| Summary: | <p> This thesis explores Herman Melville's struggling relationship between belief and unbelief in <i>Moby-Dick</i>, “Benito Cereno” and <i>Clarel</i>. Melville’s travel to the Marquesas gave him a sense of cultural relativity which prompted questions about his faith that continually remerged even as he found answers. In spite of overwhelming skepticism, Melville was unwilling to fully relinquish his faith because belief also offered comfort. Being trapped in a space where he could not fully believe but was equally unable to detach himself from faith, Melville discovered Ralph Waldo Emerson’s concept of double consciousness which served as a theoretical framework for his feelings of internal liminality. Melville drew on Emerson’s ideas to propose a wrestling form of belief. The Melvillean believer discovers questions which produce doubt and then seeks answers. These answered questions produce a brief sense of peace before further questions assert themselves and the struggling believer must begin his journey once again.</p><p>
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