Insanity In Moby Dick, By Herman Melville

What does it truly mean to be mad? Herman Melville explores the crazy side of people in his large fictional novel, Moby Dick. Some characters are clearly mad, some seem completely sane, and some fall somewhere in between. Melville uses the multitude of characters in his book to display the madness of man and the sometimes fatal consequences of following it.
The crew is used to show the first type of madness, ignoring the obvious. The captains of the ship know he is not well and even say so to Ishmael. The “ In fact, he ain’t sick; but no, he isn’t well either” (Melville 78). Ishmael ignores the fact his captain might be mentally unstable. Ishmael has an ominous feeling about not meeting the captain before signing but based on the good words

He ignores the reasoning of Starbuck and continues the chase despite the warnings. “”Vengeance on a dumb brute!” cried Starbuck, “that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous.” (157). Starbuck points out that the whale attacked from instinct, sound logic that is ignored by everyone. An animal has no thought of malice or cruelty, those are distinctly human traits and come with sentience. The pride of Ahab does not allow him to see what he is doing is wrong, just like King Ahab from the bible. King Ahab was also warned to stop his wicked ways and turn back to God, but the draw was too strong, just as it is for Captain Ahab.When he is alone, Ahab says to himself, “They think me mad-Starbuck does; but I’m demoniac, I am madness maddened!” (161).. The strength of Ahab’s madness is great, and can easily capture the crew. He rallies them together to his cause against Starbuck and against logic with his passion and charisma. The madness of blind passion envelops the crew and makes them much easier to control. He meets a ship which has yet another prophet character warning Ahab to leave Moby Dick alone, yet he does not. “”Think, think of thy whale-boat, stoven and sunk! Beware of the horrible tail!””(308). This is another example of someone believed to be crazy, but is right. His pride is so great, he feels he will succeed where all

The Pequod meets two very desperate ships, the Jungfrau desperate for oil and the Rose-bud desperate for an experienced captain. “The Virgin crowding all sail, made after her four young keels, and thus they all disappeared far to leeward, still in bold, hopeful chase. Oh! many are the Fin-Backs, and many are the Dericks, my friend” (352). The Jungfrau is led astray in their desperation by a ruse. Ishmael warns the reader about the madness of desperation. It is mad and destructive to chase after ghosts one cannot catch, like the Jungfrau is doing. The Pequod meets the Rose-bud next, an inexperienced boating ship with two decaying whales attached to them. “Marking all this, Stubb argued well for his scheme...the stranger mate expressed his detestation of his Captain as a conceited ignoramus, who had brought them all into so unsavory and unprofitable a pickle” (394). The Rose-bud is tricked into giving away a valuable piece of the whale because they were desperate to get rid of the stench and defy their captain. The desperation made these men gullible and much less rich. Desperation can leave someone in a much worse situation than they were before. Pip was desperate for people and lost his mind at sea, though he may have gained other knowledge. Pip has to go into the whaling boat and is thrown out. “The sea had jeeringly kept his finite body up, but drowned the infinite of his soul…. So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering