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.ern vision, which some have compared to suchpoems as T.S.Eliot s The Waste Land.The poem banker, the The banker is one of the pilgrims,was reprinted in 1924 as part of the 16-volume on his way to conduct a business deal in Beirut.Constable edition of Melville s work.The first He leaves the pilgrims when they reach the wil-scholarly edition appeared in 1960, published by derness.He has not taken the religious nature ofHendricks House, with a superb introduction by the journey seriously.Indeed, he represents theWalter Bezanson.Bezanson s essay is reprinted materialist world that is antithetical to religiousin the Northwestern University Press edition belief.of Clarel (1991), part of its collected edition ofMelville s work.The Northwestern text, available Belex The leader of six Arabs from Bethlehem,in paperback, is indispensable.It includes several he is a Turk and a tough old warrior.His experi-essays by Melville scholars and detailed notes ence has made him a stoic.about the composition, historical context, andreception of the poem.Given Melville s detailed celibate, the A Greek monk living in Mar Saba,references to history, travel narratives, myths, the he is a type of the ascetic, living primarily by forceBible, and other literary works, the Northwestern of will.edition s annotations are the single best availablesource for a study of the entire poem.Celio This Italian young man is bitter about hishumped back.He has rejected Roman CatholicismCHARACTERS AND RELATED TERMSand has come to the Holy Land to find new spiri-abbot, the See CHRISTODULUS.tual inspiration.Clarel encounters Celio twice, but 64 Clarel: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Landthey do not speak to each other.Nevertheless, they Djalea A Druze from Lebanon, Djalea guides theshare a bond as questers for religious insight.Clarel pilgrims.He has the serene confidence that befitsreads Celio s journal and recognizes his secondthe son of an emir.Both the man and his religionself. The self-destructive Celio is one example ofare a mystery to the pilgrims.Clarel finds it impos-the disaster potentially awaiting the seeker of a newsible to engage him in discussion, yet Djalea s self-spiritual truth, yet he is treated in the poem withcontained quality earns him respect from everyonegreat respect.who meets him.Christodulus The abbot of Mar Saba, he repre-Dominican, the This French Catholic friarsents the certainty of the believer.meets the pilgrims by the Jordan.The Dominicanmanages to embody the authority of the churchClarel A young scholar searching for a religiousand seem a modern man at the same time.Hisawakening.Although he is a modern man who hasopenness attracts the pilgrims, who see a man com-his doubts about revealed religion, he is obsessedfortable in the material world without forsaking hiswith visiting the sites in the Holy Land and withreligious principles.learning from other pilgrims.He tries to keep anopen mind and is swayed by believers and non-Don Hannibal A friend of Derwent s.He is abelievers alike.He becomes a kind of soundingMexican whom the pilgrims meet in Bethlehem.board for the views of others.At times he debatesDon Hannibal has lost an arm and a leg fightingwith his fellow pilgrims, but he comes to no defini-for the liberation of Mexico, but he has turned intotive conclusions.In this respect, he is rather likea doubter of democracy, especially its emphasis onIshmael in Moby-Dick, a center of consciousnessthe masses.He literally has been maimed by mod-who stands somewhat apart from the action evenern political life, and he thus becomes a symbol ofthough he is so closely involved in it.the disaffected activist.Cypriote, the A rather romantic figure, a singerelder, the A Scottish Presbyterian and rigidof love songs.The pilgrims meet this young manfundamentalist, he clashes repeatedly with hison the way to Mar Saba, where he is taking flagonsfellow pilgrims until he decides to leave theirof wine to his mother.He shares none of Clarel scompany.His doctrines alienate the travelers,doubts about religion or the pilgrims awareness ofeven as his desire to survey and measure reli-suffering.gious sites threatens to destroy or disenchant the holy land.Cyril He is described as a mad monk.This for-mer soldier, living by himself in a grotto at MarGlaucon The traveling companion of theSaba, dresses in a shroud.When he accosts Clarelbanker, Glaucon comes from a wealthy family inand others, demanding the countersign (a secretSmyrna and will soon marry the banker s daugh-sign) of Death, he is treated as a figure of pity, ater.He seems rather superficial and unmoved bymaniac fixated on mortality.the pilgrimage.He is very young and utterly inca-pable of seeing the gravity of the issues the pilgrimsDerwent An Anglican priest and one of the pil-debate.grims, he is a kind, mellow man, inclined to be tol-erant of others opinions and of other religions [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]