The notion of not being oneself and being aware of it is something that is difficult to accept, even more so when trying to change such circumstances, which in some cases are controlled by something other than the individual. In Moby Dick Ahab is presented to have such a dilemma. He is someone who is driven by another force, a force that he is not fully aware of. In this way Ahab is more than Ahab, he is a concept, and idea, a controlled machine. He becomes the leader of a ship, who he himself id an outsider to, and who he “himself” has no control over.
Ahab is an amalgam of his own suffering, his own monomania, and the constructed notions about him -- to an extent. Something grew or came to be with in Ahab as explained by Ishmael; “But as …show more content…
Hence, Ahab becomes a form of a master and evil by being in such a position. One example is when Ahab is talking to Pip by saying, “Here, boy; Ahab’s cabin shall be Pip’s home henceforth, while Ahab lives” which brings about this inviting connection to Pip “Come! I feel prouder leading thee by thy black hand, than though I grasped an Emperor’s!” (Melville 343). Pip becomes a victim to the enslavement of Ahab; however, there is also this rather irony to this story because Ahab is also a slave to his own madness and his monomania. Therefore, Ahab is more than a character, and a captain of a ship whose job is to reinforce his madness and fulfill his monomania, he is a representation of evil who reflects the men of society during the …show more content…
It is dangerous to have one person with all the control. With that in mind, the narrator expresses the control of the Pequod, “Steering now south-eastward by Ahab’s levelled steel, and her progress solely determined by Ahab’s level log and line; the Pequod held on her path towards the Equator” (Melville 343). In this way the captain is who has the say in the boat and who orders the rest of the men in it. Similarly, such workings parallel that of a society and America; however, it is in some cases that it is not the person at the top: “The ship itself, then, as it sometimes happens, offered the most promising intermediate means of overtaking the chase” (Melville 362). That being said, the Pequod is more than a ship carrying men on a mission set by the captain, but it is sometimes the ship itself that circumnavigates the idea of control. The Pequod then represents a society and a government, whose inhabitants are under the ordinances set by the one at the top or those who make the ship what it is. Such intertwined directions make the
Ahab is an amalgam of his own suffering, his own monomania, and the constructed notions about him -- to an extent. Something grew or came to be with in Ahab as explained by Ishmael; “But as …show more content…
Hence, Ahab becomes a form of a master and evil by being in such a position. One example is when Ahab is talking to Pip by saying, “Here, boy; Ahab’s cabin shall be Pip’s home henceforth, while Ahab lives” which brings about this inviting connection to Pip “Come! I feel prouder leading thee by thy black hand, than though I grasped an Emperor’s!” (Melville 343). Pip becomes a victim to the enslavement of Ahab; however, there is also this rather irony to this story because Ahab is also a slave to his own madness and his monomania. Therefore, Ahab is more than a character, and a captain of a ship whose job is to reinforce his madness and fulfill his monomania, he is a representation of evil who reflects the men of society during the …show more content…
It is dangerous to have one person with all the control. With that in mind, the narrator expresses the control of the Pequod, “Steering now south-eastward by Ahab’s levelled steel, and her progress solely determined by Ahab’s level log and line; the Pequod held on her path towards the Equator” (Melville 343). In this way the captain is who has the say in the boat and who orders the rest of the men in it. Similarly, such workings parallel that of a society and America; however, it is in some cases that it is not the person at the top: “The ship itself, then, as it sometimes happens, offered the most promising intermediate means of overtaking the chase” (Melville 362). That being said, the Pequod is more than a ship carrying men on a mission set by the captain, but it is sometimes the ship itself that circumnavigates the idea of control. The Pequod then represents a society and a government, whose inhabitants are under the ordinances set by the one at the top or those who make the ship what it is. Such intertwined directions make the