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The titular Don Benito Cereno is the captain of the San Dominick, and proves for most of the story to be a maddeningly mysterious character. It is only near the story’s end that Cereno’s behavior makes sense. Delano believes at various points that Cereno is traumatized, deranged, and deceitful; the truth is that Cereno is trying to save Delano’s life. By preserving the fiction that he is still in charge of the San Dominick, Cereno manages to avoid further violence. It is only when Delano leaves the ship that Cereno is moved to reveal the truth, knowing that Babo and the other men plan to attack the Bachelor’s Delight at the first opportunity.
Notably, Cereno is unable to recover from the ordeal on the San Dominick. Where before he may have been exaggerating the effects of his mental state so as to maintain the ruse that he was in charge, following the court deposition he becomes truly despondent, claiming the affair has left him “broken in body and mind.” When Delano asks him what has cast such a "shadow" upon him, Cereno replies simply, "The Negro." This could mean many things. For instance, it could mean that Cereno's mind has been ruined by the traumatic ordeal that he has gone through. However, a deeper reading of that interaction could indicate that Cereno realizes he was bested by people to whom he previously thought himself superior. This is a crucial realization; it forces Cereno to acknowledge that the racist ideologies that he has accepted as fact for all of his life are false. Unable to confront a reality in which white people are not inherently better or more intelligent, and that they are complicit in the subjugation of an entire race of human beings, Cereno allows himself to fall into decline until he ultimately perishes.
