The Confidence-Man Themes

The Fidèle contains multitudes, and with that comes the fancy and not so fancy. Melville's lingering descriptions of who wore what are less about red-carpet gossip and more about assessing class d...

Misanthropy is a four-letter word in The Confidence-Man. It's a distrust of and distaste for other people—all the people. Now, if you're a misanthrope and you're out at sea, you're in for a tough...

There's a sucker born every minute, and The Confidence-Man is banking on it. Several characters in the novel make the case that to part with one's money is a clear sign that you've got a few screws...

The Fidèle is sardine-can-level crowded. It's hard to think of isolation as a key player in a text crammed so full of characters you pull a Dory and forget half of them just as you're getting acqu...

Rumor has it the devil is on board the Fidèle. Could be true, for all we know—Melville's a master of the weird and wonky, and while you won't find fire and brimstone in The Confidence-Man, you'l...

There's a sucker born every minute, and as The Confidence-Man can show you, there's a con for every type. The con-man's goal isn't simply to apply a one-size-fits-all ploy to dupe people. Nope—th...

Okay, okay—we don't want to lean too hard into the fact that "man" is in the title, but it is. Plus, nearly every one of the very many characters in this text are cast is a dude. The Confidence-M...

When characters in The Confidence-Man meet up here and there on the ship, they nearly immediately fall into philosophical debates or semi-formal disputations. Real talk: you can't be part of those...