After the Albatross, the Pequod crosses paths with the Town-Ho (Melville 195). The encounter with the Town-Ho is unique to the rest of the whaler-encounters, as Ishmael tells it in the form of a story within a story. The Town-Ho “gave [the Pequod] strong news of Moby Dick”, but not in any way that Ahab would want (Melville 199). Indeed, “the tragedy” the Town-Ho describes “never reached the ears of Captain Ahab” (Melville 199). The story represented by this ship raises an unanswerable contradiction to Ahab’s view of the world. It raises unanswerable questions about the true nature of Moby Dick. Ahab’s regards Moby Dick as a simplistic embodiment of “all evil…felt by his whole race from Adam down” (Melville 156). Ishmael’s conception is less
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Radney is a “malignant” man “heaped up” with hatred (Melville 204), suggesting Moby Dick is an instrument of a just – or at least sometimes just – god, a possibility in direct disagreement with Ahab’s view (Melville 211-212). This would imply that Moby Dick is, like Ahab, an “ungodly, god-like” being (Melville 78), one that harms both the comparatively innocent (Captain Boomer and the crew of the Rachel) and the comparatively guilty (Radney and Ahab). But if it harms the guilty and innocent indiscriminately, does that really suggest it serves some deity, or is it just a wild animal? Ishmael did not have to include the story of the Town-Ho; he could have allowed the reader to only understand the whale the way Ahab does: a “visibl[e] personifi[cation]” of “all evil” (Melville 156). But Ishmael decides to allow the reader to come to understand the whale and its complexities at the same time he does – Ishmael learns of the story of Radney and Steelkilt while on the Pequod (Melville 199-200). The encounter with the Town-Ho, and Ishmael’s laborious inclusion of the story, suggest he suspects early on that Ahab’s understanding of the quest is incomplete in its fixedness. It showcases Ishmael’s unwillingness to jump to conclusions about the whale, and, more importantly, to not let the reader do this either, reinforcing Ishmael’s role as the controlling narrator of the …show more content…
Gabriel, consequently, represents – like the Town-Ho – a worldview antithetical to Ahab’s own, further confirming that Ishmael does not want to craft one image of the whale. That Gabriel does in some ways seem to predict the future (“‘thou [Ahab] art soon going’” to die, and indeed Ahab does) may lend at least some credence to his view of the whale: at the very least, it is not something to be tampered with (Melville 254). Gabriel may also be Ishmael’s way of telling the reader (Captain Boomer being another) that there are individuals in this story other than Ahab who have definite opinions and understandings of Moby Dick; the way these other characters respond to the whale speaks volumes about why Ahab responds the way he does. Seeing Moby Dick as the instrument of an evil god, as Ahab does, removes moral culpability from humans and places it on that god. Gabriel, as unintelligibly radical as he is, seems to recognize that some beings are better ignored, and if one does choose to contest with them, one must answer for the consequences (Melville
Radney is a “malignant” man “heaped up” with hatred (Melville 204), suggesting Moby Dick is an instrument of a just – or at least sometimes just – god, a possibility in direct disagreement with Ahab’s view (Melville 211-212). This would imply that Moby Dick is, like Ahab, an “ungodly, god-like” being (Melville 78), one that harms both the comparatively innocent (Captain Boomer and the crew of the Rachel) and the comparatively guilty (Radney and Ahab). But if it harms the guilty and innocent indiscriminately, does that really suggest it serves some deity, or is it just a wild animal? Ishmael did not have to include the story of the Town-Ho; he could have allowed the reader to only understand the whale the way Ahab does: a “visibl[e] personifi[cation]” of “all evil” (Melville 156). But Ishmael decides to allow the reader to come to understand the whale and its complexities at the same time he does – Ishmael learns of the story of Radney and Steelkilt while on the Pequod (Melville 199-200). The encounter with the Town-Ho, and Ishmael’s laborious inclusion of the story, suggest he suspects early on that Ahab’s understanding of the quest is incomplete in its fixedness. It showcases Ishmael’s unwillingness to jump to conclusions about the whale, and, more importantly, to not let the reader do this either, reinforcing Ishmael’s role as the controlling narrator of the …show more content…
Gabriel, consequently, represents – like the Town-Ho – a worldview antithetical to Ahab’s own, further confirming that Ishmael does not want to craft one image of the whale. That Gabriel does in some ways seem to predict the future (“‘thou [Ahab] art soon going’” to die, and indeed Ahab does) may lend at least some credence to his view of the whale: at the very least, it is not something to be tampered with (Melville 254). Gabriel may also be Ishmael’s way of telling the reader (Captain Boomer being another) that there are individuals in this story other than Ahab who have definite opinions and understandings of Moby Dick; the way these other characters respond to the whale speaks volumes about why Ahab responds the way he does. Seeing Moby Dick as the instrument of an evil god, as Ahab does, removes moral culpability from humans and places it on that god. Gabriel, as unintelligibly radical as he is, seems to recognize that some beings are better ignored, and if one does choose to contest with them, one must answer for the consequences (Melville