It could be argued that Ahab considers Moby Dick to be a representative of all things evil and that he wants to take on the structure of nature by defeating this omniscient creature. The captain comes across as mad and delusional as he rants about attacking the “inscrutable thing” behind the “mask”, the force behind the façade that is the whale. In order to understand Ahab’s obsession, the reader must try to understand what he wants to get out of killing the whale, is it the actual whale or the metaphorical power that he sees behind the whale? A convincing argument can be made that Ahab wants to be God and is offended that he should have to bear the insult of any authority beyond himself. The "inscrutable thing" dares to limit Ahab's role in
