The Bell Tower

In Hermann Melville’s The BellTower the architect Bannadonna wants to challenge the laws of nature, building the most beautiful tower of Italy, a new Tower of Babel, with a huge iron bell. The architect is the victim of his own obsession as he sees in man and in his technological knowledge the real God. His creations become the symbols of his crimes. While making the tower he kills one of his employees, his skull will be part of the surface of the bell. Every imperfection in the bell reminds that his project is wrong. At the end Bannadonna is crushed by the bell. He sees the world and its inhabitants as a puppet theater in which he is the puppeteer.

Keywords: The Bell Tower, Hermann Melville, Faligi