How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
So the bell's main weakness was where man's blood had flawed it. And so pride went before the fall. (6.91)
Melville ends "The Bell Tower" with a proverb…or a cliché, if you're less charitable. Ending with a familiar moral like this makes "The Bell Tower" seem like a fable. It's not something that really happened, but an improving story, put together with maybe a little flaw at the end, like the flaw in the bell.