University of Montana ScholarWorks at University of Montana Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers Graduate School 1963 Darwin's The voyage of the Beagle and Melville's "The Encantadas" James Robert Corey The University of Montana Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Corey, James Robert, "Darwin's The voyage of the Beagle and Melville's "The Encantadas"" (1963). Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 5831. https://scholarworks.umt.edu/etd/5831 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at ScholarWorks at University of Montana. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at University of Montana. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DaRvvTN'S Î K voyage ÜF ^ BAAGLi AÏÏD M2LVILL£'S ’’THE mOAMTADAS’' A Thesis Submitted to The Faculty of Montana State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts Department of English By James Robert Corey Approved ChairThesis Committee Dean, Graduate School JUL 16 1963__________ Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: EP36632 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMT OMMTtatenPUbWing UMI EP36632 Published by ProQuest LLC (2013). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest* ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106 -1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF COÏÏTSNTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction ................................. 1 I. The Influence of Darwin on Me l v i l l e .......... 5 II. The Influence of ^ Voyage of t ^ Beagle on the Origin of Species and the Relationship between "The Encantadas" and Moby Di c k .............. 2? III. A Comparison of Styles ........................ 4-9 Conclusion............. ...................... 76 Bibliography ....................................... 79 - 1 1 - Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. INTRODUCTION Six hundred and fifty miles west of Ecuador lie the Galapagos Islands, barren and scorched beneath the equa­ torial sun. The islands rise quickly from blue Pacific waters and white sand beaches to blank, grey cliffs and to cactus-covered and brush-spotted volcanic peaks. Per three centuries after their discovery by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century, the islands lay in primitive seclusion, visited only infrequently by buccaneers, pirates, and whalers, all seeking the abundant end economical source of food and fuel available on the island’s shores— the giant tortoise, called galanago in Spanish.^ In the nineteenth century, the separate visits of two men— one a young ship's scientist assigned to a British expedition ship, the other a common seaman aboard a New England whaler— attained for these Galapagos Islands an enduring importance in literature. The young scientist, Charles Darwin, recorded his visit of October 1855» in Chapter Seventeen of The Voyage of the Beagle, which was published in 1859. The seaman, mermen Melville, recorded his 1841 visit to the islands in "The Encantadas, or Enchanted Isles," one of The Piazza Tales, published in 1856. ^"Galapagos Islands," Encyclopedia Britannica, IX, (14th ed., 1549), 566. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. These two works are unique in the writings of their respective authors. The Voyage of the Beagle, the early long work of Darwin, contains the seeds of Darwin's later thoughts. It has been said that "... The Voyage of the Beagle . plainly foreshadows the revolutionary line 2 along which Darwin's thought w'as to develop." "The Encantadas" is unique in Melville's works because it repre­ sents Melville's only attempt at extended description for its own sake, and appears to be, as one early critic has said, "the supreme technical achievement of Melville as % an artist The very existence of these two works— the one by Britain's most celebrated nineteenth century naturalist, the other by America's foremost nineteenth century novelist— suggests a comparison of the two books to deter­ mine the divergent descriptive techniques of their respec­ tive authors and to judge the value of each in literature, furthermore, the scope of this study will be expanded to include new and relevant material on the inter-relationship of these two books. The first chapter of this study will include evi­ dence to support the theory that, rather than being works ^Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, intro. Leonard Engel (Garden City, New York; 1952;, intro. IX. ^Herman Melville, The Shorter Kovels of Herman Mel­ ville, intro. Raymond Weaver (New York: 1928J, intro. XXV. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 3 whose only common bond is their subject matter, the books have an inter-relationship springing from the apparent influence of The Voyage of the Beagle on "The Encantadas" and from the apparent influence of Darwin's mind upon Mel­ ville's. The evidence from the two works which supports this conjecture is threefold: the familiarity of Melville with The Voyage of the Beagle was such that he used it as a source book from which to draw information while writing "The Encantadas"; the ideas presented by Darwin in The Voyage of the Beagle are involved in the subject matter of Melville in "The Encantadas"; and the use of tables by Darwin is a target for the parody and humor of Melville. Darwin's influence upon Melville is not confined to these two works. Evidence shows that Melville was very well read in the other works of Darwin, that Melville's writings before and after "The Encantadas" show a growing familiarity with Darwin's work, and that Melville's attitude toward that thought was one of frank disagreement. Chapter Two of this study will attempt to show the relationship of The Voyage of the Beagle and "The Encan­ tadas” to the two major books of their respective authors. Darwin's Origin of Species is based to a large extent upon the observations and records that Darwin made during his voyage. The Galapagos Islands, in particular, served as a laboratory for Darwin in his study of evolution. In a sense, "The Encantadas" (1856) and Moby Dick (1851) are Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 4 more closely related than are any other two of Melville * s works. In "The Encantadas" we find the style of Melville’s writing to he refined to the same level as Moby Dick, and we see the basic ideas of Melville being expressed simply in "The Encantadas," powerfully in Moby Dick. To put it in another way, Chapter Two will show Darwin in the workshop, ordering his ideas, discovering his theories, and Melville in two different books, exhibiting his refined vision of the world and polished literary style. Chapter Three of this study will examine the two primary works for the mechanics of the description in each and will compare and contrast them on such considerations as the objectivity, humor, and themes in each. Because of the scientific intent of The Voyage of the Beagle, we must examine it to determine if Darwin was able to keep a clini­ cal detachment from his subject. Darwin, we will notice, is often unable to be objective, rather reflects quite often exuberance and zeal. The humor in the two works will be confined to one or two anecdotes in The Voyage of the Beagle ; but, in "The Encantadas," it will include such techniques of humor as hyperbole and parody, as well as anecdotes. Since The Voyage of the Beagle and "The Encan­ tadas" are works of literature, they are the vehicles through which their authors express themes, we will find that Charles Darwin attempts to show the struggle of life against an impossible environment; Herman Melville tries to Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 5 show the ultimate to which existence can sink yet still survive. In their respective themes the men are similar; they differ only in that Darwin sees existence on the ascent, generating itself from almost nothing; Melville sees existence on the descent, degenerating from something worthwhile to something worthless. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CEArraa i THE INFLUENCE OF DARNI# ON KZLVILLZ The story of Herman Melville’s life aboard the whaler Acnshnet is a familiar tale. The voyage began from Fair- haven in January or February of 1841. It was an erratic journey: The Acushnet sailed directly from Few England to Gape horn, then roamed the Pacific, searching for, locating, and pursuing sperm whale.^ Sometime between November, 1841, and February, 1842, the Acushnet sailed extensively in the vicinity of the Galapagos Islands, and Herman Melville had 2 time to spend some days ashore. The voyage ended for Melville in July, 1842, when, sickened by inadequate rations and by cramped, dirty sleeping quarters, and tired of his captain's tyrannical rule, seaman Melville jumped ship at the Marquesas Islands. The story of Darwin's life aboard the Beagle, by contrast with Melville's aboard the Acushnet, is markedly different. Darwin's voyage was a carefully planned, pleasant cruise, punctuated by frequent stops at ports and islands in both oceans.