Melville's Confidenceman: Did He Have a Dialectical Plan?

MELVILLE'S CONFIDENCEMAN: DID HE HAVE A DIALECTICAL PLAN? Richard William Stickley B.S., United States Coast Guard Academy, 2000 THESIS Submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS in LIBERAL ARTS at CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO SUMMER 2009 MELVILLE'S CONFIDENCEMAN: DID HE HAVE A DIALECTICAL PLAN? A Thesis by Richard William Stickley Ap roved by: Committee Chair Victoria Khinbrot, Ph.D. ,xSecond Reader Jeffrdj'ro adjPh. D. a'tG , /e(. 2o09. Date " ii Student: Richard William Stickley I certify that this student has met the requirements for format contained in the University format manual, and that this thesis is suitable for shelving in the Library and credit is to be awarded for the thesis. , Graduate Coordinator Jeff r Date Liberal Arts Master's Program iii Abstract of MELVILLE'S CONFIDENCEMAN: DID HE HAVE A DIALECTICAL PLAN? by Richard William Stickley In Herman Melville's last and arguably most misunderstood novel, The Confidence Man: His Masquerade, the author leaves his readers with a grim and hopeless outlook regarding the future prosperity of America. The once religiously assured Melville critiques the fallen state of American society using religion as a moral barometer. The study that follows will explore how Melville's denigration of American capitalism and entrepreneurism has in some ways reached similar conclusions to those offered by Max Weber in his seminal essay: "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Moreover, Melville's criticism of industrialization is rooted in Christian values-not secular culture such as the Marxist ideas that were becoming popular in Europe. While Melville's transcendentalist contemporaries such as Thoreau and Emerson built their philosophies around human intuition and "innate knowledge," Melville-perhaps unintentionally-argues in favor of personal accountability and moral responsibility from an ideologically liberal approach. Interestingly, Melville's argument takes a very Christian approach to this American dilemma which is in itself a uniquely American trait. Committee Chair Victoria Shinbrot, Ph.D. Date iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION........................................................................... I 2. MAX WEBER, MARXISM, MELVILLE AND MORE! ..................... ................ 5 3. PASSION, PAGEANTRY, OR PROPAGANDA? ......................................... ..... 13 4. SATAN AND A SOPI-IOMORE ...................................................... 21 5. SECULAR SYMBOLISM-AHAB, ER RATHER, THE PEG LEG ............. 28 6. TRANSCENDENTAL SATIRE ANYONE? ...................................................... 33 7. CONCLUSION.......................3...................................................... 39 Bibliography ............. 42 v 1 Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION "Escaped from the house of bondage, Israel of old did not follow after the ways of the Egyptians. To her was given an express dispensation; to her were given new things under the sun. And we Americans are the peculiar, chosen people-the Israel of our time; we bear the ark of the liberties of the world" (Melville, W.J. 506). These words taken from Melville's White Jacket are not spoken from a skeptical man. They do not question America's role in Christian eschatology. Instead, they express America's concept of manifest destiny. Melville goes on, "God has predestined ... great things from our race.... Long enough have we been skeptics with regard to ourselves, and doubted whether, indeed, the political Messiah had come. But he has come in us [Melville's italics], if we would but give utterance to his promptings ... for we can not do a good to America but we give alms to the world" (WJ. 506). His impression of history is certainly linear-the human race is going somewhere. However, in Melville's final novel, The Confidence Man: His Masquerade (1857), Melville's attitude towards both humanity and Christianity are notably shaken. While the above excerpt from White Jacket certainly seems to depict a Melville who has a clear vision of America's role in Christian doctrine, the Melville of Confidence Man makes significantly more reserved and indeed skeptical insinuations about America, Americans, and Christianity. Many critics have asked what caused Melville's paradigm shift. From a historical stand point, we could analyze The Confidence Man as a narrative of American history. In the year of the novel's publication, America edged closer and 2 closer to the bloodiest conflict the nation has ever seen. Perhaps even more importantly, America moved farther and farther away from fulfilling its "manifest destiny." Similarly, from a literary standpoint, Confidence Man began to reflect fewer of the characteristics of a realist novel, and more of the characteristics of the modem novel. Like the fractured simultaneity of a cubist painting, Melville's Confidence Man not only reflected the splintered nature of man's consciousness-not to mention our author's-but simultaneously revealed the confidence man (in his many guises) exploiting his victims among the various compartments of the steamship Fidele. While arguing that Melville's writing served as a precursor to modernity is a worthy cause in itself, my concern is with the question at the root of the argument: why did Melville's writing change? What brought about these characteristics of twentieth century modernity? The reader could approach the questions historically, citing the tumultuous years prior to the American Civil War as an influence on Melville's psyche. There can be little doubt that the increased attention on the American slavery issue, especially since the practice had already been abolished throughout the British Empire by 1833, would weigh heavily upon the academics of the generation with such a deep-rooted belief in American exceptionalism (Perry 568). Similarly, some critics have interpreted Melville's puzzling Confidence Man as a strict religious allegory where the devil disguised as the Confidence Man exploits his victims in the dawn of the apocalypse. This study will unravel Melville's last (and perhaps most overlooked) novel pointing out the series of contradicting values in Melville's evolving personal philosophy, his increasing discontentment with religion, and the pointed commentary he directs at his peers. 3 In C.L.R. James analysis of Moby Dick in 1953, he split with his contemporaries regarding the widely accepted allegory of the novel as a representation of a totalitarian Ahab being supplanted by the democratic Ishmael (6). James, not misrepresenting the fact that he had a personal bias against unfettered capitalism as he had seen it misguided by antagonizing characters such as U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, proposed that Moby Dick may have been less an allegory of triumphant democracy in the face of totalitarianism, but more an appeal against unchecked industrial capitalism (9). James' argument was undoubtedly received with mixed reviews (or perhaps even F.B.I. interest) in 1953. However, if James included at least a cursory review of The Confidence Man in conjunction with his study it would surely have bolstered his position. While Melville's multitude of miscreants that take part in the insidious games of The Confidence Man are unarguably a representation of dubious marginal Christians, they are also representatives of Americans' dangerous relationship with capitalism. While the Melville of White Jacket and his early novels echo the long-standing sentiment of American exceptionalism, the Melville of Confidence Man seems to challenge it. The problem he faces is caused by a dialectic in his own philosophy and his relationship with humanity. On the one hand, Melville seems to follow in the tradition of American exceptionalism. On the other hand, it seems as though this very idea of exceptionalism has created the fervent capitalism that seems to retard societal progress. Moreover, the New World's Puritan heritage seems to only strengthen the "spirit" of American capitalism. This dialectic, imbedded in Melville's own "New Jerusalem," lies at the heart of his novel and the heart of our author. Melville's contradicting philosophies 4 are acted out on the pages of the Confidence Man and perhaps even forecast a new and difficult challenge for the increasingly capitalist and industrialized nations of the West. The purpose of this study will be to illustrate the multifaceted dialectics which plague Herman Melville in his last-and arguably most challenging work. The "Dialectic of Enlightenment" is the focus and title of Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno's seminal work on critical theory in the second phase of the so-called Frankfurt School which they published in American exile in 1944. Through the course of this examination it will become evident that in some ways Melville's personal struggles indeed preceded such influential discourses on modernity to include both Horkheimer and Adorno's Dialectic of Enlightenment and even Max Weber's 1905 essay, "The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." While attempting to explain the works of Weber, Adorno, or Horkheimer as a product of Melville's influence is indeed tempting, it is also unlikely. Rather than try to assert such an awkward connection, I propose that their writing merely tracks on a similar philosophical trend. Likewise, it is more probable-and more interesting-that such different figures in Western philosophy have independently arrived at similar findings with such different influences. 5 Chapter 2 MAX WEBER, MARXISM, MELVILLE

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