Essay on Metaphysical Ideologies in Moby Dick

Throughout the first chapter of Moby-Dick, a theme of inevitability is brought up time and time again. In a contest of free will and fate, it seems that fate has – and always will – win; this lack of control, though interestingly not viewed by Ishmael as distressing, sets the stage for future events.

Published in 1851, the story of Moby-Dick is not just the tale of one mans search for control over nature, but also the story of friendship, alienation, fate and religion that become intertwined amidst the tragedy that occurs upon the doomed Pequod. The crew itself are an amalgamation of cultures, from the cannibal Queequeg, to Starbuck, "a native of Nantucket." The Pequod can thus be seen as a microcosm for immigrants and whaling within America. In Moby-Dick Herman Melville examines both the exploitation of whaling and the reality of being born outside of America.

    One might say we are presented with two fish stories in looking at Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, a marlin in the former and a whale in the latter.  However, both of these animals are symbolic of the struggle their hunters face to find dignity and meaning in the face of a nihilistic universe in Hemingway and a fatalistic one in Melville.  While both men will be unable to conquer the forces of the universe against them, neither will either man be conquered by them because of their refusal to yield to these insurmountable forces.  However, Santiago gains a measure of peace and understanding about existence from his struggles, while Ahab leaves the

In Chapter 36, Ahab finally chooses to reveal the true purpose of this whaling voyage: To hunt down and kill Moby Dick. He does so through a grandiose speech in which he rallies almost the entire crew to his cause through a number of persuasive techniques. Ahab begins his speech by asking the crew a few basic questions about whaling. These questions lay out the basic purpose of this voyage: To hunt whales. In doing so, Ahab is laying the groundwork to convince the crew to hunt down a very specific whale: Moby Dick. In addition, the call-and-response used in this portion of the speech unifies and excites the crew, thereby making them more open to what Ahab is about to say. Immediately following this, Ahab reveals his desire to kill the White Whale and offers an ounce of gold to the first man to spot it. This use of bribery piques the interest of the crew and offers an

The Anti-Transcendentalism movement was a movement against all conventional beliefs. A participant in this movement was Herman Melville, most famous for his novel Moby Dick. Moby Dick highlights the journey of an obsessive quest to find a whale. The obsessive quest leads Ishmael, the main character, to his death because he tries to work against the forces of nature, which expresses some of Melville’s Anti-Transcendentalist beliefs through this particular novel. The Anti-Transcendentalists or the American Gothic writers emphasized two major themes: the destructive power of nature and the dark side of the human mind, and paved the way for modern horror stories.

Herman Melville’s short story “Benito Cereno” or “The Other Moby Dick” as Greg Grandin, a contributing writer for Mother Jones magazine, refers to it, is a fictionalized account of an encounter that an American ship captain and seal killer/trader by the name of Amasa Delano had in February 1805 in the South Pacific (Grandin). Delano, who was “quick to flog his men,” was “the sort of American sea captain Melville knew well and hated” (Stuckey 271). Delano chronicled his encounter in “A Narrative of Voyages and Travels, in the northern and southern hemispheres: comprising three voyages around the world, together with a voyage of survey and discovery in the Pacific Ocean and Oriental Islands” (Boston, 1817). Arguably one of Melville’s best works, “Benito Cereno” in all of its ambiguity is more than a fictionalized account of a seafaring vessel and its less than admirable captain, it is a historical reflection of what was happening in the world during the time it was written.

This is not the first time Ahab has spoken to himself as he often paranoidly talked to himself about what he would do if others tried to hurt him, then proceed to tell himself how crazy he is. These are Ahab’s last words. It’s funny how these are not only his last words, but the first time Ahab said anything with true feeling in the book. Though he may have not killed Moby Dick like he truly wanted, Ahab found the whale again and threw in a few last punches while cursing it and fate before his demise. I feel that, though Ahab did not kill Moby Dick, he was ready to die because he had closure since he found the whale again and was able to throw one final spear and give it his all. Following his death there was silence because the only

He reminds the sailors of their promise, stating, “‘All your oaths to hunt the White Whale are as binding as mine; and heart, soul, and body, lungs and life, old Ahab is bound’” (522). This intense statement calls on the honor of the men, prompting their memories of the night when they swore to assist Ahab on his hunt. He uses hyperbole in this statement to emphasize the seriousness of their pledge; he claims that his entire being binds him to this course, when truly only insanity and the need for revenge drives him, but the sailors better understand the gravity of their journey on the Pequod. Ahab continues: “‘And that ye may know to what tune this heart beats; look ye here; thus I blow out the last fear!’ And with one blast of his breath he extinguished the flame” (522). The corposants appear to symbolize the escalating fear of the sailors throughout the chapter— the more scared the sailors, the brighter the flame. Ahab capitalizes on that symbolism and “extinguishes” the fear of the sailors by blowing out the corposant. Thus Ahab brings the sailors down from the height of their terror and reminds them of their binding oath at the beginning of the

Aboard the Pequod, as the ship is bustling with activity, Melville describes the scene as the crew performs the grueling task of processing a whale. Large, bubbling try-pots of oil blubber fill the deck of the ship and a heavy smoke blankets the air as harpooners and sailors work regardless of the conditions. Through this familiar scene, Melville layers the setting and characters to build up a distinct mood for this passage. Specifically, he pulls dark romanticism into his writing by paralleling Ahab’s monomania and the deterioration of the crew. To establish an ominous atmosphere and describe the impending doom of the voyage, Herman Melville combines many forms of figurative language like sinister similes and the eerie personification of the Pequod with suspenseful imagery.

The whale is used for reasons on the absolute different ends of the spectrum. In the story of Jonah and the Whale, the whale is used as a means of bringing a man back into the grace of God, and saving people as a result. While in Moby Dick, the whale is used to show what happens when a man is unable to find his way back into the grace of God, and as a result suffers he and his crew suffer a great tragedy. Ahab is a quaker, who are supposed to be pacifists, yet as he turns his back on his faith, he loses sight of what it means to be a man of God. The story of Jonah and the Whale is meant to show that no matter what happens, if you find the grace of God you will find salvation.

Herman Meville’s novel Moby Dick delineates the audacious journey of Captain Ahab and his crew aboard the Pequod as they hunt for the infamous White Whale. With Ahab at the helm, the quest is one of revenge, as Ahab’s leg was taken by Moby Dick some years prior to this fateful voyage. However, throughout the journey, the crew of the Pequod questions the rationality of pursuing the most viciously lethal creature to ever inhabit the sea. Since Ahab knows fully well of his inability to slay Moby Dick without the help of a crew, he utilizes his immense rhetorical skill in order to convince them to continue on the path to their watery graves. His usage of hyperbole, diction, logical fallacies and personification allows the mad captain to reassure his crew that their journey will be a profitable one.

Pip’s positive influence on Ahab originates from their differences. After Ahab loses his leg to Moby Dick, he refuses to accept that there is something bigger than him and only becomes more obsessed with killing the white whale. When Ahab explains his obsession over Moby Dick, he says: “be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me … Who’s over me?” (Melville 178). In other words, Ahab refuses to accept Moby Dick as God. If there was a god, it would mean that there is something out of his control. The idea of there being something bigger than him scares Ahab and he refutes the idea. Pip, on the other hand, realizes how insignificant he is to the larger world as a result of his experience of being alone in the ocean. When one oarsmen becomes injured, Pip must step up to fill his place. However, Pip is skittish, so he jumps out of the

Pip’s positive influence on Ahab originates from their differences. After Ahab loses his leg to Moby Dick, he refuses to accept that their is something bigger than him and only becomes more obsessed with killing the white whale. When Ahab explains his pursuit of Moby Dick, he says: “be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me … Who’s over me?” (Melville 178). In other words, Ahab refuses to accept Moby Dick as God. If there was a god, it would mean that there is something he cannot control. The idea of there being something bigger than him scares Ahab and he refutes the idea. Pip, on the other hand, realizes how insignificant he is to the larger world as a result of his “experience”. When one oarsmen becomes injured, Pip must step up to fill his place. However, Pip is skittish so he jumps out of the boat and causes a whale to be lost. As Stubb had warned, the next time Pip jumped out of the boat, he

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

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.