In the novel Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, a microcosm lives in the Pequod. Throughout the story, the microcosm is apparent in the control and superiority of Captain Ahab, friendship, religion, and the struggles of good and evil. The Pequod symbolizes the views, actions, thoughts, and the various types of people in the world.
Ahab’s power and authority show that he is the leader in this small world. He conjures allegiance and fear out of the crew. Dagoo, Tashtego, and Queequeg are the minorities on the ship(for obvious reasons) and represent the minorities of the world. They band together when one is in danger. Starbuck is very religious and portrays the devout of the world. His faith and reverence keep him sane during the long journey. The rest of the crew depicts the average people of the world. They show how gullible and vulnerable we can be sometimes.
To win over the crew, Ahab uses his knowledge of human nature to coax them into helping him with his vengeance. The first thing he does is nails the gold doubloon to the mast and promises it to the first man to see Moby Dick. By doing so, he makes them remember what their reward will be when they see the whale. Next he gives them rum to reach the gluttonous side of man. This shows that we are weak and give in to pleasure. After that he cuts his palm, squeezes the blood out, drips it in the rum and tells them to drink it. This shows Ahab trying to get to the religious aspect of man by having them drink his blood like they would with Christ’s at Mass. Finally, he takes the St. Elmo’s Fire and makes it disappear. This appeals to the non-Christians who see him as a godlike figure when doing this.
Through much manipulation, Ahab is able to win over most of the crew. They feel his passion and need for revenge on the whale and fail to realize why they are really out at sea. His “magical” powers captivate Queequeg. He kisses his boots and proclaims “Me god, me god.” Flask and Stubb remain loyal throughout the voyage. They never stop to question Ahab, even when Starbuck confronts them and says it is their legal right to have a mutiny when the captain does not abide by the rules. Starbuck is a very moral and religious man.
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
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
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...
The body of this argument lies in a meager psychoanalysis of Melville. I have had to take a very broad approach, look at Melville purely as a man. I have attempted to put the reader into Melville's head, where I have attempted to put myself. To better achieve this I discuss much of Melville's background, hoping to give the reader a sense of what he had experienced. I have written with confidence, but hopefully not too much, you must decide for yourselves what of mine you feel is right. It is always very hard to use psychoanalytical approaches, because, as the mind is a mystery, it is all ultimately unproved. All psychoanalytical opinion is based on event, as all psychology is based on the idea that men are shaped by experience. I speculate below, on things I cannot really know, and I do this only to achieve some rough personal connections between Melville and his Moby-Dick. It serves me, and I hope you as well.
Once Father Mapple speaks about Jonah and the whale, it becomes clear that Herman Melville's 1851 novel has a connection to the Bible and Christianity. Melville fills Moby Dick with several biblical allusions, and the novel's main characters are linked symbolically to figures in the Bible. Melville alludes to the Bible in Moby Dick to mock Christianity. He uses his primary characters of Ishmael, Ahab, and Moby Dick to make God seem like a judgmental being who has no pity on sinners unless they obey him. He also portrays faithful Christians as outsiders who
Moby-Dick is the one American story which every individual seems to recognize. Because of its pervasiveness into our country’s collective psyche, the tale has been reproduced in film and cartoon, and references to the characters and the whale can be found in commercials, sitcoms, and music, proving the novel to still be relevant today. It is the epitome of American Romanticism because it delves into the human spirit, the force of imagination, and power of the emotions and the intellect. The novel praises and critiques the American society in sharp and unequivocal terms, while, at the same time, mirroring this mixed society through the “multinational crew of...the Pequod” (Shaw 61). Melville, through his elaborate construction of the novel, “makes the American landscape a place for epic conquest” (Lyons 462). The primary draw of this novel is the story itself: a whaling ship, headed by a monomaniac, and the pursuit of a whale, or the American dream and its attainment, making a clear “connection between Romanticism and nationalism” (Evans 9). The novel calls upon the reader’s imagination, emotions, and intellect to fully understand the journey of the story, the journey which takes the reader on a most unusual trip into the soul of mankind.
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.
Ahab’s quest for the whale is not an honorable pursuit of God, but man’s vain endeavor in his hatred of God to destroy the all-powerful deity. The symbol of the whale as God makes sense as it is white a color that is associated not only with purity and honor but the deity of God himself. Because this whale caused him personal damage in an earlier encounter, Ahab views the whale as an “inscrutable thing”, making it his life’s quest to get revenge (335). Not only does he associate the whale with this damaging experience, he connects the deity of God with “the white whale that razeed me; made a poor pegging lubber for me forever and a day!” (334). His quest for vengeance distorts his ability to have a relationship of God as who can endure the pursuit of such a being if the pursuit is driven by enmity? Ahab’s pursuit of Moby Dick, “Be [he] agent, or be [he] principal” is driven strictly by hostility and a lack of righteousness (335). Only those who have experienced the sweetness of reconciling grace can look at the tremendous
Steinbeck created many characters for the Joads to come in contact with for different reasons. These three characters mentioned above were created to contrast the Joads and to recognize the weaker individuals in a society. By giving up, or refusing to try, these characters display a fear of new challenges and a resistance to change.
Hassan represents all that is good and kind and Assef represents all things evil. Through the character descriptions of Amir, Hassan, and Assif, Hosseini displayed his thoughts on sin and redemption. In the novel redemption is so important because sin is so enduring. Amir opens the story by telling us not about how exactly he sinned, but about sin's endurance: "It's wrong what they say about the past, I've learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out." (15) Hosseini uses structure and character description to emphasize the themes of sin and redemption.
Performing a pagan ritual before the groggy crew, Captain Ahab swears the men to join him in hunting down the white whale Moby Dick and killing him to satisfy Ahab's desire for revenge. Starbuck is horrified, while the crazy ranting of their captain wildly inspires members of the ship. This is an evil voyage. I fear the wrath of God. Service to mankind that pleases God is not revenge. "
Captain Ahab sights Moby Dick from afar and continues his hot pursuit on the White Whale. For three days, a relentless chase occurs because of Ahab’s desire for revenge. The indomitable whale continually destroys boat after boat. During the latter days of the struggle, the whale finally attacks the Pequod, plunging the ship to the bottom pits of the ocean. Determined to reach his final goal, the captain makes a last ditch effort and launches his harpoon towards Moby Dick. Ironically, Ahab’s harpoon catches around his neck and strangles him to death. Obviously determined to avenge his leg, the Captain causes his own downfall through his own desire for retribution. In The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark, Shakespeare creates two characters, Hamlet and Laertes, who endure a series of events and unveil Shakespeare’s similar belief that revenge causes one to act blindly in anger. Through Shakespeare’s distinct language and diction, the characters’ motivational factors and personality traits, the write conveys his strong belief regarding the desire for vengeance.
At first glance, Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick, appears to be the story of a man, his captain, and the whale that they quest to destroy. But a closer look reveals the author’s intense look at several metaphysical ideologies. He explores some of the most ponderous quandaries of his time, among these being the existence of evil, knowledge of the self and the existential, and the possibility of a determined fate. All of these were questions which philosophers had dealt with and written about, but Melville took it to a new level: not only writing about these things, but also doing so in a lovely poetic language backed by a tale packed with intrigue. He explores the general existence of evil in his antagonist, the white whale, and through the general malice that nature presents to humans throughout the novel. The narrator, Ishmael, gains a lot of knowledge about himself through his experiences on the whaling voyage, where he also is able to learn much about the phenomenon of existence itself. Also, through Captain Ahab, he sees more about the existence of man and the things that exist within man’s heart. Especially through Ahab and his ongoing quest for the white whale, and also in general conversation amongst the whalers, the issue of fate and whether one’s destiny is predetermined are addressed in great detail, with much thought and insight interpolated from the author’s own viewpoints on the subject.
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.