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Sin in Melville's Pierre

The subtle snake of what lies in literature

By Minte StaraPublished about a year ago 5 min read
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Sin in Melville's Pierre
Photo by Amir Sani on Unsplash

The mention of sin is a constant, underlying, and hidden snake in Herman Melville's Pierre. Sin is the idea that Pierre is courting when he sits down with a member of the church to eat. The discussion of sin is not directly addressed, but throughout the dinner ghost of it hangs over the table. Melville uses this ghost to show the reader what to expect from the rest of the novel and what might be lurking within Pierre's subconscious, ready to arise. The scene with the clergyman, Mr. Falsgrove, Pierre's mother, Mr. Glendinning, and Pierre is a way for Melville to show Pierre's silent sin of love toward his half-sister through purity and serpent imagery.

To be able to recognize the purity imagery for what it is, the reader first must recognize the imagery of serpents and sin, hiding as a brooch at Mr. Falsgrove's chest, which is in a union with purity. The brooch at the clergyman's chest is not noticed or commented on until after Pierre starts discussing his "hypothetical" questions regarding illegitimate siblings. While his question is anything but hypothetical, the other characters do not know that. Even still, the reader is able to recognize that Melville's tiny detail is still of note. "At this instant, the surplice-like napkin dropped from the clergyman's bosom, showing a minute but exquisitely cut cameo brooch, representing the allegorical union of the serpent and the dove. It had been the gift of an appreciative friend, and was sometimes worn on secular occasions like the present" (Melville 102). The union between sin and purity in this case is Melville’s foreshadowing of Pierre and his half-sister’s union, which will be as disastrous as a union between these two beasts. Pierre, while able to notice this brooch, does not spend much time on it other than to observe its existence. Instead, it is the narrator who talks about its note and how the pure napkin slipped to reveal it. With this union between serpent and bird reminiscent of Isabel as the serpent (as to form a union with her would be sin) and Pierre the dove (as he is currently untarnished by sin) proves to show Melville’s hints toward the eventual deadly ending of the novel.

Everything about the clergyman's hands is described as white and pure, "vivid whiteness and purity of his hands, strikingly contrasted with his fine girth and stature" (98). These same hands are what hide the serpent-and-dove broach from the eyes of the viewer with an equally white and pure napkin. With this imagery in mind, the reader only has associations of this white pureness up until the brooch is revealed. The paster is fat, and his worth is given to him by the size of his hands and feet. He is often shocked, where is napkin falls to expose his broach. It is not just the pure white hands used to hide the brooch, however, but also the white and pure napkin of Mrs. Glendinning, hiding the union of sin from Pierre even more. "Such was this Mr. Falsgrave, who now sat at Mrs. Glendinning’s breakfast table, a corner of one of that lady’s generous napkins so inserted into his snowy bosom, that its folds almost invested him as far down as the table’s edge; and he seemed a sacred priest, indeed, breakfasting in his surplice" (Melville 99). Mr. Falsgrove's napkin hides, in its snowy folds, the imagery of Pierre's secret, which is revealed every time Pierre shocks the clergyman into revealing what the reader knows - that Pierre is heading toward sin (at least if Melville's hints are to be understood).

Each time Pierre draws attention to his up-and-coming sin, Mr. Falsgrove is shown by Melville to reveal the corresponding brooch with its matching union of sin. The napkin, still pure even though the meal is being eaten, is dropped. The pure white hand loses its grasp and control (and masking) of the sin. It reveals to Pierre and the reader in a subtle way that the sin Pierre will commit is known. "Again, the surplice-like napkin chanced to drop" (Melville 103). This occurs a lot, with Mr. Falsgrove struggling to grasp the complicated nature of Pierre's puzzling questions, but with this silent indicator from Melville to the sin that Pierre is heading towards, showing the serpent and the dove. The union of which is the bridge between Pierre's purity and Isabel's sin. Because the napkin is dropped away, even if momentarily, it shows the laps in Pierre's judgement, falling instead more in fascination (and maybe love) with his half-sister. The revealing of it foreshadows the fact that Pierre will not be able to hide a union from the world, once the serpent is paired with the dove.

Melville uses this imagery of purity and serpentine sin to foreshadow to the reader what is to come, making it easier for both them and Pierre to recognize what is about to happen. This story will not have a happy ending, where Pierre can live with the serpent. Instead, the puzzle of imagery allows the readers to work out the ending before the union has even occurred, making the possibility for puzzling out the 'how' even more fun to puzzle out. The awareness of what these images means opens up a broader reading of the story and the implications ahead for the characters.

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So sometimes I write essays for fun. This being one of them, as it was my brainrot.

Humanity
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About the Creator

Minte Stara

Small writer and artist who spends a lot of their time stuck in books, the past, and probably a library.

Currently I'm working on my debut novel What's Normal Here, a historical/fantasy romance.

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