Moby Dick

Superior Essays
In Herman Melville's novel Moby Dick, a captain and his crew endeavor on a perilous journey to kill the legendary white whale. Melville, often through the perspective of a first-time whaler named Ishmael, chronicles Captain Ahab’s desperate venture to exhort his revenge on the great Moby Dick. During the Pequod’s quest to avenge Ahab's leg, Ishmael vividly documents life aboard, while analyzing the significance of both morality and immorality in this world. Ultimately, Melville utilizes powerful, dramatic imagery and symbols to argue that the existence of evil by its very nature necessitates goodness. Melville introduces the simultaneous presence of good and evil through Queequeg, an acclaimed savage. Queequeg, who originated from the …show more content…
In chapter forty two, The Whiteness of the Whale, Ishmael assesses both the evil and goodness of Moby Dick, specifically his color—white. Ishmael spends the entire chapter examining the contrasting qualities of the color white. He mentions how though "whiteness refiningly enhances beauty" and generally symbolizes goodness, superiority, and innocence, it also represents a source of fright. For example, he claims that mariners panic at the sight of white water surrounding their ships, though they claim that they solely fear their ship hitting rocks in the shallow water (Melville 236). In other words, they fear the whiteness of the water and the potential damage it may cause. Meanwhile, the whiteness of pearls and the priests’ robes represents virtue and worthiness. He also contrasts this by referring to it as "ghastly." Ishmael’s analysis here conveys the conflicting positive and negative traits of Moby Dick. Ishmael stresses this notion when he states that “Moby Dick seem[s] combinedly possessed by all the angels that fell from heaven” (Melville 648). The apparent contrast here, again, signifies both the goodness and evil of the whale, for undoubtedly angels embody utter purity while fallen angels exemplify demons. On life and death this man walked. In contrast to the whale, who can literally see both sides of the truth because of his structure, Ahab remains blind to the truth. He …show more content…
Though he is constantly consumed by Moby Dick, the “monomaniac thought of his soul,” Ahab is truly not as terrible as he may seem (Melville 241). Ishmael actually justifies Ahab’s insanity by claiming that it is “of a deeper sort” and that he is not “merely mad” (Melville 291). Therefore, though his chief focus revolves around conquering Moby Dick, Ahab shoudl not simply be characterized as mad. Ahab’s paradoxical description as a “grand, ungodly, god-like man” reiterates this notion as well (Melville 112). Melville utilizes a paradox here to emphasize Ahab’s goodness and evil, describing him as immoral and moral at the same time. The description of him having a "crucifixion in his face" (Melville 28) conveys that even though he was punished, he is innocent, similar to Jesus. Nevertheless, Ahab’s hopeless effort to avenge the white whale leads to his death, for he disregards his surroundings to concentrate on the whale. In fact, Ahab claims he'll "chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before [he] gives him up.” Melville’s use of hyperbole here clearly highlights Ahab’s monomaniacal desire, as he declares his willingness to literally go to hell and back simply to destroy the whale. Therefore, even though others warn Ahab several times of the blasphemy of "be[ing] enraged with a dumb brute that simply smote [him] from

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    It is Melville’s only fictional work that concentrates on slavery. Therefore, it is incommodious to Melville scholars that the tale is so maddening enigmatic.…

    • 2197 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When saying something is a “white whale,” one is describing something that they are obsessed about. However, the saying also means that no matter how hard one tries, that thing will never be obtained. In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey’s first use of white whale imagery is an allusion to the novel Moby-Dick by Herman Melville. In Moby Dick, a seafaring captain fiercely attempts and fails to kill an elusive and mysterious white whale. Consequently, one could argue that the whale in Moby-Dick represents anything unattainable and sought-out in life.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To seek vengeance on a dumb animal is blasphemous!”(Moby Dick, Roddam), these words contrast to Ahab’s actions showing how outrageous his revenge for his whale is, unlike my reasonable obsession. For Ahab, he wants to kill this whale and will risk all cost just to defeat the whale. In contrast, my whale is something that I, want to overcome, however I wouldn’t put everything I have at risk. Ahab is a very determined person in the movie and tries to adjust his men that way too.…

    • 496 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Manifest Destiny Essay

    • 1773 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The novel Moby Dick foresaw these consequences through the use of characters such as Ahab and Ishmael. Ahab, having already suffered the loss of a leg, is still destined and inevitably bound to drive his crew into a fate worse than what he previously suffered. Reminiscent to the bloodshed that resulted from American expansion and the later problems this expansion would cause, Ahab will stop at nothing to acquire his intended goal of seeking vengeance on Moby Dick without consciously realizing what consequences this will bring. Furthermore, America’s subjugation of not only southern slaves but also the Native Americans, whose lands were conquered as a result of the US’ devotion to Manifest Destiny, are symbolized in Moby Dick by the class system on the ship and how Ahab and his madness dictate the ship’s fate. The treatment of Native Americans furthers proves that Manifest Destiny in reality was American Imperialism in a mask in order to gain followers for the movement.…

    • 1773 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Commentary On Moby Dick

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Moby dick was almost supernatural to the laws of nature as in no one ever heard a huge white whale who would attack fisherman and completely destroy their ships but there whaling ships weren't that big in the first place like in the…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 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

    The darkness lurking in Ahab easily took over after the loss of his leg. The evil in him has caused him to spiral into insanity and to obsess over killing Moby Dick, the whale he believes took his leg. Melville displays Ahab's insanity mostly through indirect characterization. Ahab is commonly “so full of his [own] thought” (p. 285) suggesting withdrawal from society caused by insanity. Furthermore, Ahab’s obsession…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The tribe it is named after was attacked by the Puritans, which is why it is a symbol of destruction. “It is clear that Melville means for Ahab and the mariners to stand for all the nations of the earth "federated along one keel"; the doomed Pequod, in this sense, represents the world. The Clootz reference also suggests that the mariners have a grievance against the existential order of the world and are in sympathy with a rebellion against the providential scheme of things. Also important in this novel is Ishmael, a naive young American sailor who has gone to sea to rid himself of a recurrent melancholia that tends toward suicide or violence toward others” (Tuttleton 3). The doom and destruction in the story just show Melville’s gothic romanticized style of…

    • 492 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Themoment that he did so, there came what seemed a tumultuous rush of new life,”according to Arthur Dimmsdale. In Moby Dick, Captain Ahab’s obsession for seekingrevenge on Moby Dick is the result for his evil actions. “And may Got hunt us all if wedo not hunt Moby Dick to the death!” His actions affected others as well such as crew. Instead of going back home to family, he continues his search for Moby Dick.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, is an epic saga of the voyage of the Pequod, a whaling ship, and its captain, Ahab, who endlessly stalked the great sperm whale, Moby Dick, during a journey around the world. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab both play the part as the heinous character in these two novels. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab both represent a man who is completely consumed by a revenge scheme. According to Chillingworth, Dimmesdale's act is enough to justify inflicting all sorts of torture on the priest or even killing him. Although it may seem like it, Hester Prynne is not excluded from Chillingworth’s wrath.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Ahab meets other captains from different ships to where then he demands all their information on Moby Dick. One ship had just had an encounter with the whale who’s captain also lost a limb but he is just glad to have made it out alive and warns Ahab to abandon his goal. But as many could imagine Ahab does not listen. He has too much rage and the reader can sense this by all the babbling and ranting that Ahab says, the reader can see that nothing at this point matters to Ahab except killing the whale. Towards the end Ahab finally spots the whale and launches harpoon boats manned by himself (usually the captain does not endanger himself with that risk) to show how this is personal and he wants to be the one that kills the whale.…

    • 1917 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    If sailors claim that Moby Dick is both omnipotent and omnipresent, does that not make it a god of spirit of some form? In fact, Ahab seems to blame the whale for all his “bodily woes… [and] all his intellectual and spiritual exasperations”, deeming it “the incarnation of all… malicious agencies” and the “intangible malignity which has been from the beginning” (Melville 156). Whether or not this may just be the musings of a middle-aged monomaniac, the fact that Moby Dick does not make a physical appearance till the very end yet holds such a strong influence throughout the novel helps enhance the plausibility. He initially exists for the reader only through the words and fears of others, through legend and story.…

    • 2297 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics