Moby Dick Analysis

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.

Captain Ahab is obsessed with the idea of seeking revenge and killing the great white whale, Moby Dick. He boards the Pequod, a whaleboat ship and with only one mission in mind, to destruct Moby Dick. Ahab is a bad captain for the whaleboat because he is infiltrated with the obsession to kill Moby Dick which makes him manipulative, selfish, and quite dangerous. Even if the Pequod’s fate was to fail or succeed, Ahab made it inevitable to have a good success. Throughout the book, it can be argued that Ahab seems to portray not only the pequod’s ship caption but a dictator as well. The crew is deemed to risk their lives for the captain’s sake no matter the circumstances since their choices are limited to either dying by jumping off the boat or

When your life revolves around the sea as ours does, you hear stories. Stories of deep sea monsters, mermaids, giant squids right out of a Moby Dick novel, are just some of the tales we’ve heard. Most stories about mysterious creatures we shrug off as ‘not bloody likely’, but others enter the realm of real possibility.

Captain Ahab was mad and also knew what he was doing as he began to go after Moby Dick. When Ahab stated, “When I’ve dared, I’ve willed,” he showed how angry he was. He also states, “I lost this leg”, he knew he wanted to seek revenge for the loss of his leg. Even though Ahab knew his mission to go after Moby Dick, this particular quote showed

On a previous journey Ahab went on, his leg was taken by moby dick and now uses an whalebone prosthetic. This was the start of Captain Ahab's utterly demise because from this point forward Ahab's only interest was to get his vengeance against the

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

A vengeful man, a native, and a man seeking enlightenment board a whaling vessel; this isn’t a joke, this is the United States of America throughout history and the members of the Pequod. Moby Dick is not just a tale about a whaling venture gone awry, it is a metaphor for what America was and is. The Pequod represents the country and government, while the 30 crew members (Melville 430; ch. 126) represents the United State citizens. This would have not been possible to consider in Melville’s time, but it is a true testament to literature being a living text. Melville wasn’t only writing about America in the 1800’s, he was writing about the natures of humanity, and the future of our society.

    In Herman Melville's Moby Dick the reader embarks on a journey narrated by a man in search of his soul and led by a man in search of the destruction of evil. Captain Ahab of the whaling ship the Pequod is a man whose heart is driven by revenge and a monomania that brings on the destruction of the Pequod and all but one member of her crew. He is looking to destroy the abominable White Whale, the Evil of the Earth, Moby Dick. This drive, in which Ahab believes he is doing good to the world by ridding it of this devilish creature, truly brings Ahab to commit the ultimate sin, pride, and become the evil of Christianity, he turns his back on God and follows in the footsteps of

Upon sailing on the Pequod, he deems each crewmember to swear they will aid him in finding the creature that has been the sole responsibility for Ahab’s psychological issues. His abilities as a captain and a sailor are quite commendable, but he becomes a megalomaniac—power-hungry in overthrowing the evil of

Although Captain Ahab’s character is monumentally important to the story he is not introduced immediately. Furthermore, there is a certain mystery to the man when Ishmael asks Captain Peleg about him. Peleg divulges to Ishmael that Ahab is “a grand, ungodly, god-like man…” (Melville 112) and this simple statement comes to define Captain Ahab almost absolutely. Ahab refuses to believe that there is any higher power that he needs to submit his will to. There is no higher authority to him than that of his own, which makes the contradiction effective. This air of mystery that surrounds the appearance of the captain of the Pequod is ultimately broken in chapter 28 entitled “Ahab”. In this chapter, Ishmael is finally able to finally look upon Captain

Ahab may be the captain of the Pequod but his relationship to the ship runs deeper than that. Ahab has a mark on his body that “resembled a perpendicular seam” (Melville 237) almost like he was sewn together. The Pequod also has seams where they have had to patch up the boat after it has taken a hit. On the Pequod “there was an auger hole, about half an inch or so, into the plank” (Melville 239) that Ahab would stick his bone leg in so that he could have a 360 degree view of the ocean. The Pequod owners had made modifications to the boat just so Ahab would be the captain.

In the novel, A Moby Dick, Pip is a young African American boy, who has almost no power on the Pequod. Pip only makes a handful of appearances in the novel, which leads the reader to ask: why does Melville include him in this novel? Pip normally serves as an entertainer for the crew and cleans up the ship. However, after being left in the ocean for hours, he forms a special bond with Ahab. Through their time spent together Pip positively affects Captain Ahab, which is why he is included in the novel.

In the novel, A Moby Dick, Pip is a young African American boy, who has almost no power on the Pequod. Pip only makes a handful of appearances in the novel, which leads the reader to ask: why does Melville include him in this novel? Pip normally serves as an entertainer for the crew and cleans up the ship. However, after being left in the ocean for hours, he forms a special bond with Ahab. Pip is included in the novel because he positively affects Captain Ahab.

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

Gabriel warns Ahab that if he keeps pursuing the white whale his end will come. Ahab refuses to listen because he is selfish and is too determined to seek his revenge that he will risk his life and his crews life so he can kill the creature of the deep.