentions potential "obstacles" and "obstructions" (14-15). Jefferson's
wording suggests that the natural structure of the river is not perfectly conducive to easily
importing and exporting goods and, therefore, is an "obstacle." This is a concept that only
exists in opposition to the use of modem civilized methods and means. The river simply
exists as a river, not maliciously obstructing the trade of the early Americans. However,
the assertion that the river is an "obstacle" betrays a belief that Americans are entitled to
38
the use and dominance of the natural resources of America. A river that is not readily
conducive to their desired use is, as Jefferson puts it, an "obstacle."
Just as surveys such as Notes created written representations of American nature,
they also create a written, and, at times, visual representation of place. Jefferson's first
words in the main body of Notes are "Virginia is bounded"-a statement that
simultaneously conjures up a notion of boundaries, and also bondage (5). These two
concepts are not far removed in this context. Boundaries, like categories and names, are
an arbitrary construct-not only in their creation, but also in their placement. The ability
to accurately map out any given region was limited, and thus any mental
conceptualization of where the boundaries of a given territory lay was vague-however
they still served to create unnaturally occurring divides of the land, and delegate it to
territories. Since boundaries delineate a territory's claim to the land, they suggest
ownership, and, thus, bondage to man. In fact, the very idea of borders, according to
Patricia Nelson Limerick, tap into the "social function" which has created the belief that
"lines on a map and signatures on a deed legitimately divide the Earth" (55). For "white
Americans," she continues, there was only "one appropriate way to treat land-divide it,
distribute it, register it"-all of which results in the transformation into something that is
aligned with civilization (55).
11
As suggested by Limerick, the cultural division ofland goes hand-in-hand with
the ownership of land. "Generation by generation," she explains, "[early Americans]
took on a zone of wilderness, [and] struggled until nature was mastered" (322). In the
seventh sketch of "The Encantadas," Melville addresses the temporality and futility that
11
Limerick, Patricia Nelson. The Legacy ofConquest: the Unbroken past ofthe American West. New York: Norton, 1987. Print.
39
actually exists in the idea that one can have "ownership" of Nature. In the sketch,
Tarnmoor tells the story of a man he refers to only as "the Creole," who, as gratitude for
his service and bravery in the Peruvian army (and in lieu of payment), is gifted an
Encantada Island of his choosing. He accepts this "gift" with the condition that Peru
would renounce their ownership, making him king of his own island-sized sovereignty;
this is the ultimate ownership. However, it is not long before the citizens he imported
with him begin to revolt and he is eventually exiled from his own kingdom, on his own
island, demonstrating the provisional nature ofland "ownership"-a lesson that was
learned all too well by the Native Americans. Considering that America is a nation that,
according to Carolyn Merchant, "was founded on the principals of 'free land' (stolen
from the Native Americans and Mexicans), [and] 'free labor' (cruelly extracted from
African slaves)," the lack of awareness for the uncertainty of land "ownership" is simply
symptomatic of the white American male's unwavering sense of entitlement as master
above both people of color and Nature (384).
In fact, much of the language and intent behind these discussions of ownership
of land echo the way in which slave ownership transpired. Slaves were "bounded"both legally to their owners and often physically. Jefferson uses the term in regards to
the borders of Virginia-invisible lines which contain the state, and which divide it
from that which is not Virginia. Similarly, there were both visible and invisible
restraints keeping the slaves from fleeing, borders were lines they would often be
severely punished for crossing, and in later years, they were sometimes also lines
beyond which the slave could live as a free American. Just as Limerick states about
land, slaves were often "<livid[ed]"-from their home, their spouses, and their
40
children-"distribut[ed]"-when they were brought to America, purchased for new
plantations, or given to the slave owner's family members-and "register[ed]"-by
branding or other means of identification in case the slave tried to flee (55).
Furthermore, there were even laws put into place in Virginia that defined slaves as
"Real Estate." According to Warren M. Billings, author of "The Law of Servants and
Slaves in Seventeenth-Century Virginia," in 1705, ''the assembly abandoned its
tendency toward characterizing slaves as chattels in favor of declaring" that "all negro,
mulatto, and Indian slaves ... shall be held, taken, and adjudged, to be real estate (and
not chattels;)" so that the slaves could be inherited by "heirs and widows of persons
departing this life, according to the manner and custom of land of inheritance" (61 ).
Just as with the ownership of land, these examples illustrate an assumption of
entitlement to ownership of peoples.
As with the narrator in "The Piazza," the "mastery" of nature is, ultimately an
illusion since wilderness is never truly participating in the Hegelian struggle.
However, although it is not actively participating it still fulfills the role of the slave in
that man's reliance upon nature give it power in its resistance. In Melville's "The
Belltower" the famed architect and "machanician," Bannadonna, sets out to build a
belltower, which would rival nature. Melville suggests this desire through comparison
of the belltower to natural objects. It is a "stone pine," and a "metallic aviary" which,
in its demise resembles a "mossed stump," and a "perished trunk" (174). While
Bannadonna is building the tower he is described as standing upon it, "gazing upon the
white summits of blue inland Alps, and whiter crests of bluer Alps off-shore," which
are, "sights invisible from the plain"-all of which suggests that Bannadona is
41
building something with the desire to "better" nature; a desire which is woven through
many acts of aligning wilderness to civilization, such as agriculture. In the end of"The
Belltower," Melville provides an example of this powerlessness when, "on the first
anniversary of the tower's completion-at early dawn, before the concourse had
surrounded it-an earthquake came; one loud crash was heard. The stone pine, with
all its bower of songsters, lay overthrown upon the plain" (186). Thus, despite the
creation of something that defied nature, that was better than something created by
nature, it was nature that destroyed it.
The "bettering" of nature depicted in "The Belltower" also looks forward toward
a displacement of wilderness by industry, and a focus on scientific advancements that
will surpass that which is produced in nature. With these shifts came a new way of
relating to wilderness, one based on the belief that it had been mastered, and also a
nostalgia for the "wild" which, in many places, no longer existed because it had been
turned into cities, towns, farms, homesteads, and transportation pathways. These points of
civilization grew exponentially as the nineteenth century brought the exploration of the
Western territories, and then the Westward movement. It was shortly before Melville
published The Piazza Tales that California became a state, signaling that much of the
country had been settled. Without any vast unknown regions of the continent, the view of
the American wilderness became one founded in the belief that it had been mastered.
However, as progress marched forward, many people began to look backward,
romanticizing the idea of the vast and wild wilderness that was quickly dissipating.
42
Chapter 3
"So Charlemagne, he carried it. It was not long after 1848;
and, somehow, about that time, all round the world, these
kings, they had the casting vote, and voted for themselves "
"The Piazza"
Melville's tale, "Bartleby the Scrivener," paints a drastically different America
than that of the eighteenth century. It is an America which had been civilized,
industrialized, and liberated from the British monarchy; an America which had
effectively "conquered" the wilderness and displaced it with rapidly expanding cities,
towns, farms and transportation pathways. Wilderness had been surveyed, identified,
utilized, cultivated, displaced, and consumed to a point that it was no longer perceived as
something threatening, or something that must be dominated. Rather, the diminishing
wilderness came to be seen as something ideal, pure, sublime, and beautiful; something
which acted as "other" to civilization-which, in turn, had come to be associated with
"ugliness, squalor and confusion" (Miller 197). The result of this divergence was a
definitive line between culture and nature, of wilderness and lack of wilderness-a vast
shift from just a century before when wilderness was seen as terrifying and dangerous.
Before this shift, according to Neil Smith, author of Uneven Development: Nature,
Capital, and the Production ofSpace, "the vision of a hostile wilderness had its social
function-that of legitimizing the attack on nature" which was necessary for survival of
the people and the nation (22). However, as the country became settled and established,
the need for viewing wilderness as something that must be dominated dissipated and a
new vision of wilderness, one that placed wilderness as the locus for all beauty and
virtue, took hold. This new approach to wilderness manifested in many ways culturally: It
43
prompted movements such as "back to nature," romanticism, and transcendentalism that
looked to the wilderness as an ideal for personal, religious and social conduct; it lead to
the preservation of wilderness through America's National Park system; and because
"fascination [of the wilderness] replaced fear," the "hacking and hewing of nature gave
way to its more careful dissection at the hands of science" (Smith 20). At the same time
that the transition to these seemingly benevolent approaches to wilderness occurred, there
was a focus on social reform-most specifically women's rights and abolition of slavery.
As result of these simultaneous movements, it is possible to come to the conclusion that
as the nation matured, it was moving away from a tradition of subjugation and closer
toward the aspirations of democracy in which it had been founded. However, within
Melville's tales "The Piazza," "The Lightening Rod Man," "The Belltower," and
"Bartleby the Scrivener" lies evidence of the subjugation that existed within the new
approach to wilderness. By examining Melville's depiction of man's relationship with
wilderness in these four tales, in conjunction with the way in which wilderness was
viewed and treated in the mid-nineteenth century, the continued trajectory of man's
subjugation of wilderness becomes apparent. Furthermore, by revealing that the
subjugation of wilderness persisted after the shift to a more outwardly benevolent
treatment of wilderness, Melville's text also suggests that the movements away from
subjugation of women and slaves would not actually result in the end of subjugation in
the American social structure-but that the subjugation, which was built into the
structure itself, would continue in another form-likely that of the "wage slavery" which
existed within the industrialized workforce.
44
While the brick and concrete world of "Bartleby the Scrivener" does, in fact,
depict a facet of the mid-nineteenth century wilderness-that of the growing lack of
wilderness-"The Piazza," reflects the shift in man's interactions with wilderness. The
strongest support for "The Piazza" being representative of the attitude towards wilderness
in Melville's America is the strong similarity to Henry David Thoreau's transcendentalist
manifesto, Walden. Just as the narrator of "The Piazza" makes the choice to "remove to
the country" and live in a farmhouse, Thoreau decided to remove himself from society
and live, "by the labor of [his] hands only," in a small cabin near Walden Pond, (Melville
1, Thoreau 39). Another similarity is in how both the narrator and Thoreau give the
reader the sense that they are very removed from civilization, while, in actuality, neither
is very far from their neighbors. Although they are not often mentioned, the narrator of
"The Piazza" does briefly allude to his "neighborhood" and his neighbors who are close
enough, and numerous enough, to sufficiently mock his choice of a "piazza to the south"
(3). Similarly, Thoreau's cabin was built on the property of his friend Ralph Waldo
Emerson, who lived only a short distance away. The similar disconnect between the
vision of being immersed in wilderness and the reality of their proximity to civilization,
which both the narrator of "The Piazza" and Thoreau demonstrate, serves to link these
two texts, and also to address what Melville believed to be problematic about
transcendentalism. According to a variety of Melville Scholarship, Melville was, earlier
in his life, drawn to transcendentalism. However, around the time he wrote his seminal
work, Moby Dick, he had come to the conclusion that transcendentalists were "arrogan.[t]
and aus[ere]," "heartless," prone to "self-absorption" and "essentially selfish, pointless,
bleak and often harming others," (Romero 5 and 10, "Melville's Satire ... " 3). However,
45
for Melville the most distressing aspect of transcendentalism was that they failed "to
recognize the reality of evil" and that it "regarded individualism as the supreme value"
while "reject[ing] rationality" (Romero 3, Myerson 608). As a result, the
transcendentalist ideologies and actions weren't always consistent, and their beliefs about
how people should behave were often impractical for the general population. For
example, in Walden, Thoreau placed a strong emphasis on the importance of being selfreliant and living simply with wilderness. However, the actuality of his self-reliance and
his existence in wilderness are speculative since he "lived on Emerson's land,"
"borrowed [Amos Bronson] Alcott's ax," and "let someone else pay his tax" ("Melville's
Satire ... " 2). By having the narrator of "The Piazza" enact a similar level of disconnect
between his reality and his fantasy as Thoreau, Melville makes it clear that he is evoking
what he saw as a transcendentalist behavior toward wilderness, which many of his
contemporaries, such as Thoreau and Emerson, followed. Thus, through "The Piazza"
Melville seems to suggest that the transcendentalist's treatment of wilderness is, in
actuality, subjugation of wilderness.
One of the main distinctions between the type of writing Thoreau did and the type
of writing Thomas Jefferson did is in the way in which wilderness is talked about-a
comparison even more stark when you consider the two of Melville's tales which allude
to those styles of writing: "The Encantadas" and "The Piazza." While the narrator of
"The Encantadas" described the wilderness in an informative and prescriptive way,
documenting that which exists, the narrator of "The Piazza" frequently laments on the
sublimity, beauty, and even the magical quality of the wilderness-composing an image
of wilderness that moves beyond the real. Throughout his ''journey" into "fairy land" the
46
narrator of "The Piazza" references William Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Nights
Dream, Edmund Spencer's The Faerie Queene, Miguel De Cervante's Don Quixote, as
well as mythological and biblical lore-revealing a romanticized ideology that placed the
wilderness as the source of magic and fantasy. To the narrator, the mountains are kings,
"a monastery," a "pontoon;" the rolling fields are the vast ocean, where the "groundswells roll the slanting grain" and "wavelets of the grass ripple" as "the blown down of
dandelions is wafted like the spray;" and from his piazza he watches fantastical tales
unfold, such as "guilty Macbeth and foreboding Banquo," and the "old wars of Lucifer
and Michael." Despite the seemingly benign (and even positive) nature of the narrator's
interactions with the wilderness, his reverence actually served to subjugate it. In the
examples above, he is choosing to perceive the wilderness as his own fantasy-as
something for him, which he has control over. The fact that he chooses to build a piazza,
and later decides to "stick to the piazza" alludes to a discomfort with the reality of the
actual wilderness. Instead of engaging with the wilderness, he wants to enjoy the
aesthetics of it in the form of a "galler[y] hung" with paintings, or an "amphitheatre" (2,
12). In fact, even though he seems enchanted by the wilderness around him, he rarely
relates to it as-is. Almost every time he describes the scenery it is contextualized by
works of fiction, the personification of the natural objects, and by describing natural
objects as if they were man-made objects. For example, when he decides to make the
journey to "fairy land" he fluctuates between using nautical, fictional, and biblical
allusions. There is a pasture "so moistly green" it "seemed fished up from some sunken
wreck," he encounters "Airies" who "renounces [him] for some lost soul," and he and his
horse eat "Eve's apples" (6, 7). The problem with the narrator's romanticized and
47
imagined version of the wilderness is that it is entirely created by him, in order to suit his
idea of what wilderness should be. Alternately, the few moments where he is, in fact,
encountered by the real wilderness he expresses that he was negatively affected. Before
building his piazza, he originally attempted to actually enjoy the wilderness from his
yard. However, while sitting in his "royal lounge of turf," he caught a "sly ear ache"which continues to affect him for the next year or two (2). Similarly, previous to his trek
into fairyland, the narrator notices "a Chinese creeper" which he had planted ( 6). At first
he laments its beauty, saying that it had "burst into starry bloom" (6). However, he then
notices that it had been infected by "millions of strange, cankerous worms" and is
obviously horrified and disgusted by their presence on his beautiful natural object (6).
Both of these examples reveal the anxiety and fear that was still felt toward the actual
wilderness. In contrast, the vision of the romanticized wilderness was welcoming and
tame-tamed by man through the conspicuous mastering of the past few centuries. By
focusing on his "tame" vision of wilderness, the narrator of "The Piazza," as well as
many Americans, were perceiving themselves to be master of wilderness, and,
subsequently-yet often unconsciously-subjugating wilderness.
The truth of the continued subjugation of wilderness can be found at the axis of
the paradox that was the "back to nature" movement. This movement was the result of
the ever-escalating loss of wilderness, which lead to a desire and nostalgia for that which
had been displaced by civilization-prompting a rash of"nature worship" in which
"vacations into the wilderness became fashionable ... backwoods sporting became
popular ... and summer camps took urban schoolchildren into the supposedly virtuous
environment of raw nature" (Smith 21). However, considering that prior to its
48
displacement, wilderness was seen as hostile and dangerous, the romanticization of
wilderness existed only in a state of tamed wilderness-which is, by definition, not
wilderness 12. This new vision of wilderness was "domesticated, sanitized and sprawled
out on coffee tables ... just like the family cat"-an animal which is neither wild, nor
liberated (Smith 21 ). Similarly, by making wilderness accessible to the masses---a
process that often required the clearing of wilderness to build railroad tracks in order to
bring people into wilderness---it ceased to be wilderness. Thus, even though the
wilderness was now subject to reverence rather than antagonism, it was only because it
was in a constant state of subjugation.
As wilderness came to be seen as something that had been tamed, similarly, it
was seen as something that could be controlled, and even perfected. Both "The
Lightening Rod Man" and ''The Belltower" feature man-made items that are believed to
be superior to the wilderness. However, in both cases there is also an awareness of a
wilderness that is not entirely tamed. In "The Lightening Rod Man," a salesman comes to
the narrator's door and attempts to sell him a lightening rod-claiming it will keep the
narrator safe from the lightening, which, otherwise, will surely be fatal. The lighteningrod, an American invention, appears to symbolize the belief that America has succeeded
in taming wilderness through technological advancement. 13 However, the tone of the
piece actually undermines the legitimacy of that belief The salesman is portrayed as
being untrustworthy because he attempts to take advantage of latent anxieties about a
hostile wilderness by constantly stating fallacious "facts" about lightening. For example,
he claims that one is safest in a lightening storm when they are "thoroughly drenched,"
12
OED defines wilderness as "an lUlcultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region."
lnvented by Benjamin Franklin in 1749. Dray, Phillip. Stealing God's Thunder: Benjamin Franklin's Lightning Rod and the
Invention ofAmerica. New York: Random House. 2005. Print.
13
49
and when they "avoid tall men," (123). Although, the salesman is ultimately unsuccessful
in using fear to sell his product to the narrator, the allegorical tone of the tale as well as
the almost devil-like way in which he is portrayed points toward a critique of the
hypocritical--or perhaps narve-belief that wilderness could be completely mastered.
While "The Lightening Rod Man" depicts means by which science is able to
control wilderness, "The Belltower" explores the desire to build something better than
wilderness can produce. The main function of scientific labor, according to Neil Smith is
"facilitate the production of nature in the form of productive forces"-meaning, to utilize
natural resources to build something that nature cannot, such as "machines,"
"locomotives," "railways," "electric telegraphs," and "self acting mules," which are all
the "organs of the human will over nature" (72). Thus, through the process of "scientific
labor" man is draining natural resources, and, simultaneously, creating something that
attempts to surpass, or even bypass, wilderness as a source of creation In "The
Belltower," Bannadonna the clockmaker builds a tower that is referred to, in both the end
and the beginning of the story, as a "stone pine" from which "birded chimes of silver
throats had rung"-a description that suggests it is being compared to a tree. From the
top of the tower, Bannadona can "gaze upon the white summits of blue inland Alps, and
whiter crests of bluer Alps off shore" which are "sights invisible from the plain"indicating that the tower allows Bannadonna to do something the natural objects in the
area, such as the non-man-made trees, could not. The tower was built in "renovated
earth" and the bells, which were to be placed in the tower, were made in "fires of
balsamic firs" which melted the "tin and copper" of which the bells were wrought.
Therefore, the tower was made from the resources of wilderness, was constructed to
50
resemble a thing of wilderness, but, ultimately, was considered to be better than
wilderness. Utilizing natural resources and striving to build something better than
wilderness is able to produce, reflects two distinct means by which wilderness was being
subjugated-the first, through the stripping and consuming of resources, and the second,
through the assumption that man-made items surpassed those made by wilderness, thus
rendering wilderness as less than man. Furthermore, it is through the consumption and
production of better-than-wilderness that wilderness is diminished, leaving the very urban
areas and cities within which, because of the scarcity wilderness is romanticized.
Unlike any of the other five tales in Melville's collection, "Bartleby the
Scrivener" takes place on Wall Street, within New York City-a space so well known for
its lack of natural objects that it is often referred to as the "concrete jungle." By
highlighting both this stark lack of wilderness, as well as the treatment of wilderness in
the few tiny moments when it is glimpsed, Melville clearly illustrates the role that
American cities played in the subjugation of wilderness. On the second page of the story,
the narrator of this story describes his office-where the characters spend the vast
majority of their time-as devoid of any nature, or view of nature. He states that one
window in his office "looked upon the white wall of the interior of a spacious sky-light
shaft" and another "commanded an unobstructed view of a lofty brick wall, black by age
and everlasting shade" which was "pushed up to within ten feet of my window panes"
(14). These passages immediately construct an image of these characters' world as grey,
shadowy and claustrophobic. Not only is the ''view" from the office, which holds four to
five employees at a time, nothing but metal and brick-and "deficient in what landscape
painters call 'life'"-but the way in which it is described, there is an indication of
51
contentment with the "deficient" view (14). For example, the "sky-light shaft" is
"spacious," and the narrator's window gives an "unobstructed view" of the "lofty brick
wall" (14). The juxtaposition of"shaft"-which indicates a small opening-and
"specious" implies that the narrator's views on what a normal amount of exposure to the
outside should look like, are warped. The brick wall, which is not "tall" or "oppressive"
but, rather, "lofty," carries an implication of beauty and sublimity. Additionally, the fact
that it is "unobstructed," suggests that the "lofty" wall was something he desired to look
upon, and-had it been obstructed-it would have been a much less desirable view.
While the narrator's relationship to the lack of wilderness seems to be one of
apathy--or even contentment, Bartleby exhibits behavior that suggests a desire for the
wilderness. Since wilderness was seen as being in opposition to culture, it is no surprise
that Bartleby-who is resistant to the.social structure of the workforce-is depicted as
desiring the wilderness, while the narrator-who exhibits a clear satisfaction with the
lifestyle the workforce affords him-is shown as being apathetic toward wilderness. It is
this split, which suggests that Melville is positioning Bartleby-and the working-class
man he represents-as the next step in the chain of subjugation; both are being
subjugated by the forward march of American industry. The lack of wilderness that is
intentionally highlighted in these passages, in contrast to the vast spaciousness that is
described in the other five of Melville's tales, produces a sense of the contained-and
even claustrophobic-world of industrialized America. It was because of this newly
existing contrast between wilderness and civilization that, according to Roderick Frazier
Nash, author of Wilderness and the American Mind, "appreciation of wilderness began in
the cities" (44). As civilization grew, and America became an industrialized Nation, a
52
clear line between wilderness and non-wilderness emerged. Where wilderness had
previously been seen as "barren, terrible; even sinister," in contrast to the swiftly
developing cities, wilderness came to be seen as a locust of all "virtue, repose [and]
dignity" (Smith 20, 22). This shift was prompted by two factors: first, that "nature had
been tamed enough"-by the displacement, cultivation, and consumption that allowed for
the building of cities, towns and populated areas-"that the hostile connotations [were]
generally reserved for extreme, infrequent events" (Smith 28). Second, that the cities-as
increased industry and burgeoning capitalism had created a social hierarchy within the
workforce-became seen as being the antithesis of self-reliance and a source of
"ugliness, squalor and confusion" (Miller 197). Thus, for the working-class people, such
as Bartleby, who became subjugated by the socially stratified industrialized workforce of
the cities, wilderness-which was similarly subjugated and stood in opposition to the
civilization which was oppressing them-became idealized.
The fact that Bartleby appears to the be the only character who longs for
wilderness in "Bartleby the Scrivener," suggests that Melville was making this very
statement-that the longing for wilderness was, at least partially, prompted by the
subjugation the workforce endured by the city. When the narrator brings on Bartleby to
do extra copying for the office, he sets him up next to a "small side-window'' which
"originally had afforded a lateral view of certain grimy back yards and bricks" but, due to
the construction of new buildings, now offered "no view at all, though it gave some light"
(19). In this instance, there is a mention of natural objects-the back yards-that were
formerly viewable from the window. However, because it is no longer viewable from the
window, Bartleby's view is decidedly the absence of anything natural-wilderness that
53
once was there, but now is inaccessible. The definitive lack becomes his focus as he
begins to resist participation in the workforce by stating that he would "prefer not to." In
each of these moments, the narrator mentions that instead of work, Bartleby, "would
stand looking out, at his pale window behind the screen, upon the dead brick wall"-each
time repeating the term "dead brick wall" (29, 31, 37). The significance of the "dead
brick wall" gestures, once again, at the lack of wilderness that exists in Bartleby's view.
Rather than the live, albeit "grimy," yard that his view once encompassed, he has only
brick to look upon-brick, which, like most of the city, lacks any semblance of natural
life.
The only place, in fact, where natural life is depicted in "Bartleby the Scrivener"
is within prison. The apparent paradox of wildlife within prison supports the idea that the
real subjugation exists outside the prison walls, within the city. Bartleby chooses to stop
participating in the expectations and rituals of the industrialized world, and the outcome
is that he is brought to prison-where he finally encounters the wilderness he has been
lacking. In prison, the narrator visits him. He finds Bartleby in an "enclosed grass-platted
yard" which grew where birds had dropped grass-seeds "through the clefts" of the
towering walls-wilderness begat by wilderness (43, 44). Although he has shown apathy
for the lack of wilderness in his life, it is clear that the narrator recognizes it as something
Bartleby desires because he points out that "'there is the sky, and here is grass,"'-both
natural elements that were neither within, or viewable from the small office they had both
worked in-as reasons why prison might not be so bad. (43). It is in this "soft imprisoned
turf' that he finds Bartleby each time-and where he finally finds Bartleby dead.
54
The significance of these small incidents of wilderness in "Bartleby the
Scrivener" is twofold. First, it provides a much more stark image of subjugated
wilderness than the other stories in Melville's collection. In "Bartleby," wilderness is not
only mastered, but it has practically been eradicated. That wilderness-if it can even be
called that-which does exist in "Bartleby the Scrivener," is contained, bounded, kept in
small plots-caged like a pet. Despite people's romanticized, nostalgic vision of
wilderness, they-civilization-were actively or passively contributing to its demise.
Similarly, Melville paints Bartleby as being dominated by the machine of the city-the
industrialized workforce. Although the reader is never given definite proof that Bartleby
is a victim, Bartleby' s choice of death over participation in the system suggests
brokenness within the system. By showing the wilderness and Bartleby as similarly
oppressed and trapped, as well as showing Bartleby's desire for wilderness, Melville
creates a link between the two. This link is reinforced by a similarity between how the
narrator of "The Piazza" relates to the wilderness and the narrator of "Bartleby the
Scrivener" relates to Bartleby. The narrator of"The Piazza" presents himself as being
comfortable with and reverent of wilderness. However, the picture of wilderness he
continually paints throughout the story is never in line with reality. He envisions a
fantasy world of beauty, but balks at the existence of worms of the flowers and chooses
to view the wilderness from a controlled, and removed environment. Similarly, the
narrator in "Bartleby the Scrivener" spends the majority of the story claiming that he is
trying to help and understand Bartleby. However, he constantly makes assumptions
about Bartleby's health, mental state, and motivations. Up until the very end, when
Bartleby dies, he still believes himself to be helping Bartleb~. to be looking out for his
55
best interest, but he continues to miss the very point ofBartleby's non-action which is to
remove himself from a social hierarchy that perpetuates a Hegelian Master-Slave
dialectic.
This, ultimately, seems to be Melville's project within The Piazza Tales: to show
how the abolition of slavery would not, in fact, mark the end of human subjugation and
inequality. His use of Hegel allows him to show how the subjugation of wilderness in
Early America was similar to the treatment of slaves and other oppressed people.
Similarly, it also allows him to detail how the shift in behavior toward wilderness did not
cease to be a form of subjugation. By showing how both overt and subtle "mastering" of
wilderness were both very much forms of subjugation, Melville suggests that an
evolution of human subjugation will not bring an end to the subjugation, only a shift in
how that subjugation looks. As someone who was being pulled into the increasingly
industrialized workforce, Melville was already well aware of what that new subjugation
might look like. Thus, his portrayal of Bartleby as someone who would choose death
over participation in that workforce, as well as someone who longed for wilderness-which civilization had displaced-pointed at a belief that it would be this workforce
which would become the new locus of subjugation.
56
Conclusion
"He soon left his bench, poor fellow for his bed; just as
one, at last, wearily quits that, too, for still deeper rest. The
bench, the bed, the grave "
- "The Piazza "
Throughout the process of the research and exploration I engaged in while writing
this thesis, I found myselflanding on a similar conclusion about what The Piazza Tales
was intended to do. While each story in itself represents a complex, multi-faceted
commentary on American social dynamics, the collection itself seems to echo of one
social dynamic in particular: Melville's frustration with his own lack of success. I have,
somewhat jokingly, mentioned to several of my colleagues that I cannot help but feel that
The Piazza Tales is, in many ways, Melville's (for want of a better term) "temper
tantrum." The collection does take on many broader social injustices. However, from
behind his critique of slavery, social reform, and transcendentalism, I cannot help but
hear Melville calling out "me too!"-"I too am a victim of the subjugation imbedded into
America's social structure." There are several places in The Piazza Tales where I hear
that voice crying out the loudest. One of the least obvious, but most convincing to me is
in the epigraph of'"The Piazza,"-the very first words of The Piazza Tales. The epigraph,
which is an incomplete quote from William Shakespeare's tragedy Cymbeline, reads,
"With fairest flowers/while summer lasts and I live here, Fidele-" (1). While Melville
chose to cut off the quote at "Fidele-", the real quote continues on with the line, "I'll
sweeten thy sad grave" (IV. ii.). Upon first examining this epigraph, I wasn't sure what
to make of Melville's choice to end it at "Fidele-." The result of the dangling name and
dash is an emphasis on those missing words: "I'll sweeten thy sad grave." It is clear to me
57
that Melville's intentional omission of this portion was meant to draw attention to itsituating it as the actual hidden message of the piece. What, then, did Melville mean by
"I'll sweeten thy sad grave"? As I mentioned in the introduction, Melville was frustrated
by the failure of Moby Dick and what seemed to be his own perpetual lack of success. At
the point that The Piazza Tales was being published, he was likely feeling fairly
pessimistic about his future as an author. Since "The Piazza" was written shortly before
the collection was published, and since it is intended to be the "key" to understanding the
collection, Melville's choice to preface it with the epigraph suggests to me that it relates
to both the tale and the collection. By including "The Piazza" in the collection he is
"sweetening" it and, if he believed that he was near the end of his writing career, The
Piazza Tales could be its "sweet grave." My suspicion that Melville was making this
statement is supported by several other moments in the collection. In "The Piazza" the
narrator mentions he will "launch [his] yawl no more to fairy land," and Bartleby, who is
commonly thought to partially represent Melville, chooses to die rather than participate in
the industrialize workforce-which Melville felt was responsible for his demise.
Considering The Piazza Tales was the second to last piece of Melville's prose published
during his life, Melville's assertion that "The Piazza" was "sweetening [his] sweet grave"
was not inaccurate.
I do not believe Melville's main project of The Piazza Tales was to position
himself as the victim of American social reform and industrialization. Melville's focus on
critiquing slavery and other social injustices is clear throughout most of his works and
The Piazza Tales is no exception. However, the fact that the conclusion of his collection
seems to be that slavery will not end, it will only take on a new form-wage slavery in
58
place of chattel slavery-does serve to place him in the role of the "slave." Melville's
well-documented frustration with the publishing industry, his readership, his financial
situation, and many of his contemporaries, as well as the clues within the text add up to a
fairly undeniable conclusion: he believed, at the point that he wrote "The Piazza" and The
Piazza Tales were published, that this might be the end of his career as a published
author, and that the fault lay with the industrialized focus on quantity over quality,
prolific-ness over proficiency.
59
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