The (Over) Confidence Man

I find myself anything but confident after reading this book, which may have been Melville's goal. I could hardly tell which character was which as the confidence man constantly changed disguises and talked to the other characters, who, for the most part, lacked names. I was overloaded with allusions--classical, biblical, periodical, etc., which thankfully were explained by the Norton critical edition of the text I was reading, but unfortunately so dense themselves that they only confused me more. By repetition, however, I did understand that Melville was toying with American confidence and optimism. As the Norton text suggests, I also could see the confidence man as a devil figure or an Emersonian figure--not to suggest that Emerson is the devil, but merely that both figures use confidence to their advantage. The biblical devil can take on many disguises, quote scripture to his advantage (twist truth), and play to human weakness. In this book, the confidence man uses his understanding of human character to play to the vulnerable spots of his victims, whether it be their gullibility, hubris, optimism, sense of duty, or greed, and trick them into putting confidence in him. Emerson, like the confidence man, is an agent of this false confidence that Melville is condemning. Melville seems to be going back to the Puritans, to the day of the original sin and fallible man, warning America about excessive optimism and confidence similar to Hawthorne's warning about human confidence in stories like "The Birthmark." One of the most striking passages/images in the book (I can't quite bring myself to call it a novel) is when the confidence man is describing his thoughts upon his supposed visit to the world's fair hosted in the Crystal Palace: "As I dwelt upon that shining pageant of arts, and moving concourse of nations, and reflected that here was the pride of the world glorying in a glass house, a sense of the fragility of worldly grandeur profoundly impressed me"(47). In this passage he wonders at the confidence that humanity can have in such a fragile world. In a similar way, Melville wonders at the extreme confidence exuding from the thoughts of the Transcendentalists especially in America—a country so young that it has hardly had time to prove itself. I don’t think that Melville means to imply that confidence in all forms is bad, just over-confidence or blind optimism—everything in moderation, as the saying goes, is not bad advice.