Moby Dick, By Ralph Melville

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

In the beginning of the novel, the whale has the reputation for being the “Largest sea monster”. Moby Dick looks at whales culturally, scientifically and traditionally. The author particularly wants this tale to have a sense of mystery. The whale is large, white, kills or injures men and cannot be seized or killed. Ahab identifies with the whale spiritually and intellectually. “The White Whale swam before him as the monomaniac incarnation of all those malicious agencies which some deep men feel eating in them” (41. 180). For more everyday men, the whale is a sign of sustenance. The whale itself means nothing. The natives worship it as a god; for others it means income, and in a spiritual moment, Ishmael even sees the whale as a symbol of his serenity. Melville makes it distinctive that it is ourselves who create our symbols. Moby Dick is the root of Ahab’s obsession and a key

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

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.

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

Initially, Melville creates a metaphor to illustrate one of Ahab’s most prominent physical features: the scar along his face and neck. In Ishmael’s chapter describing his first impression of Ahab, he writes: “Threading its way out from among his grey hairs, and continuing right down one side of his tawny scorched face and neck…you saw a slender rod-like mark….It resembled that perpendicular seam sometimes made in the straight, lofty trunk of a great tree, when the upper lightning tearingly darts down it, and without wrenching a single twig, peels and grooves out the bark from top to bottom…leaving the tree still greenly alive, but branded” (108-109). Ishmael compares Ahab’s long, ropy scar to the mark left on a tree by a lightning strike, giving the reader a vivid image of the intensity of the mark on Ahab’s face. In contrast, a later simile is constructed to describe Ahab’s demeanor as opposed to his physical appearance. Ishmael likens Ahab’s presence to that of a regal sea-lion: “Over his ivory-inlaid table, Ahab presided like a mute, maned sea-lion on the white coral beach, surrounded by his war-like but deferential cubs” (128). The idea of Ahab as such a domineering character reinforces his ultimate dictatorial power on the Pequod. He rules the ship exactly as if he was a lion and the crew members were his physically strong but deferential cubs. Finally, Melville crafts a simile to convey Ahab’s passion for hunting the white whale: “‘…it was Moby Dick that dismasted me; Moby Dick that brought me to this dead stump I stand on now. Aye, aye,’ he shouted with a terrific, loud, animal sob, like that of a heart-stricken moose” (139). Melville expresses Ahab’s desire to find and kill Moby Dick by depicting how passionately Ahab displays his wishes to his crew. By comparing Ahab’s sob to that of a grieving moose, Melville

"Do human beings have free will or free choice and if not who or what shapes human destiny?" (McSweeney 9) Herman Melville utilizes Father Mapple's sermon in his nineteenth century epic novel Moby Dick, to illustrate the duality of mankind. Mortal man pursues his own singular interests with selfish intent; however, God has prevailing intentions, which are often beyond the comprehension of the individual. Melville expands and elaborates this theme throughout his epic work. The sermon is an omen for the dynamic action of the novel, which is revealed in Captain Ahab's megalomaniacal pursuit of the white whale. No person, ship or force of nature can sway Captain Ahab from his selfish ambition. He is willing to risk his crew, career, and even

Moby Dick is considered by some to be the greatest piece of literature, but yet the some of the same people have not grasped its meaning entirely. This story is full of conflict, climax, and complications; that is why I have decided to analyze it and decipher some of its meanings.

In his novel Moby Dick, Herman Melville seeks to explore the ambiguities of good versus evil, as well as the ambiguities within man himself. Melville treats the open ocean and the Pequod, a whaling vessel, as a microcosm of society in order to explore the true nature of humanity. During this journey the reader is introduced to two integral characters: Ishmael and Ahab. While the two may seem polar opposites in terms of personality and aspirations, it is with Ishmael and Ahab the Melville illuminates attributes intrinsic to humanity as a whole.

Intratextually, Melville portrays the Pequod shipmates as swept away by Ahab’s romantic, neo-Shakespearean language: “to chase that White Whale… over all sides of the earth, till he spouts black blood and rolls fin out… wilt thou not chase the white whale? Art not game for Moby-Dick?” thus creating a “deputation from all isles of the sea, and all ends of the earth, accompanying Old Ahab in the Pequod”, embarking on a shared experience and process of discovery. Metatextually, this same romantic, neo-Shakespearean language, as well as the sheer weight and volume of the novel awes audiences. As a marketable product itself, the novel allows for uniform creative discovery, as well as intellectual discovery (given the scientific chapters of the novel), for audiences across contexts. Thus, we can see that the emotional appeal of discoveries allows for its commodification and mass consumption creating unvaried rediscoveries by individuals across

A prominent theme throughout the epic, Moby Dick, is the notion that any path sparked with obsession and revenge can only end in sadness. The novel focuses on Captain Ahab’s complex quest to find and kill the huge white whale, Moby Dick, that has physically robbed him of his leg and metaphorically deprived

“‘. . . I’ll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway Maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up’” (Melville 203). In Herman Melville's classic novel Moby-Dick, the character Ahab rallies his crew aboard the Pequod to help him in the campaign against his greatest enemy, Moby-Dick, also known as the White Whale. The Pequod, a whaling ship on a three year voyage across the globe, is where Ahab commands and dictates his crew as captain as they sail through the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. While the initial objective of the journey was to kill sperm whales in order to collect their precious oils, Ahab had a different plan in mind. Overcome with the insane need to kill Moby-Dick, he declares

Each of their perspectives is based on how they feel towards the great whale. Captain Ahab’s idea of Moby Dick is that the animal ruined his whole life. He blames everything that has happened to him on the whale. Moby Dick bit off Ahab’s leg making him angry and thinking the whale is a monster. Ahab’s mind is always focused on Moby Dick.

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.

Moby-Dick captures the wild and reckless abandon with which men often pursue the American Dream. Longing for the classic liberty and luxury of their nation, many Dream-chasers leave their senses of reason in atrophy. As a result, the very paradise for which Americans hunger becomes a fountain of anguish and dissatisfaction--the very ironic opposite of a fulfilled American Dream. This cruel cycle manifests in Ahab’s character: “a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates” (Melville 246). Like a buzzard, Ahab’s relentless quest to smite Moby Dick eats away at his mental integrity, leaving him in tatters and horror-stricken. To be sure, though, Melville does jab directly at the woebegotten nature of the