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A comparative study of "Moby Dick" & "The Scarlet Letter"
herman melville analysis
representation of good and evil in literature
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In “Moby Dick”, written by Herman Melville in the 1850’s, Captain Ahab describes evil. In “The Scarlet Letter”, written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1851, Roger Chillingworth is evil. Captain Ahab and Roger Chillingworth have very similar ways of the way they portray evil in both of the stories. They both portray evil in their own and different ways. Captain Ahab tries to get revenge on a white whale, while Roger Chillingworth is trying to get revenge on Arthur DImmesdale. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab both are trying to seek revenge on those who did them wrong. First, Captain Ahab gets his leg bit off by a big white whale, which is called Moby Dick. Ahab tries to seek revenge on the whale by going on a ship and trying to find …show more content…
Chillingworth is focused on trying to figure out who he was replaced with for two years. Captain Ahab is focused on finding the white whale, Moby Dick, and killing him. Since they both become so focused on their one thing, they both become insane. Captain Ahab makes death threats to people, but he eventually dies with his crew. Roger Chillingworth tricks Dimmesdale into thinking that he is trying to help him. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab have both turned insanely crazy because they are so focused on getting the revenge that they want. Roger Chillingworth starts pulling Dimmesdale in and tricking him. Captain Ahab is still trying to find and kill Moby Dick while they are on their voyage. Both men are not stopping until they can’t go anymore. Captain Ahab finally gets out on small boats and tries to kill Moby Dick but instead he is the one who dies, and Moby Dick still lives. For Roger Chillingworth, Arthur Dimmesdale is the one who dies, so Chillingworth got the revenge that he wanted. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab are both very evil and insane. The two men have different situations in the way they are evil, but the way they portray the evilness makes them
On the first day the man on watch was sniffing the air and he declared that the whale must be near and Captain Ahab was frantic with excitement, constantly changing their course slightly during the day. Finally they spotted the white whale, and they left the ship into a small boat to hunt him. Moby Dick then wrecked their boat, but luckily nobody died.
Analysis: Melville's Great American Novel draws on both Biblical and Shakespearean myths. Captain Ahab is "a grand, ungodly, god-like man … above the common" whose pursuit of the great white whale is a fable about obsession and over-reaching. Just as Macbeth and Lear subvert the natural order of things, Ahab takes on Nature in his
evil by many of the characters. Henry Louis Mencken once said, "It is a sin
In this case, the whale Moby Dick would be the oppressor that harmed Ahab by amputating his leg. Similar to his modern-day counterparts, the captain expresses this condemning rage through his speech. For example, he lashes out, "That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will
A tattooed man he meets in an inn, named Queequeg keeps Ishmael company throughout his journey. At first, Ishmael is alarmed by Queequeg’s tattoos and brute like habits, but eventually he becomes fond of him. Together the two get on a whaling ship, known as the Pequod. The captain's name is Ahab. He is a rather strange character. The primary conflict of the story is that Ahab holds a grudge against Moby Dick, the great
The third main character, Roger Chillingworth, is a pretty innocent man in the beginning of this book. He comes to America to be reunited with his wife, Hester, but soon comes to find out that she has committed adultery.
In the literary classic, The Scarlet Letter, readers follow the story of a Puritan New England colony and the characteristics of that time period. Readers begin to grasp concepts such as repentance and dealing with sin through Nathaniel Hawthorne’s indirect descriptions of these detailed and complex characters by their actions and reactions. The character Roger Chillingworth symbolizes sin itself and deals with internal conflict throughout the course of the story. The narrator describes Chillingworth in a critical attitude to reveal to the reader the significance of repentance and revenge by the use of many literary techniques such as
Captain Ahab was a fictional character that participated in whale hunting in a book called Moby Dick. Moby Dick was the name of the great white whale that Captain Ahab was pursing to hunt. “The Minke Whale also known as the baleen whale is the smallest of the rorqual species, and the females are normally larger than the males,” Sea Shepherd1, but due to commercial whaling they are facing extinction. Minke Whale Hunting is a problem in Antarctic Ocean which is also known as the Southern Ocean, They are being killed by the Japanese to be used for sushi. “The Japanese and other countries have been hunting whales since the 1800’s”, studies that were recorded in 1986 have shown that over 30,000 Minke whales have been killed.4 People should pay attention to this because an animal is being hunted and is near extinction. According to Sea Shepherd, “The taxonomy of Minke whales is currently in question, and soon there may be three species of Minke whales.”1 The Antarctic Sanctuary or the Southern Ocean Sanctuary was established in 1994 devoting 19 million square miles of waters is dedicated to the whales for feeding,” ABC News2 . Minke Whale Hunting is a global, national, regional, and local problem because the earth will have another animal that is extinct. By reducing the demand for sushi, by preventing the Japanese from hunting the whale, and enforcing the Antarctic Sanctuary Law, marine biologist and Oceanic Conservation can protect the Minke Whales before they are extinct.
This sentiment, this anxiety over lack of control is most certainly connected to his leg. By losing his leg, Ahab has lost a part of himself and seeks Moby Dick to avenge this loss. He is not able to perceive that the leg is simply a physical part, he...
Arthur is surprised by Roger’s kindness and states this, “Doust thou know me so little… then to give the medicine against all harm” (Hawthorne 68). Arthur knows Chillingworth so little that he is surprised at how kind he has been to him, and is very grateful at the fact. It was probably hard for Chillingworth to do such a thing for Arthur because of the hatred he has for him. Roger had a lot more darkness in him than he did light. Hawthorne describes Roger’s purpose in life leaving him by stating, “Old Roger Chillingworth knelt down beside him with a blank dull countenance, out of which the life seemed to have departed” (232). This example describes how his sole purpose in life seizes to exist, the revenge that he lived for was taken at that exact moment and he had no other reason to live. Roger Chillingworth is the most troubled character in the book; He wanted to be light but revenge slowly ate him alive until he was a dark person.
Ahab is dedicated towards regaining control of his life by conquering the whale. His obsession with Moby Dick is what fuels his desire to spend months and months at sea. Ahab is so involved that he tries to get into the mind of the whale. He becomes obsessed with the whale’s every move. Similarly, the narrator is highly analytical of Bartleby’s behavior. He feels the need to know exactly what it is that makes Bartleby ‘tick’. Eventually the narrator is mentally defeated by Bartleby and is forced to change the location of his offices in order to avoid him. Ahab on the other hand is constantly chasing his antagonist and does whatever he can to get closer to Moby Dick.
In Nathanial Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the deceptive Roger Chillingworth could most certainly be considered a morally ambiguous character. Throughout the novel, Roger Chillingworth everlastingly remains misleading as to whether he lies on the side of good or evil. Even at the end of The Scarlet Letter, the knowledge of Roger Chillingworth is extremely nebulous. The mysterious Roger Chillingworth, although ultimately emanating to be evil, attests to be a challenge when determining his morality. Roger Chillingworth attempts to beguile us by enacting the role of a physician, and ensconces his relationship with Hester Prynne. He lives with Arthur Dimmesdale, vindicating that he is serving Arthur Dimmesdale a helpful medicine, while he is actually depleting the very life from his bones. Roger Chillingworth, therefore, achieves his moral ambiguity through deception, cleverness, and an unknown history.
People's dreams can make them insane. One person can be entirely focused on a particular event that the event soon begins to take over their life and influence others. Captain Ahab's intent is finding and killing Moby Dick, the whale that maimed and disfigured him years ago. His obsession with this whale puts many others in danger, such as Ishmael, Starbuck, and himself. Captain Ahab uses his shipmates as bait for Moby Dick himself. The day the ship leaves the dock on a search for whales, the men are trapped in a world gone mad with no escape. Ishmael, Starbuck, and Captain Ahab are all trapped in an unfortunate tragedy.
In addition Ahab in "Moby Dick" is considered not only as an evil and sinful person but is selfish and greedy. The reason why he is sinful, evil, selfish, greedy, mainly is because he didn’t care what the other people on the ship wanted or that what he was going to do would or could bring dangers, and what he was doing was a waste of time, because instead of getting vengeance on "Moby Dick". He could be hunting whales for food and selling what’s left of them and make money.
Another biblical allusion is of the prophet Elijah and Captain Ahab. Elijah WARNS Queequeg and Ishmael of Ahab. Ishmael says he and Queequeg ARE boarding the Pequod because they have just “signed the articles” (Melville 68) and Elijah responds “Anything down there about your souls” (Melville 68). This conflict between Elijah and Ahab goes all the way back to the bible. I Kings describes the conflict between King Ahab and his wife Jezebel. Elijah tells Ahab that “in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick they blood, even thine,” (I Kings 21:19), and that “the dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezrell” (I Kings 21:23). This allusion is significant for foreshadowing the destruction of the Pequod. In Moby Dick the characters names are not so different than names in the Bible and neither is the outcome of those characters so different.