Herman Melville

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Melville became conscious of deeper powers. In 1849 he began
a systematic study of Shakespeare, pondering the bard's intuitive grasp of human
nature. Like Hawthorne, Melville could not accept the prevailing optimism of
his generation. Unlike his friend, he admired Emerson, seconding the Emersonian
demand that Americans reject European ties and develop their own literature.
"Believe me," he wrote, "men not very much inferior to Shakespeare are this day
being born on the banks of the Ohio." Yet he considered Emerson's vague talk
about striving and the inherent goodness of mankind complacent nonsense.

Experience made Melville too aware of the evil in the world to be a
transcendentalist. His novel Redburn based on his adventures on a Liverpool
packet, was, as the critic F. O. Matthiessen put it, "a study in disillusion, of
innocence confronted with the world, of ideals shattered by facts." Yet
Melville was no cynic; he expressed deep sympathy for the Indians and for
immigrants, ...

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