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The Head and the Heart in Melville's Mardi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2020

Nathalia Wright
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Extract

Melville's Mardi is the account of an ostensible search for a lost, ideal maiden. But from beginning to end its true object seems to be rather an undiscovered, ideal man, such a man as Babbalanja described to King Abrazza: “Cerebrum must not overbalance cerebellum; our brains should be round as globes; and planted on capacious chests, inhaling mighty morning inspirations. We have had vast developments of parts of men; but none of manly wholes. Before a full-developed man, Mardi would fall down and worship.” For such a man Melville's whole literary life, in fact, was a search, which naturally discovered more halves than wholes, more Ababs and Pierres than Jack Chases—more Emersons, Hawthornes, and Goethes than Shakespeares. Without doubt Melville's sympathies between halves lay with the heart, yet he regarded neither as adequate, uncomplicated, or hostile to the other. As the earliest, longest, and most undisguised account of this search for the “full-developed man,” Mardi is the most important single work by Melville for the study of one of his most important themes.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
PMLA , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , June 1951, pp. 351 - 362
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 1951

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References

Note 1 in page 351 Mardi (Loudon: Constable, 1922), II, 322–323. Hereafter all references to Mardi are to volume and page numbers only of this edition.

Note 2 in page 351 Although the theme of the head and the heart in Melville has been recognized in numerous studies (notably those by Braswell, Chase, Matthiessen, Sedgwick, and Thorp), no thorough analysis of its appearance in a single work or in Melville's work as a whole has been made.

Perception of a psychological dichotomy expressed in these terms was, of course, part of the whole sensibility component of romanticism, and the romantic prejudice was perhaps most happily expressed by Keats: “the Heart is the Mind's Bible.” Of Melville's contemporaries Hawthorne is most clearly echoed in Babbalanja's words, but apparently Melville did not read about the Master Genius and the Truth-seeker in Mosses from an Old Manse, with their ideal balance of head and heart, until 1850.

Note 3 in page 352 I, 196, 195, 200, 223.

Note 4 in page 353 I,303, 291, 252, 280, 291, 278, 261, 256.

Note 5 in page 354 I, 314, 319, 320.

Note 6 in page 354 I, 334, 335, 338, 337, 332, 340, 351.

Note 7 in page 355 II, 30, 34, 18, 20, 15.

Note 8 in page 355 II, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 82, 79–81.

Note 9 in page 356 II, 94, 98, .102, 104, 106.

Note 10 in page 356 II, 110, 109.

Note 11 in page 357 II, 141, 144, 145, 140, 147, 143, 145.

Note 12 in page 357 II, 164, 165.

Note 13 in page 357 The identifications are as follows: Dominora—England; Kaleedoni—Scotland; Ver-danna—Ireland; Porpheero—Europe; Franko—France; Ibeereea—Spain; Luzianna—Portugal; Latianna—Italy, Vatikanna—the Papal States; Hapzaboro—Austria; Tutoni—Germany; Zandinavia—Norway and Sweden; Jutlanda—Denmark; Muskovi—Russia; Kolumbo—North and South America; Kaneeda—Canada; Vivenza—United States of America; Orienda—Asia; Hamora—Africa.

Note 14 in page 357 II, 171, 182, 175, 180, 183.

Note 15 in page 358 II, 168, 169.

Note 16 in page 359 II, 223, 222, 240, 228, 229, 266, 267, 250, 240. Alanno is Senator William Allen of Ohio.

Note 17 in page 359 II, 269, 271.

Note 18 in page 359 II, 294, 292, 293, 297, 296.

Note 19 in page 360 II, 317, 336, 341, 340, 322, 324, 332, 335.

Note 20 in page 361 II, 367, 369, 366, 380, 367, 380, 255, 361, 374, 379.

Note 21 in page 361 II, 385.