“I could not bear to look”: The Just-World Hypothesis in Melville’s “The Piazza”

Abstract

Abstract This article explores Herman Melville’s “The Piazza” through the lens of what social psychologists term the Just-World Hypothesis. Written last and serving as the opening story of The Piazza Tales, “The Piazza” presents readers with an imaginative narrator whose actions toward a young woman he meets in a lonely mountain cabin often seem puzzling; the present essay analyzes his behavior by examining the psychology of Belief in a Just World, a phenomenon that potentially explains why people often reject and blame victims of tragedy and those who suffer. This analysis, in turn, illuminates aspects of similar psychological positions for characters in other stories in The Piazza Tales, most notably the lawyer in “Bartleby, the Scrivener.” While Melville’s works are often explored through the lenses of philosophy and morality, his ability to capture complex psychology in a realistic manner is powerfully demonstrated in The Piazza Tales, especially in the opening story.