No one asked about this, but I wish we'd had time to discuss it in class: what do we do with all the Gothic tropes in the novel? Being entombed alive in Squire Woodcock's hidden room, the 'skeleton' of the Bonhomme Richard, the references to ghosts everywhere...?
There seems to be many cases when the novel is completely sending up Gothic conventions, as in the "Encounter of Ghosts' chapter with Israel escaping by passing as a dead man, or the farmer who comes after his suddenly-ambulatory scarecrow with a pitchfork.
On the other hand, what about when Israel tries to cloak his true identity after mis-boarding the Ariel (Shakespeare reference!), he becomes a 'phantom,' a 'ghost' because he is not recognized and accepted by any of the social spheres on board the ship? The "who are you" question seems to be getting metaphysical here. If he's not recognized by others, does he exist at all? Or does he become, like Wakefield, a 'disappeared man' who may not be fully human in the absence of social ties?
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