A prominent motif in Benito Cereno is the use of language and imagery drawn from Catholicism and, more specifically, from monasteries and monks. In the predominantly Protestant New England of Melville’s time, these references to Catholicism would highlight the exotic nature of Spain’s colonies in Latin America. These many references to Catholicism also reflect the influence of gothic literature on Melville’s novella, as many gothic novels are set in Catholic environments such as ruined churches and old monasteries. When Captain Delano first observes the Spanish Captain Cereno, he uses language associated with Catholicism:
His mind appeared unstrung, if not still more seriously affected. Shut up in these oaken walls, chained to one dull round of command, whose unconditionality cloyed him, like some hypochondriac abbot he moved slowly about, at times suddenly pausing, starting, or staring, biting his lip, biting his finger-nail, flushing, paling, twitching his beard, with other symptoms of an absent or moody mind.
An abbott is the head of a Catholic monastery. Here, Delano imagines the Spanish captain as a “hypochondriac abbott” who shuffles around a monastery nervously. In Protestant writings of the time, Catholic monasteries are often described as prisons. Here, Delano characterizes Cereno as being “shut up in these oaken walls” in the manner of a monk who is “trapped” in the monastery and forbidden to leave. Elsewhere in the story, he again compares Cereno to a monk-like figure:
His manner upon such occasions was, in its degree, not unlike that which might be supposed to have been his imperial countryman’s, Charles V., just previous to the anchoritish retirement of that monarch from the throne.
First, he compares Cereno to the Spanish King Charles V, who abdicated the throne and then joined a monastery. He describes the King, and Cereno, as “anchoritish,” alluding to the figure of the “anchorite,” a religious recluse largely associated with Catholic monasticism. These various allusions to the Catholic faith foreground the “exotic” Spanish setting of the story but also emphasize the gothic, otherworldy mystery on board the Spanish ship.
