As man is bound to his subjective perception, inhibited from comprehending the essence of things, he is forced to apply personal, extraneous meaning to them or find himself devoid of it altogether. Loftiness of such application is the nature of romanticism, and such is the nature of Melville’s Moby Dick. The sea becomes vogue, limbo for the reticent felo-de-se; the untraversed, the nebulous, even the numinous. The Pequod assumes the role of a nation of men—30 men for 30 states is explicit enough—doomed by the mad will of him in power. The Whale either becomes God, myth, the embodiment of evil, or all of the above, depending on which character’s perception is to be taken. Indeed, Moby Dick contains myriad instances of such applied meaning, but the focus of this paper will be that of three of the most prominent: that of the sea, that of whiteness, and that of Moby Dick. Ishmael examines the sea in various ways, and from various perspectives, but in all his examinations, the sea invariably assumes the role of an escape vehicle from the world of the living—temporary or otherwise. When the novel first begins, Ishmael compares his own escape to Cato the Younger’s ultimate remonstration of tyranny: “With a philosophical flourish, Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship” (14). Though Ishmael lists no political motivations for escaping, he does imply that it is life’s tyranny that engenders the need for it. In any case, the ocean is a means of escape for both him, and, as he asserts, all men. Ishmael describes the sea—and water in general—as inseparably bound with meditation—a narcissistic mediation; in this description, he epitomizes man’s aforementioned romantic (=narcissistic, anthropocentric) applicati... ... middle of paper ... ...uous realm that homes the escapee, the moseying felo-de-se, and the dearly (or not so dearly) departed. Whiteness assumes just as many roles derived from just as many man-medium assertions to its being: the role of beauty, purity, holiness, that of awe, and that of terror. Moby Dick, like much of the imagery in the novel, is enigmatic and open to interpretation. This paper has chosen to interpret his role as that of God, the medium of pulchritude, richness, and meaning in life, but also the cause of suffering. One predominant difference between Ahab and Ishmael is which of these they choose to focus on. Ahab’s assumption of the archetypical hero role, with his one catastrophic flaw being the choice and intensity of his focus, sets and anchors the plot, allowing Melville to tangentially and romantically analyze a plethora of other natural stimuli along the way.
The ocean is mysterious to mankind. The unfathomable vastness of the ocean intrigues humanity into exploring it. In life, the immense possibilities that lie in the future compel us to reach for the stars. In the poem “The Story” by Karen Connelly, an individual willingly swims into deep waters even though they are fearful of what may exist in the waters. The swimmer later finds out that their fears were foolish, which illustrates the human tendency to venture into the unknown. The theme conveyed in this poem is that life is like a rough, uncertain, uncontrollable ocean that we must find get through with experience.
Joseph Adriano’s quote from his article “Brother to Dragons: Race and Evolution in Moby-Dick” asserts not only Herman Melville’s goals of producing a novel that gets people discussing the problem of racial inequality, but also aids in revealing the main point of Moby-Dick, which is that in order for blacks to become assimilated into American society, people must accept change. While people in his time period were not willing to be this flexible, Melville saw it as a necessary step to achieve the essential objective of racial equality. Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick, written in 1851, reveals his disposition on the topic of equality in an interracial society and the importance of keeping an open mind when it comes to reform. Melville ultimately accomplishes his goal of creating a protest novel by introducing a plethora of characters, themes, and situations that go against the status quo of the racist American society that he belonged to in the 19th century.
Herman Melville’s Billy Budd, Sailor is a critically acclaimed novella set around the shores of England in the last decade of the Eighteenth Century. The plot revolved around a young Sailor, Billy Budd, who was extracted from the ship he was originally on, The Rights of Man, and was oppressed to a British naval warship named the H.M.S. Billopotent. There were numerous allusions used throughout the novella that enhanced the meaning of this great work. The allusions used pertain towards myths, the Bible, History, and other works of literature. All of them together illuminate the true meaning of the entire novella.
It is with "the poor devil of a Sub-Sub" that Ishmael's voice first makes itself heard. The Sub-Sub who has "gone through the long Vaticans and street-stalls" (Extracts: 2) to find mundane but diverse images of whales is toasted as one who will soon expel the archangel triumvirate "Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael" in heaven but will be forgotten here on Earth. The Sub-Sub (who is of course forgotten for the rest of the novel) plots the course for the entire narrative. What can at first be regarded as a hodge-podge of space-filling references becomes Ishmael's guarantor of success in the role of narrator. For if we are to take on Ishmael as our guide to the Sperm Whale world, then we need to be confident in his abilities. The jumb...
Herman Melville's Moby Dick is a book which can be read as a general metaphor for the battle between the evil powers of the Devil versus the divine powers of God and Jesus, both try to obtain the souls of mankind in order to assist in each other's destruction. In this metaphor, the Devil is shown through the person of Captain Ahab, God becomes nature, Jesus is seen as the White Whale, and the representation of mankind is the crew. The voyage of the Pequod, therefore, is a representation of a similar voyage of mankind on earth, until the death of Jesus, during the whole thing the influences of these three “supernatural forces” are connected. Thus, the basis of this idea is that in the plot of Melville's book, there are also peeks of the "plot" of the Bible.
Herman Melville’s novels, with good reason, can be called masculine. Moby-Dick may, also with good reason, be called a man’s book and that Melville’s seafaring episode suggests a patriarchal, anti-feminine approach that adheres to the nineteenth century separation of genders. Value for masculinity in the nineteenth century America may have come from certain expected roles males were expected to fit in; I argue that its value comes from examining it not alone, but in relation to and in concomitance with femininity. As Richard H. Brodhead put it, Moby-Dick is “so outrageously masculine that we scarcely allow ourselves to do justice to the full scope of masculinism” (Brodhead 9). I concur with Brodhead in that remark, and that Melville’s use of flagrant masculinity serves as a vehicle in which femininity is brought on board The Pequod; femininity is inseparable from masculinity in Melville’s works, as staunchly masculine as they seem superficially.
The Seafarer highlites the transience of wordly joys which are so little important and the fact thet we have no power in comparison to God.
“The sea's only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don't know much about the sea, but I do know that that's the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind deaf stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.” – Christopher McCandless, Into the Wild
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
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.
Before boarding the ship, Ishmael sees a person on the dock beside the whaling boat. This person's name is Elijah, coincidentally sharing the same name as the prophet. Elijah hints to Ishmael to turn back from this voyage while he still has time. Elijah states that Ahab shall smell land where there be none, Ahab shall go to his grave but will rise within one hour and beckon, and all save one will be destroyed. Ishmael disregards him and continues. When Ishmael is ready to board the ship, Elijah warns him again. This is a sign that something terrible will happen once aboard the ship and everything and everyone will be traumatized. If only Ishmael would know, he will soon be trapped in Ahab's crazy world.
"To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it" states the narrating character Ishmael as he attempts to justify his reasoning on writing such a lengthy novel. Indeed, the whale may be the most complex and grandiose mammal on earth, yet one may still question the ulterior motive of Melville for explicating every detail of a whaling journey in Moby Dick. In fact, Melville develops many themes throughout the text that lead the reader to believe that his "mighty theme" is the meaning of life. Thus, the adventure of hunting the Great White Whale, Moby Dick, can be seen as a giant analogy to seeking the meaning of life. Through this journey, Ishmael describes the different members of the crew and their interpretation of the whale. Yet, Ishmael refrains from assigning one particular meaning to the whale and, in the end, is the only crewmember to survive the journey. Symbolically, Melville believes that an individual must be able to see many meanings in life in order to survive the trap of intolerance of different beliefs and lifestyles. To evidence this hypothesis, Melville presents a number of ironic contrasts in the text including religious hypocrisy, the false appearance of the sea, the relationship of Good and Evil, the coffin as a dual symbol of both life and death, the interpretations of the whiteness of the whale, and the life/death issue of the whaling industry. Through these contrasts, Melville strives to awaken the reader to the many meanings of life and to avoid limiting one’s mind to one, fixed meaning.
At first he does not seem content with his seafaring life. During the early descriptions of his time there, it is painted as a life of hardship and penance. Images and adjectives of the sea and life there are harsh and foreboding-"ice cold", "hung round with icicles" , "fettered with frost". The sea is seen as cold, and not just in the physical sense .It is remote, a place of despair , an earthly purgatory, where there is "always anxiety …. as to what the Lord will bestow on him"2. The narrator is cut away from the comforts ...
"The Seafarer" creates a storyline of a man who is "lost" at sea. There is a major reference to the concept of the sea and how it "captures" the soul and leaves a lonely feeling. The character is set to know the consequence of the sea but something keeps calling him back to it. "And yet my heart wanders away, My soul roams with sea, the whales' home, wandering to the widest corners of the world, returning ravenous with desire, Flying solitary, screaming, exciting me to the ocean, breaking oaths on the curve of a wave." (lines 58-64).
Brodhead, Richard H. "Trying All Things: An Introduction to Moby-Dick. New Essays on Moby-Dick or, The Whale. ed. Richard H. Brodhead. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1986.