Characterism In Moy Dick And Herman Melville's Moby Dick

Great Essays
The most renowned authors of literature, famous figures such as Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, are widely known for, among many other qualities, their ability to condense powerful meaning into concise, easily overlooked phrases. Of course, well-known classical authors also have a penchant for penning intricate and multifaceted novels, and Herman Melville is no exception. Melville’s Moby-Dick is, at first glance, a work of extreme complexity, full of musings concerning language, nature, and the human condition, among many other topics. However, Melville’s overarching goal in writing Moby-Dick is to illustrate both the natural human instinct to search for the hidden meaning of life and the impossibility of achieving such a lofty objective. …show more content…
The captain proceeds to expound on the reasons behind his boundless ambition in pursuing Moby Dick: “He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him” (140). Ahab assigns multiple characteristics of evil to Moby Dick, and is determined to exterminate the malice he perceives within the White Whale. In contrast, Starbuck, the first mate of the Pequod, does not understand why Ahab makes Moby Dick a symbol. When Ahab is ranting about his anger at Moby Dick, Starbuck replies, “’Vengeance on a dumb brute...that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous” (139). Starbuck’s exhortations, instead of curtailing Ahab’s desire to hunt down Moby Dick, only seem to fuel Ahab’s relentless drive to eliminate the wickedness he perceives in the whale. The true depth of the whale’s symbolic importance to Ahab is not revealed until Ishmael describes the aftermath of the incident during which Ahab lost his leg. Melville writes, “Ever since that almost fatal encounter, Ahab had cherished a wild vindictiveness against the whale…he at last came to identify with him, not only all his bodily woes, but all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations” (156). Melville continues, “The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them” (156). In essence, Ahab believes that Moby Dick is the source of the angst and rage he feels after the whale reaped away his leg. Ultimately, Ahab places his faith in the idea that

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Moby-Dick is an American novel written by Herman Melville. The story chronicles the voyage of a captain driven mad by his desire to kill Moby Dick, a scarred white whale who severed the captain 's leg. At first glance, Moby-Dick may appear to be nothing more than an adventure novel; however, it soon becomes apparent that Moby-Dick 's pages are rife with philosophical discussion, technical knowledge, and sharp wit. Readers may also find it interesting to note that Melville 's narrative style changes frequently. In the beginning of the book, we read a first person narrative.…

    • 970 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Geography In Moby-Dick

    • 1788 Words
    • 8 Pages

    A Look at Geography in Moby-Dick Melville’s Moby-Dick is a richly woven psychological masterpiece. Time and again concepts and characters are deftly paralleled and contrasted. The sheer density and breadth of references spans biblical allusions, a range of mythologies, as well as the geographical knowledge of a learned cartographer. Perhaps Melville’s most commonly underappreciated device, however, is his complex use of geography. His locations do not only represent real world challenges but also states of emotion, metaphors for characters and relationships, and metaphysical beliefs.…

    • 1788 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Melville’s story, “Bartleby: The Scrivener”, caused many literary experts to analyze the text and conclude to why it was written. Many different critics may agree on one reason to why it was written or one critic may be stuck between several reasons. Literary critics, including Kelly King Howes, analyzed Melville’s short story and expressed their thoughts. Howes understands Melville’s frustration and claims, “Melville's allegorical tale of an individual's passive resistance and another's attempt to understand his behavior has produced a fascinating variety of conjectures about what the characters represent and what, in fact, Melville meant” (Howes). During the time that Melville wrote his story, he was in a dark time due to everything going on around him.…

    • 1383 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Moby Dick Allusions

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Mythological allusions can help elucidate prevalent themes in novels by connecting them to well-known myths. The novel Moby Dick, written by Herman Melville, is a tale that uses a confluence of mythological allusions to help strengthen its message about society. With these allusions the reader begins to understand the topic of discussion and is also exposed to the wisdom and knowledge Melville possess. Throughout the novel, biblical and Greek allusions help exemplify the nature of human defiance and persistence seen through the futile attempt to undermine nature through Ahab, Elijah, Jonah, and the Fates.…

    • 874 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Commentary On Moby Dick

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Moby dick In 1851 Herman Melville wrote what he dreamed was the next great American classic . A story about a captain on the hunt for a white whale that took his leg. He was a captain on the ship called the Pequad. Melville was a whaler before he wrote the book.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bartleby, the Scrivener by Herman Melville is a short story that provokes readers to question what it truly means to be human. The depiction of Melville’s characters and emphasis of specific objects throughout the story become symbolic representations of human existence. Readers are compelled to understand human existence through the narrator’s recollection of Bartleby’s character. The relationship shared between the narrator and Bartleby plays an important role in the development of the story and the overall message Melville conveys in regards to human existence. Through analyzing the main characters and major symbols Melville depicts, an underlying meaning of human existence is revealed.…

    • 258 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On the ship, Ahab maintains a strong, brute authoritarian figure on the ship being very direct to his fellow whalers. Ishmael discusses what the meaning of Cetology, which is the study of…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He feels that it is his duty to find Moby Dick and kill him or die trying. When the ship finally finds the whale and spears it, Captain Ahab voluntarily jumps onto the whale to try to kill it. He ends up dying as a result of his heroic trial. He values the death of Moby Dick instead of his own life. Ahab feels the need to seek revenge on Moby Dick because the whale has taken his leg from him.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Similarly the crew notices that Ahab is so obsessed with Moby Dick that he can not hear their warning about the sharks that want to consume him. First, Fleece notices that the sharks are never satisfied after getting what they want,“‘ Massa Stubb; dey don’t hear one word; no use a-preachin’ to such dam g’utton as you call ‘em, till dare bellies is full, and dare bellies is bottomless; and when they do get em full, dey wont hear you den; for den dey sink in de sea, go fast to sleep on de coral, and can’t hear not-ing at all, no more, for eber and eber” (322). Fleece is foreshadowing the death of Ahab and the destruction of these men who will follow him. Fleece is also acknowledging that they can’t be saved anymore because they are so consumed by their need to hunt and kill Moby Dick that they ignore all warning even as their pursuit brings them closer to death each time. This is exactly what happens with Ahab when he ignores all warnings in his mindless pursuit of Moby Dick.…

    • 2237 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ahab's Insanity

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, a whaling ship captain, Captain Ahab; seeks revenge on the whale who took his leg: Moby Dick. Captain Ahab is tormented to insanity and will go to great lengths to satiate his deep need for vengeance on this whale he has come to see as the epitome of evil. Melville exemplifies many common characteristics of the dark side of Romanticism in Moby-Dick, such as remote locations, insanity, and fascination with evil and the power of darkness. In his novel Moby-Dick, Herman Melville reveals the power of darkness representative of the dark side of romanticism through his characterization of Ahab, Moby Dick, and other crew members. Herman Melville illustrates the power of darkness through his characterization of Ahab.…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    America aboard the Pequod A deceiving ship sailing through the ocean appears to be an island of equality but is actually a symbol of doom. “...then the rushing Pequod, freighted with savages, and laden with fire, and burning a corpse, and plunging into that blackness of darkness, seemed the material counterpart of her monomaniac commander's soul ” (Melville). In Herman Melville’s novel “Moby Dick”, Melville creates an image of America and its qualities through a ship called the Pequod while also creating a sailing coffin for his crew.…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bartleby, the Scrivener is a short story Composed by Herman Melville. Melville was born on August 1st 1819. He is known for his exceedingly memorable narrative Moby Dick. He received his recognition as one of the respectable and inspirational American writers during the 1850s. His reached it's climax and began to decline and that lead of him closing the chapter of writing books and open one for short stories.…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Many readers and writers today often admire Herman Melville’s works and look to his writings for literary inspiration. Not only was Melville an American novelist, but a gifted short story writer and poet during the 1800s. Melville wrote many popular works in his lifetime, such as Moby-Dick, perhaps the best known novel he wrote. Whether it was traveling on sea expeditions, living among cannibalistic natives on the Marquesas islands, or sufferring much tragedy in his later years, it is fair to place Melville among the most interesting writers of his time. Herman Melville was born in 1819, in New York City.…

    • 1244 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Research Paper: Moby Dick Moby Dick is an American classic novel that was published on October 18, 1851. The author was non-other than Herman Melville, he is well known for his two books Typee and Moby Dick. The history behind Melville is quite intriguing, he was born on August 1, 1819 into a life of poverty and would constantly have to search for work in order to help maintain his family.…

    • 1917 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    From the onset Melville creates an unsettling and uncomfortable atmosphere which is consistent throughout the novella, immediately tipping the reader off to something not being right: “the ship … with the shreds of fog here and there raggedly furring her, appeared like a white-washed monastery after a thunder storm, seen perched upon some dun cliff among the Pyrenees” (Krupat and Levine, 2007, p.2406). The tone set here makes way for the revelation that “the strangeness of the ship is an element of the soul’s delusion” (Chase, 1965, p.120). With Captain Delano, he introduces a character similarly blinded by pre conceived notions about society as the lawyer was in Bartleby. The Captains views on slavery are incredibly opaque by today’s standards and present a disturbing view of what was perceived normal in many American states at the time. It is shown that “he carries in his head a parcel of platitudes that the historian George Fredrickson has called ‘romantic racialism’”…

    • 1950 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays

Related Topics