Captain Delano's role in Benito Cereno

    Benito Cereno offers many themes that might be explored, however the the prolonged build up to the eventual conflict between slave and sailor, whereby Captain Delano repeatedly ignores signs pointing to the amiss is arguably the work's best attributes. Melville presents Delano as a rather oblivious individual during this entire lead up, and beyond that, also as one whom when presented with clear evidence that conditions on the slave ship were not what they seemed, inwardly questioned rather than actually confronting this body of evidence.
    
     The reader first picks up on the seemingly complete absence of Spaniards aboard the slaver, in relation to the shear number of it's cargo. The disease explanation of Cereno immediately should not have jived with conditions on the ship, as the likelihood that all commanding officers, other than Cereno himself, should have perished seems far fetched. While the narrator eventually reveals that there are actually several Spaniards left alive, their hidden presence, should have immediately been cause for alarm.
    
     Also, the first contact Delano has with the slaver is met with highly exaggerated wailing among those on board. Melville paints this as almost orchestrated in nature, and of such vigor that Delano is at first overcome with the scene before him. This would seem to be bizarre, at the amount of energy expended by those purportedly malnourished, as well as the level of synchronization that it entailed. This should have also been an early sign to Delano that he might have been entering a well staged scene for his benefit.

     The role of Babo in the eyes of Delano is a major contributing factor as to why the whaler's captain failed to realize that which was playing out around him. Delano openly admits to a "soft spot" for "Africans" and seems to have been completely charmed by his mannerisms, "devotion" to his maser, and ability to service him in a gentle and engaged manner. He thinks little of the fact that this type of devotion would be entirely uncharacteristic for a slave, especially one for whom master has little physical power over. Cereno is outwardly weak, and requires the constant aid of his slave, there seems little to reason that the slave should easily replace the master in this relationship.

     Nowhere is this more clear than in the shaving scene, where the very balance between life and death, slave and master, leader and follower is on display. Here Babo holds the ability to end Cereno's life on his very skin, thus establishing how utterly powerless the captain truly is. Delano is so distracted with Babo's mannerisms and attractions to bright colors that he fails to see the actual importance of the slave's performance for his benefit. The mention that Babo had never cut his master before, and now, in the presence of Delano he chooses to do so holds a special significance. It took a specially oblivious character to allow Melville to fully draw out his description of the conditions aboard the slaver, and in crafting Delano he had achieved his aim.