Perspectives of the Beast In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea we are introduced to two individuals who share different opinions on nature and the marvelous creatures that make up the world around them. In this paper, I will explore the differences between Captain Ahab and Santiago. In Moby Dick, we are introduced to Captain Ahab and his personal quest to avenge the personal loss he suffered at the jaws of what he considered to “evil” while Ishmael recounts “ Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things; all truth with malice in it; all that cracks the sinews and cakes the brain; all the subtle demonisms of life and throught; all evil, to crazy Ahab, were visibly personified and made practically assailable in Moby Dick” (Melville pg 156.) In this, he describes how Ahab’s previous encounter with the whale has tainted his opinion on the traditional values of “white” representing purity and righteousness and replaced it with the notion of the color representing evil and cruelty as though Ahab believed Moby Dick had a personal vendetta against him instead of nature simply protecting itself against a great threat. Throughout the story, Ahab did not keep his ideals and opinions to himself as he went as far as placing a bounty of $16.00 worth of gold on Moby Dick’s head as he gives a grand speech in hopes of recruiting the men to participate in his act of vengeance as he encourages them to chant “death to Moby Dick!” (Melville pg 142.) In a drunken celebration as he ends the celebration on these chi... ... middle of paper ... ...here was no hatchet and then there was no knife, but if I had, and could have lashed it to an oar butt, what a weapon. Then we might have fought them together (Hemingway pg 115.) This passage shows the respect Santiago feels not only towards the marlin, but nature as well. He views himself as an equal to all things unlike Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. Melville and Hemingway portray their characters as polar opposites from one another. While Captain Ahab is a cold and often cruel manipulator who’s obsessive ways lead to his and most of his crew’s demise, while Santiago is seen as a kind hearted old man who sets out for one last grand adventure to change his luck and relive the glory he had years earlier. Both excellently portray both sides of the spectrum between selfish obsession and the need for one last great adventure as felt by each character in the novels.
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 Melville's Moby-Dick, or The Whale, Ahab calls himself "madness maddened" and across the oceans he unleashes his madness in an unerring quest to wreak his hate upon the white whale, that agent or principal of the "inscrutable malignancy" lurking behind the phenomenal world. Milder asserts that by making Ahab mad, Melville found the means to present an apocalyptic act of a hero, free of the constraints of realism, that might express the disillusionment of the cultural moment that had witnessed the end of religion, the frustration of the Romantic quest, and the end of the possibility for spiritual meaning in the universe. Thus, Ahab is rendered believable. But by making Ahab mad, he risked rendering him irrelevant. For Ahab to remain important for the reader, he must not be reduced to mere madness. Once he speaks only for the aberrant, one need no longer grapple with him, need not account for Ahab. We dismiss Calibans, Pucks, even Iagos, but we cannot easily dismiss Lear and McBeth and Hamlet or Ahab. The madman and the possessed can be exiled from our affinities as wholly "other," such that one inscribes their behavior in a circle of experience separate from our own, for unless by some event beyond our control we ourselves become monsters or madmen, the madman's reality remains sufficiently and safely different from our own. To attempt to account for Ahab, one must acknowledge his reality as a possible reality and admit the potential for the Ahabian in one's own possible reality.
Based on the developed metaphor, the quote above can be seen as showing the role of Ahab as the sign of the Devil, within Moby Dick. The entire passage shows the effects of his manipulation with the crew. The words such as, "flames," "blackness," "howled," and of course, "huge pronged forks" turn the Pequod into a satanic representation of hell itself. Thus, the influence of the hellish commander can easily be seen upon the innocent men, whose only mistake was failing to see the true warning behind mad Ahab's mission. This notion of 'savageness' suggests not only a lack of religious morality, but also a dislike of it. Thus, the men are fully "unholy" as they stand on board a ship that is "la...
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.
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...
This novel about the Pequod's adventures to capture and slay the famous sperm whale embodies several archetypes. The Pequod symbolizes death. In the first chapters of the story, Elijah tells Ishmael and Queequeg that the ship is doomed. Aside from its being named after a tribe of Native Americans murdered by white settlers, and being covered in whale bones and teeth and a dark paint, it also involves Ahab, the slfish and savage captain of the ship. The sea is not only associated with death and rebirth, it also perfectly symbolizes human perception. We only see surfaces for interpretation but we are ignorant of whatever lies in its depths. Ahab believes that Moby Dick manifests everything that is wrong with the world so he wants to eliminate it.
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.
Fate is once again brought up as Melville describes Ahab’s appearance. Although Ahab’s eyes are not literally fiery, and you cannot see his “fatal pride” this description shows how eager Ahab is for revenge, but more importantly how he will ultimately die after encountering Moby Dick. Ahab has slowly become more out of touch with reality and reason, so much that he refuses to use the compass or listen to his crew. Ahab is determined to catch Moby Dick and there is no stopping him. With absolute control over the ship, the image depicted in the quote is one of power, terror, and upcoming death. Refusal to risk hurting his pride will lead to Ahab’s ultimate downfall, and it is his inevitable fate.
In Ahab, Melville developed an unlikely hero. He is not always appealing, but he does seek within his own realm of knowledge and experience to overcome what he perceives as a major evil force. Ultimately, Ahab gives his life in pursuit of a betterment for everyone.
Cook, Charles H. "Ahab's Intolerable Allegory". Rpt. in Discussions of Moby Dick. Milton Stern ed. Boston:
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, in his renowned novel Moby-Dick, presents the tale of the determined and insanely stubborn Captain Ahab as he leads his crew, the men of the Pequod, in revenge against the white whale. A crew mixed in age and origin, and a young, logical narrator named Ishmael sail with Ahab. Cut off from the rest of society, Ahab attempts to make justice for his personal loss of a leg to Moby Dick on a previous voyage, and fights to overcome the injustice of the overwhelming forces that surround him. Melville uses a series of gams, social interactions or simple exchanges of information between whaling ships at sea, in order to more clearly present man’s situation as he faces an existence whose meaning he cannot fully grasp. Nine encounters with literal and symbolic meetings, which increase throughout the novel, can be found as the Pequod; a Nantucket whaler, hunts in the Pacific Ocean. In Herman Melville’s’ Moby Dick, the Pequod meets nine ships, as three are named the Jeroboam, the Samuel Enderby, and the Rachel are filled with biblical allusions and foreshadow the end of Ahab’s life while showing his increasing distance between him and humanity.
The setting, over all, suggests a rustic, hard seamens life on the open ocean, it being very hard on a man, but very fulfilling.III. CharacterCharacters in this classic novel are very unique, in physical, emotional, and mental aspects. A. Ahab is a one-legged man, feared by most of the crew, he is the Captain of the Pequod, and he has sworn death on Moby Dick, the great white whale, whom left Ahab with only one leg. Emotionally and mentally Ahab is a scared man, from his last encounter with Moby Dick, he seemed like a man very determined in his ways, willing full, and moody. B.
Herman Melville, one of the more iconic names in Gothic literature, saw the world differently. Free from the Puritan rhetoric, Melville very much enjoyed the pleasures of the natural world. Melville traveled, and spent time among Natives. In several accounts he described his favorable time amongst them, and showcased the idea of noble savages beyond the borders of America. Without such tragedy to fuel him, Melville penned optimistic stories of adventure and excitement. The world wasn't a trap or a test, but a rich pearl oyster to be pursued and celebrated. True fame, or at least legacy, came later, with the publication of Moby-Dick. A darker story, but still heavy with adventure, Moby-Dick was undoubtedly a story of tragedy. Ahab, the iconic captain in the story, was driven by an obsession to hunt down a whale that injured him years prior to the story's beginning. Rather than accepting this as nature being a bit dangerous Ahab, against the better judgment of other members of his crew, anthropomorphised the titular whale, seeing it as a someone, not something, that wronged him and des...