著者

佐々木 英哲

出版者

桃山学院大学

雑誌

人間文化研究 (ISSN:21889031)

巻号頁・発行日

no.1, pp.29-81, 2014-11-28

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Melville acquired the knowledge of Gnosticism in 1849, when he bought Dictionnaire historique et critique [The Historical and Critical Dictionary] by Pierre Bayle. Gnosticismmay have helped Melville unlock the door to a realm beyond the wall or the realm hidden behind the mask, the hidden knowledge. According to Foucault, knowledge in the ages from enlightenment to (post-) modernism was not so much truth or untruth as control and possession, in short, hegemonic power. Melville's attraction to Gnosticism is unsurprising if we recall that he possessed and was possessed with knowledge, but dispossessed of power (unpopular in literary circles) and destitute as a consequence. Curiously, however, the author allowed Pierre to nearly become a member of the mysterious mock-commune presided over by Plinlimmon, the man who happens to have the same given name as the third century anti-Gnostic, Plotinus. This paper tries to clarify (1) what factor(s) impel(s) Pierre to accept Isabel's /Plinlimmon's (anti-)Gnostic influence, (2) the direction in which Pierre finally goes, and (3) the pessimistic message, or oracle if you like, that Melville tries to transmit through Pierre's abrupt suicide, the nullification of his progress towards possible liberation for himself and his half-sister. Pierre is snugly bathed in "the brilliant chandeliers of the mansion of Saddle Meadow" as an inheritor-to-be. Pierre unknowingly follows the mode a white male (is forced to) make[s], the mode that perpetually (de)stabilizes his subject position, with recourse to false reality/ identity perception and / or reality/ identity fabrication. Pierre is too embarrassed to stay calm after hearing Isabel recount her life story. He tries to regain his subject position by stealing and lying beneath the "Terror Stone" or the "Memnon Stone" of the Delphi Omphalos (the "navel," or center of the world, in Greek). From there, Pierre says to Isabel, "[T]ell me every thing and any thing. I desire to know all." His burning desire for knowledge about Isabel's identity has a great deal to do with Foucauldian power-compared knowledge. As the intimacy with Isabel deepens, Pierre loses his subjective authority and veers towards Isabel, the representation of Gnosticism. Isabel appears in the occult atmosphere and misuses esotericism/ Gnosticism as an alternative to orthodox Christianity, leaving Pierre with an impression of epiphany, and thus prompting him to lean toward Gnosticism. Under her influence, he debunks his deceased father's genteel middle-class image, dethroning him to the equivalent of Demiurge. Moreover, Pierre is a symbolic look-alike of Simon Magus, the founder of Gnostic heresy, in gleaning inspiration from a suspicious (licentious) woman, Isabel (as Simon does from Helen(a)/Sophia). Imitating the Gnostic and dethroning his Demiurgeous father, Pierre flagrantly compares himself to "the heavenbegotten Christ" and falls into the fallacy of becoming the Demiurge or anti- God. Pierre happens to read a lecture pamphlet allegedly written by Plinlimmon and relapses again into the Anglo-European-centric mentality. This retreat is incited by Plinlimmon, the mysterious man whose surname sounds like Memnon (recalling the Memnon Stone that lies, according the Greek, in the center of the earth) and who shares the same given name as the anti-Gnostic Plotinus. Thus, Plinlimmon, the blue-eyed anti-Gnostic, is a stark opposite to Isabel, the "dark, olive cheek[ed]" (46) pro-Gnostic. Seen from another angle, this implies that Pierre, the nineteen-year-old preparing for initiation into mature adult life, desperately needs knowledge and mock-Messiahs to prop him up. The opposite two, the pro-Gnostic Isabel and the anti-Gnostic Plinlimmon, merge in Pierre's psyche. This is not necessarily to say that Pierre retreats to his starting point. Pierre holds himself so as not to entirely commit himself to the community provided over by Plinlimmon, the mock-utopia of sorts with its potential to change into a radically violent group. Pierre breaks this apparent vicious circle by taking poison from the bosom of Isabel. Thus, it turns out that unlike Foucault, Pierre exposes the inefficiency of Western knowledge, and that unlike Derrida and Levinas, Pierre exposes his pessimistic view about the futility of seeking (a) Messiah(s) in other being(s). He finally realizes that he is heading for a postmodern nowhere where one cannot or should not expect epiphany of a Messiah. In Pierre, Melville warned of the futility of Messiah-seeking. Melville could textually allow Pierre to solve his Messiah problem, but the author could not solve his own Messiah problem, the problem attributed to his traumatic experience of being virtually deserted by Hawthorne, the object of his love and worship.