Tuberculosis and art

In connecting Cereno with tuberculosis, Melville may also be invoking a common idea from his time: that sufferers of tuberculosis lived in a a kind of heightened state that was actually conducive to artistic creation. Although TB killed people of all races and classes, it was commonly associated with aristocrats, and with the idea of young, loose-living, wealthy men (and sometimes women) cut down in their prime ... a sort of punishment for their lifestyle. Cereno, as a youthful aristocrat, fits this picture, and in this way contrasts with Delano.