Moby Dick Transcendentalism

In his novel Moby-Dick, Herman Melville exposes humankind’s ingrained lust to conquer the natural world through the narrative of a doomed whaling voyage. A Dark Romantic, Melville seeks to depict the inner turmoil of humanity and the innate evil of mankind. The titular whale Moby-Dick represents nature and serves to prove that man can never overcome the power of earth. Melville portrays Moby-Dick as an indestructible whale with incredible strength and invincible might. Ahab has previously attempted to kill the powerful beast, but “Though groves of spears should be planted in his flanks, he would still swim away unharmed” (324). Through his introduction of Moby Dick as the immortal embodiment of a primal force, Melville imbues the whale with an otherworldly quality. The whale is an ancient force of nature, a manifestation of destruction. In a post-transcendentalist period, Melville rejects the spiritual connection between man and nature as he portrays Moby-Dick as an antagonist: destructive rather than healing. Just as the whale thwarts Ahab’s attempts to kill it, nature unrelentingly foils humankind’s aspirations of domination. Through this analogy, Melville emphasizes the futility of man’s struggle against nature. Ultimately, mankind concedes to the greater power of the natural world. …show more content…
Another description of the whale reads, “Moby-Dick was ubiquitous… he had actually been encountered in opposite latitudes at one and the same instant of time” (323). Sailors have instilled in Moby-Dick the myth-like quality of universality. Here, Melville illustrates the exaggeration of Moby-Dick’s prowess, which yields another comparison between the beast and nature. Nature exists in every drop of water and every ocean current, and so does Moby-Dick. Moreover, every society has infused nature with supernatural quality at one time or another. Not only is nature ubiquitous, but so is human exaggeration of its