Masculinity In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick

Consequently due to his personal growth as a character, Ishmael's divine spirit becomes saved and he himself is rescued from certain death. Captain Ahab remains unable to accept the concepts of transcendentalism, his pursuit of Moby-Dick is relentless and without mercy. His character has no opportunity for growth or discovery as he shuns the advice of everyone, whilst in pursuit of the white whale. Due to this his fate becomes irrevocably sealed and he is doomed to fail his mission and perish at the mercy of his quarry.

Throughout his novel, Moby Dick, Herman Melville will often devote entire chapters to the thoughts and actions of specific characters. Two specific examples of this type of chapter are Chapter 36, The Quarter-Deck, and Chapter 42, The Whiteness of the Whale. The first of these chapters depicts Ahab addressing his crew for the first time in order to convince them to hunt down Moby Dick. The second offers insight to the fear that is brought upon by the mere mention of Moby Dick The significance and effectiveness of each of these chapters are enhanced by Melville’s use of rhetoric and style respectively.

Moby Dick, a book about the voyages and pursuance of a white whale, was imagined by an incredible man. Herman Melville was a talented writer who wrote many fantasies and adventures, including Moby Dick. He’s most infamous for his work about the tale of the white whale and known less for his works of Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life and Omoo: A Narrative of Adventures in the South Seas. (“Herman

Ishmael goes on to say that the whiteness of this whale is terrifying, “which strikes more of panic to the soul than that redness which affrights in blood”, (pg.160). To me, I think the whiteness is more terrifying because it’s haunting. Ishmael states how white represents fear. Moby Dick is ghostly due to the fact you have no idea what the whale will do next in the abyss of water that is his home that those sailors are intruding on. Especially because of the previous stories Ishmael heard, there was nothing but negativity because the captain is insanely obsessive over this mission.

In Herman Melville's Moby Dick Captain Ahab, a tyrannical ruler, uses powerful rhetoric in order to convince his whole crew to assist him in the pursuit of Moby Dick; an unstoppable white sperm whale who has taken the lives of many sailors. Ahab’s crew and The Pequod, their ship, depart from Nantucket, Massachusetts on a 3 year quest to find and kill the mighty Moby Dick. Ahab uses his skill with language, rhetoric, tone, and imagery to convince his crew to embark on his treacherous pursuit for vengeance.

While the topic of slavery is never discussed explicitly in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, racial disparities and Melville’s attitude towards them are portrayed both subliminally and prominently throughout the novel. By creating a parallel to the slave industry with the whaling industry, Melville is able to indirectly criticize the injustice of slavery. Moby Dick was published at a time where the country was on the brink of the Civil War and whaling and the slave trade were the most profitable industries. The narrator of the novel; Ishmael, openly mocked white and Christian supremacy in America. It can be understood by a modern reader that the novel entails a metaphor comparing slavery to the whaling industry and gives insight to Melville’s standpoint on racial inequalities. Throughout the entirety of the novel, the inhumane tactics of whaling is used as an extended metaphor of slavery and the pursuit, capture, and killing of runaway slaves to help readers understand the brutal and unethical nature of slavery.

Biblical references are made throughout the story of Moby Dick, and they are interpreted in many different ways by the different characters of the story. One of those characters being the actual narrator of the story, Ishmael, who uses references from scientific, historical, and biblical points to express the interest in whales and whaling. Ilana Pardes, a critic, argues that Melville creates these biblical allegories on Jonah in order to interpret the many biblical points in history. Therefore, I believe that Ilana Pardes captures points in which Melville references biblical text, more specifically biblical text on Jonah, as an allegory of the novel in which Ishmael and the reader become involved in interpreting the meaning behind the reference.

"All men live enveloped in whale-lines. All are born with halters round their necks; but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever-present perils of life." (Melville, 1851) The creation of Moby Dick was a significant turning point for American literature. Melville's application of intense symbolism, challenging themes, and extraordinary allusions contrast with that of typical American writings of that time.

His most famous book, Moby Dick, features the observant narrator, Ishmael, aboard the Pequot, a ship captained by the menacing one-legged Captain Ahab. Having lost his limb in a previous voyage to an enormous sperm whale named Moby Dick, Ahab scans the seven seas in manic search of revenge against the giant. Queequeg, Ishmael’s menacing best friend, and the rest of the crew are subjected to extreme jeopardy and later death due to Ahab’s monomaniacal disregard for bad omens and danger. The whale slices the boat clean in half and none survive to tells of its greatness except Ishmael.

The sailors want to fight Moby Dick, despite the fact that Melville suggests this fight against an “immortal” whale is “not for mortal man” (177, 198, 197). The crew even volunteered to give up their individuality, and independence, to assert some control over nature (606). Melville makes it clear that

Through the shifting of some characters into limited feminine roles, gendering of objects, and references to female bodies Herman Melville either intentionally or unintentionally creates a female presence that changes the identity of the masculine occupation of whaling depicted throughout Moby-Dick. Herman Melville’s father died when he was young. Melville’s childhood influences were shaped as he grew up

In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick, Melville utilises the symbolism of the colour of the Great White Whale to demonstrate his theme of duality. All the different character on the Pequod seem to be a representation of the good and evil sides of humanity. Upon first reading, the novel seems to be a simple but rather drawn-out documentation of whaling; on closer inspection, however, shows how Melville examines the terrifying realities of society. Melville discusses the use of the colour white and its elusive nature, this is suggested by a weakening sense of spirituality within the borders of civilisation, psychologically by Ahab’s declining state of sanity and lastly physically by the whale’s flight. Moby Dick is a Great White Whale whom Ahab has

While Ahab was still the obedient captain he once was, he was one of the most successful and higher rewarding captains. Unexpectedly, in the midst of a whaling, Ahab and his crew encountered the whale he now refers to as “Moby Dick” or “the white whale.” The crew initiated in capturing the whale, but this whale was different. Rather than capturing the whale, the whale captured Ahab and though Ahab escaped, he did not escape entirely. Moby Dick had dismembered and consumed half of one of Ahab’s legs. Ever since this incident, Ahab’s one and only desire or, as stated in the text, “...his one unsleeping, ever-pacing thought” has been to kill Moby Dick; which soon turns him obsessive (Melville). Ahab would not let anyone or anything stop him from achieving his goal, “...’I’ll chase him ‘round Good Hope, and ‘round the Horn, and ‘round the Norway Maelstrom, and ‘round

When Ahab begins to speak with the crew, negativity to his plan is expressed through the character Starbuck as he vocalizes that he is not looking for any danger, just an opportunity to get paid through the normal routine and calling Ahab’s quest for vengeance “madness” and “blasphemous” (Melville 163-164). Starbuck does not have the same understanding of Moby Dick as Ahab, and has not the need for a sublime experience. However, the rest of the crew is mesmerized by the idea of Moby Dick, as they have all heard rumors of his greatness, including that Moby Dick is the reason why Ahab now uses a whale bone as his peg leg, a terrifying action of Moby Dick, but one that the crew universally desires an experience of. Ahab makes a terrifically persuading speech to the crew, in which he states, “But in each event– in the living act, the undoubted deed– there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask!” describing that if any action is ever worth doing, it is the action of pursuing and gaining greater understanding of that which you don’t understand (Melville 164). Ahab wants to inspire the crew to accept his quest for the whale, and uses their already

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 against the injustice he perceived in 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.