『신용사기꾼: 그의 가장극』: 신뢰를 상실한 시대에서 신뢰 찾기
The Confidence Man: His Masquerade: Seeking the Confidence in the Confidenceless World
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This paper aims at analyzing Melville’s The Confidence Man: His Masquerade, the last long piece of prose fiction, putting the word “confidence” and “masquerade” in the center. Since the publication, The Confidence Man has been probably the hardest nut to crack among Melville’s novels because it deals with a broad variety of issues including epistemological problems, slavery, and experimental work for the author, while addressing criticism towards the readers who have misunderstood his works. In addition, he criticizes all the aspects of American society in the nineteenth century, expecially the westward movement and “Empire for Liberty,” which is the propaganda in Jefferson’s era. For this purpose, Melville strangely employs the confidence man to highlight the moral bankruptcy of forefathers’ faith animated by the Wall Street spirit. Melville allows the confidence man to prey upon gullible or greedy passengers, who make his existence and knavery possible. The gullible passengers are engrossed in showing their confidence and sympathy to others by tangible assets, such as money. Melville debunks an avowed reality full of rosy rhetorics like charity, confidence, and empire for the liberty and reveals the underside of the official history. However, he ends in seeking the possible bond among the strange, isolated and confidence-seeking common men. Living in the post-heroic world, the passengers as a posterity feel burdened by the legacy of the idealized forefathers. Through the masquerade of the confidence-man Melville tries to seek the possibility in building the ties in a selfish, uprooted, and fragmented society focusing on the functions of the masquerade. Simultaneously, he attempts to build the tie with his contemporary readers.
Abstract
This paper aims at analyzing Melville’s The Confidence Man: His Masquerade, the last long piece of prose fiction, putting the word “confidence” and “masquerade” in the center. Since the publication, The Confidence Man has been probably the hardest nut to crack among Melville’s novels because it deals with a broad variety of issues including epistemological problems, slavery, and experimental work for the author, while addressing criticism towards the readers who have misunderstood his works. In addition, he criticizes all the aspects of American society in the nineteenth century, expecially the westward movement and “Empire for Liberty,” which is the propaganda in Jefferson’s era. For this purpose, Melville strangely employs the confidence man to highlight the moral bankruptcy of forefathers’ faith animated by the Wall Street spirit. Melville allows the confidence man to prey upon gullible or greedy passengers, who make his existence and knavery possible. The gullible passengers are engrossed in showing their confidence and sympathy to others by tangible assets, such as money. Melville debunks an avowed reality full of rosy rhetorics like charity, confidence, and empire for the liberty and reveals the underside of the official history. However, he ends in seeking the possible bond among the strange, isolated and confidence-seeking common men. Living in the post-heroic world, the passengers as a posterity feel burdened by the legacy of the idealized forefathers. Through the masquerade of the confidence-man Melville tries to seek the possibility in building the ties in a selfish, uprooted, and fragmented society focusing on the functions of the masquerade. Simultaneously, he attempts to build the tie with his contemporary readers.
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