The Theme Of Duality In Herman Melville's 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.

Excessive pride and extreme self confidence or Hubris, is a catalyst that sparks the destruction of many characters. Herman Melville’s epic novel, Moby-Dick, embodies Hubris through one of its characters, Captain Ahab. Fueled by his pride and arrogance, Ahab is blinded in his quest for revenge against Moby Dick, and consequently, becoming more and more inhumane as his journey goes on. Through one character, Melville is able to show how such a calamitous trait is able to bring the fall of not only the bearer, but everyone around him as well.

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 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

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.

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

This excerpt confirms the idea that Ahab has spent his life obsessing over killing whales particularly Moby Dick. He admits that he has become a “demon” in his yearning for vengeance of his lost limb.

As soon as Herman Melville introduces Captain Ahab in his novel, Moby Dick, there is a sense of mystery behind him. More and more information about the captain of the Pequod is revealed to Ishmael, the narrator of the novel, and readers begin to recognize the contradiction in Ahab’s character. He is described as a “grand, ungodly, god-like man” (82), who has his humanities despite being given a name that would “somehow prove prophetic” (83). Later in the novel, Ahab confesses his plan to find and kill the “inscrutable” (157) white whale that took his leg off. Although he hates the inscrutability behind the whale, Ahab himself is also portrayed as inscrutable to Ishmael, who continuously tries to find about more information about his “unknown

In Herman Melville’s Moby Dick and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea we are introduced to two individuals who share different opinions on nature and the marvelous creatures that make up the world around them. In this paper, I will explore the differences between Captain Ahab and Santiago. In Moby Dick, we are introduced to Captain Ahab and his personal quest to avenge the personal loss he suffered at the jaws of what he considered to “evil” while Ishmael recounts “ Ahab did not fall down and worship it like them; but deliriously transferring its idea to the abhorred white whale, he pitted himself, all mutilated, against it. All that most maddens and torments; all that stirs up the lees of things;

"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

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

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.