Moby Dick Essay

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.

Ahab chooses to ignore the premonitions, omens, and prophecies of his coming fall. He refuses to give in to the voice of reason every time Starbuck offers him a way out. Ahab chooses to disobey and

Captain Ahab always had the desire to go after Moby Dick. His obsession grew even deeper when the great white whale took his leg. He spent several years trying to go after the whale. By being the captain of the ship, he had crew members come along on his journey to help slay the whale. His passion grew deeper each day as he lived amongst the ship and set sails to complete his mission.

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 is a book portraying the epic tale of captain Ahab and several crew members as they pursue a white whale. The lesson here has been debated. The moral of the story seems to be what happens when your desires become obsessions, it may destroy you. After all, captain Ahab was brought to his death by his obsessions. Other Melville books have morals to them and lessons that Melville has learned over his lifetime. (Melville Moby Dick).

In the book Moby Dick, there were numerous themes, symbols, motifs but the main one that was the basis of the book was revenge. The book is about Ishmael, the narrator, who goes whaling in a ship called the Pequod, with people that have a significance in the story especially the captain, Ahab. Ahab has an obsession with catching a white whale named Moby Dick that took his leg and this obsession of getting revenge takes a turn for the worst and the everyone on the Pequod, except Ishmael, died. One question we might what to ask ourselves is, what is Captain Ahab taking revenge for? Is it for his leg, For his anger, For his suffering or is it for something totally different? Maybe it's for all of them. Whatever it may be, sometimes the torment is so incredible, and the requirement for retribution becomes so strong, that it festers inside and starts to devour us. Captain Ahab exemplifies the idea of a determined desire for vengeance and shows how it can decimate a man.

There is a more modern parallel from Captain Ahab to George W. Bush. Both were Commander in Chief, both had vengeance towards an unseen enemy, and both rallied the crew to fight against this enemy. Captain Ahab encouraged his crew to take down the white whale

Starbuck knows that he has to kill whales to get by because that is his livelihood but he is not going to take advantage of his occupation and kill as many whales as possible. He has respect for the whales in the sense that he understands that they are powerful and will kill many men and he has no desire to be one of those men. He also recognizes the whale’s power when he says that “I will have no man in my boat,” said Starbuck, “who is not afraid of a whale.” By this, he respects whales as adversaries and doesn’t want to go after them in dangerous conditions..   Starbuck embodies the Emersonian ideal in many different ways. “His pure tight skin was an excellent fit; and closely wrapped up in it, and embalmed with inner health and strength, like a revivified Egyptian…” (pg. 108). This description of Starbuck shows that he is at his bare essentials all condensed and tight fitted just like the typical Emersonian man back in the

Moby-Dick is considered to be one of, if not the, best novels in American history. Harper & Brothers first published it in 1851 in New York. In England, it was published in the same year under the title, The Whale (“Moby Dick”). Melville explores topics and themes that were scarcely spoken of and never even seen in a novel. In the novel, the Pequod, which is the ship, is named after a Native American tribe that was exterminated when the white settlers arrived. It is a symbol of death and doom and foreshadows event that occur later in the novel. Melville brings some very controversial themes to light in the novel. Revenge is one of the main themes of Dark Romanticism and Melville uses it to drive every action taken by Ahab. This is seen early on in the novel as Ahab explains to the crew why he has a peg leg and that he wants to enact his revenge on Moby Dick (Melville 160-161). “Moby Dick is, fundamentally, a revenge tragedy. It’s about one man’s maniacal obsession with vengeance. It’s about finding an object on which to pin all you anger and fear and rage, not only about your own suffering, but also about the suffering of all mankind” (“Moby

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.

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

Along with this we also see the fate behind his decisions, where many things go against him, illustrating that maybe catching this whale really isn’t the greatest of ideas. A really good example of this is when the Pequeod finally reaches the equator and they appear to be close to where Ahab believes the whale may be, however when they get there they encounter two other ships who have been hit really badly by the whale. When all fate and destine is clearly illustrating that Ahab’s best bet is to not fight this battle, his free-will and determination push him forward, and he doesn’t allow this to scare him. Ahab even eventually goes as far as saying, “The gallows, ye mean.- I am immortal then, on land and on sea," cried Ahab, with a laugh of derision;- "Immortal on land and on sea!” (Melville 513). This demonstrates just how free-will driven Ahab really is, and he believes his destiny lies at sea, stating that his destiny is that he is immortal. Even when going beyond the text and further researching this concept of free will in Ahab’s character, we find that most other scholastic articles can agree with Ahab’s drive. When reading “Moby-dick Again” by Richard Lowry, he states in text, “When he catches up to Moby Dick, the climactic three-day chase ensues, with repeated opportunities to turn back as the danger

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.