Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Moby dick analysis metaphisics
Essays for Moby Dick
The existence of evil in moby dick
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Moby dick analysis metaphisics
Harold Kaplan states “that democracy and its moral dilemmas, particularly the problem of human equality, obsessed Melville at the time he was writing Moby-Dick. His mood was almost defiant on the subject…” (164). Melville’s views on the subject were shared by Nathaniel Hawthorne and in a letter to Hawthorne, he elaborates on his “ruthless democracy” in Moby-Dick – “It is but natural to be shy of a mortal who boldly declares that a thief in jail is as honourable a personage as Gen. George Washington. This is ludicrous. But Truth is the silliest thing under the sun” (Melville as quoted in Kaplan 164). In the novel such egotistic claims to Truth, on which the entire edifice of the colonial worldview was erected, as professed by the hubristic white …show more content…
It is fair to say that Ahab’s hatred of the whale reads like an inverted and poisoned pantheism” (Kaplan 170). Ahab sees nature as antagonistic, something to be conquered and defeated, as malicious and deliberately malevolent. He attempts to reinstate the Humanist conception of Man as the Supreme Being, the unquestionable center of the universe and from such a standpoint his dismemberment by Moby Dick is seen as an affront to this supremacy of Man as the lord of the universe, particularly of Nature. Ahab’s anthropocentric ideology dictates the necessity of categorically fixing as inferior this creature which belongs to a lower order of creation, Nature, and thereby rightfully dominating it. This distorted lens for ordering the world masquerades as a justification for his desire to annihilate this monstrous anomaly of Nature as retribution for its arrogant display of power. He is unable to view the loss of his leg as a defensive act by a “dumb brute” (Melville 175) as Starbuck calls the whale but rather as a deliberate, offensive attack on his character and a severance of a part of his identity. His monomanic hunt for the whale is an attempt to restore the scales of power in favour of Man; he has suffered a humiliation at the heroic level and will stop short of nothing but the death of the Leviathan. But the courage or dignity of American heroism taken to an extreme results in madness and Ahab as the ‘fallen angel from grace’ is willing to defy God himself – “I’d strike the sun if it insulted me…Who’s over me?” (Melville 176). However, ironically, his fetishistic pursuit of the whale locates and fixes him inversely as a slave to Nature. In his mad obsession Ahab has already regressed from the type of ‘heroic’ Mankind at the brink of
This is seen when it states, “for the harpoon gun we aim at G-d and death/ and all the unknown world, and for the speak-stuck beast,” (Barnstone 22-23). This quote expounds upon the message that people use violence to come to terms with answers one will never receive. Higher powers, the unknown, and Moby Dick from the novel of the same name, the implied “beast” represent an outside power who one is not able to accept the dominance of. Just as Ahab cannot come to terms with Moby’s superiority over his own, people often cannot tolerate the fact that some things are uncontrollable in life. All of the allusions in “Parable in Praise of Violence” of Leaves of Grass, Moby Dick, and Gulliver’s Travels are all experiences that character’s are vulnerable to their surroundings and are not able to help themselves because having a “triangular hump”, “rude muscle”, and a “castrated leg” (Barnstone 2-4) are disabilities that are not of one’s own making, but a product of nature. Due to these defects, these people lash out in violence. The harpoon gun is the only way that Ahab can kill Moby Dick-- the only time that he can make himself feel powerful by slaying the “omnipotent”. The gun is the way he can avoid the acceptance that he cannot overtake the whale, so instead of realizing the truth, violence becomes an easier option. When the author states, “rope ripping through torn hands, for what refuses to be
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
"He tasks me; he heaps me; I see in him outrageous strength, with an inscrutable malice sinewing it. (280)" At first glance, a modern reader might mistake this quote for that of a social justice warrior complaining about the patriarchy and not a line proclaimed by Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. However, as one deconstructs Herman Melville's classic, he will observe that this gaffe is actually justified. Despite originating over a hundred years before the equality movements, Captain Ahab symbolizes one of their ambassadors because of his hatred for the system that wronged him; his driving will to enact revenge; and being disdained upon for his actions. To commence elaboration, the first characteristic exemplified by Ahab that establishes his symbolism is his loathing for the body that ruined him.
...o warn against pursuing the whale, such as when the captain of the Samuel Enderby proclaimed, “There would be great glory in killing him… but, hark ye, he is best left alone; don’t you think so captain?” Nonetheless, Ahab never listened. While it may seem that the many ships that warned Ahab not to pursue the whale seems too obvious of a foreshadowing to happen in real life, the same hints were being given to Americans at the same time. Other countries, such as England, had abandoned slavery years before Americans did. Similarly, once the civil war began and the southerners looked for some support from the British, they were rejected on the account that Britain would not support slavery. Whether it was the pride or determination that drove Ahab to find Moby Dick, both were too strong and blinded him from seeing that change needed to occur for the Pequod to survive.
From Herman Melville you learn his unique writing style of a humorous and lighthearted book even though it digs deep into the problem of revenge. Melville was shamed for writing Moby Dick but as time grew people saw Moby Dick as a excellent novel. People say that Melville 's writing is confusing and hard to understand but if given enough time and concentration to read the book you get skills out of it as a better reader and a better writer. You would get a better understanding of his unique writing style and have a fun time reading it. The problem with Moby Dick being in the english process is that people are going to have to spend a huge amount of time of their class to read this book. If you wanna learn an important topic of revenge Moby Dick is the perfect book. Reading Moby Dick makes you feel like you are experiencing these scenes of intensity. The book is extremely hard to understand towards end and to other scenes but it will help to understand other books you will read in the future and increase how well you can write. This is why Moby Dick is one of the most well known,well written, and greatest novels made in America. Moby Dick teaches you about revenge, and improves your reading and writing. Moby Dick should be in the english learning
Before exploring Ishmael, Ahab, and Moby Dick and their Biblical counterparts, it is important to understand Melville's background. He grew up as a baptized Calvinist in the Dutch Reformed Church. His parents trained him to obey God at all times, even if God’s commands seem unjust and cruel. However, he quickly turned against his faith after his father died. During his travels, he witnessed diseases, catastrophes, and hatred throughou...
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.
Herman Melville’s stories of Moby Dick and Bartleby share a stark number of similarities and differences. Certain aspects of each piece seem to compliment each other, giving the reader insight to the underlying themes and images. There are three concepts that pervade the two stories making them build upon each other. In both Moby Dick and Bartleby the main characters must learn how to deal with an antagonist, decide how involved they are in their professions, and come to terms with a lack of resolution.
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
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.
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.
Herman Melville believed deeply in his notion that the common-man receives no justice, only the elite member in a society. Perhaps his belief originated in the society that he lived in, or the situations such as a Civil War, that impacted his viewpoint. Throughout this story, the reader is repeatedly introduced to the consistent idea that the common-man is on his own, and the situations that he encompasses are distorted and augmented as time passes.
...t the tyrannical majority and take whatever measures necessary, but Melville simply exposes the repressive nature of democracy and leaves it at that. However, Melville does point out, through "Benito Cereno" and "Bartleby, the Scrivener," that simply rebelling against democracy, as Thoreau proposes, is not the answer. Perhaps Melville does not have a solution, just as Bartleby did not. Nonetheless, to both writers, democracy continues to be a despotic institution.