Herman Melville

Shakespeare and Melville interpret what it means to be a human in different ways through their main characters and their actions, and both authors similarly conclude that human nature is distinct for every person and it relies on the past and present events that each person…

Delano’s confident, arrogant and absolutely insulting demeanor and perception of slaves being too stupid to be able to formulate a revolt ultimately saves him and Benito Cereno. If Delano is not so unaware of the events encircling him and exhibits a little more suspicion, Babo would certainly have him executed. This confidence that conveys a typical American characteristic is also part of Captain Delano’s. This confidence created a barrier that prevented him from once again seeing the truth in…

Much of American Gothic literature shares the same theme: evil. Two popularliterary works, Moby Dick by Herman Melville and The Scarlet Letter by NathanielHawthorne, share the theme of evil. The evil in the work Moby Dick is in Captain Ahab,the captain of a whaling ship, whose only goal was to kill the white whale, Moby Dick,no matter the obstacles or consequences. Evil in The Scarlet Letter was in the form ofRoger Chillingworth, Hester Prynne’s presumed dead husband. His goal was to cause…

downfall, which ultimately ends in their death. In Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, Captain Ahab who also serves as captain of the Pequod, demonstrates Catharsis, Hubris, and Hamartia- all the characteristics a tragic hero obtains. The Captain evokes emotions of pity, fear, and awe to his crew over the course of the whaling voyage, showcasing the unfortunate title bestowed upon him: the tragic hero. Before Ahab physically appears or speaks in the novel, Melville introduces descriptions of the…

In the American gothic novels The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab are both the main manifestations of evil. Ahab and Chillingworth are very similar in how and why they are evil. Captain Ahab and Roger Chillingworth both become evil because something or someone wronged them. Ahab became evil after Moby Dick took his leg. Chillingworth became evil when he arrived in Boston and found that his wife had a child as result…

Herman Melville’s “Benito Cereno” unravels as a tale about a slave revolt, wherein the slaves take control of the San Dominick. Before this occurrence and even after, Captain Delano believes that Benito Cereno is in control of the ship, and is transporting human cargo to be sold and delivered. Melville’s use of irony and metaphors highlight the dichotomy of slavery and freedom. He reverses the patronage from Anglo Saxon control to the enslaved as a pun against the institution of slavery,…

Moby Dick was written by Herman Melville and was published in 1851. Although it was written in 1851 the book didn’t become famous until the 1940s. In the story of Moby Dick Ishmael seeks to go whaling and ends up in Nantucket, the traditional capital of the whaling industry with Queequeg, a guy he met in New Bradford, Massachusetts. The two end up going on a whaling ship called the Pequod, captained by Ahab. When Ahab makes his first appearance on board he has an artificial leg made from a…

You Cannot Have What Your Wish For My paper is all about compare and contrast in two stories. My main theme is death. Death represent in Kafka “The Metamorphosis”, is hurt feeling from his family and other story death represent Herman Melvin “Bartleby the Scrivener”, is loneliness and alienation. Both character have really emotional ending. Death is not about only one person it’s all about physical attachment and how people treats to other. Both stories are really touching and emotional. In…

Since Herman Melville’s publication of Bartleby the Scrivener in 1853, literary enthusiasts have argued and discussed its true meaning as a story. Possibly a tale on capitalism, possibly one on transcendentalism, the simplicity of the plot and shortness in length allows room for interpretation. The relationship between Bartleby and the narrator, his boss, illustrate the importance of rules and work, sometimes meaningless, in a capitalist culture and what happens when those rules are not followed…

had a baby, named Pearl. People, in this time period, believed that adultery was one of the worst sins to commit and forced Hester to wear a scarlet letter A, on her chest, to remind her of her sin. Another American gothic novel, Moby-Dick by Herman Melville, is about a man named Ishmel who joined a crew on a whaler ship where the Captain, called Captain Ahab, was obsessive about killing a white whale referred to as Moby-Dick. Searching for this whale caused the ship to go far off course and…