The, The Whiteness Of The Whale

However, captain Ahab turns a deaf ear to the reasoning and pleas of the people around him of whom try to get him to stop his relentless pursuit for Moby Dick. Even his own crew sees no reason to chase the whale as Starbuck states "Vengeance on a dumb brute!" cried Starbuck, "that simply smote thee from blindest instinct! Madness! To be enraged with a dumb thing, Captain Ahab, seems blasphemous." (Melville 157), he stresses how their aimless journey is pointless and sinful because they are chasing an animal, all the malevolent actions was out of instinct, not malintentions, however, these pleas are cried in vain as Ahab is chasing the whale out of his own selfishness. Starbuck also tries to reason with Ahab saying, “How many barrels will thy vengeance yield thee even if thou gettest it, Captain Ahab?” it will not fetch thee much in our Nantucket market."(Melville 157), their journey is fruitless and Starbuck attempts to convince Ahab that it is better for them as a whaling ship to hunt for whales that come their way instead of investing all their time and effort into hunting one whale. Although it is reasonable, Ahab also does not listen to the logical reasoning, his mission to restore his pride makes him blind to logic and deaf to reason. When discussing their encounters with Moby Dick, another

Herman Melville, in his epic novel Moby-Dick, utilizes the symbolism of the color of the Great White Whale to demonstrate his theme of duality. However, Captain Ahab tragically had a single mind set towards Moby Dick, as he believed that the whale was the symbol of the world's evil and had to be destroyed. On the other hand, Ishmael sees that the color white can mean many various and opposing things. It would be dangerous to settle upon any one single meaning. In the chapter, The Whiteness of the Whale, Melville explains the importance of duality of meaning in the world, as opposed to man's (and Ahab's) desire to see only one meaning in any one thing. Melville utilizes the symbol of the

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

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

Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote The Scarlet Letter and Moby Dick was written by Herman Melville. Roger Chillingworth and Captain Ahab are evil figures portrayed in these two stories. Chillingworth and Ahab are consumed by evil and their intentions are quite similar. Captain Ahab devotes his entire life to hunting down and killing his nemesis, the giant white whale Moby Dick.

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.

However, the major question that appears for the reader is simply this: What does the whale mean to Ahab? There are multiple solutions to this predicament which range from him being simply insane or that he can’t accept the evil dominance of this creature, but one thought sticks out like a sore thumb. The truth for most who read the story is that the evil is not the whale, but is Ahab instead. This can be seen by certain instances in the novel such as him refusing to help his fellow captain look for his son lost at sea (pg. 186-188) or by saying that he is endowed with the need to kill Moby Dick as soon as he is sited (pg. 214-216).

Years ago, many people sailed across the seven seas. In Herman Melville's novel, "Moby Dick", captain Ahab and crew is in search for a whale whom took his leg in the Pacific. The captain and his crew had a mainly negative relationship towards another. This was the case because Ahab thinks he is superior, is old, and quiet.

Moby-Dick, written by Herman Melville, has captivated the eyes of countless readers for more than a century. The novel’s incorporation of Romanticism and the American Renaissance recognizes it as an exceptionally renowned work of American literature. To create this epic tale, Melville uses the encounters that the Pequod has with other whaling ships, known as gams, combined with symbols and omens. Melville, who uses many chapters in the novel to provide information about whaling, designates the entirety of chapter 53, “The Gam”, to explain gams: “a social meeting of two (or more) Whale-ships, generally on a cruising-ground; when, after exchanging hails, they exchange visits by boats ' crews: the two captains remaining, for the time, on

Ahab, captain of the whaling ship The Pequod, faces white whales throughout Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick. His quest, as perceived by the reader, seems to be to just kill the creature that took his leg from him. Without any digging deep into the book, this seems incredibly true, it’s what the book follows for the most part. However, the figurative quest he goes on is interpreted upon further investigation. This quest is to both find himself and the truth about the world that he inhabits.

Two symbols that relate to Captain Ahab in Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick are the dents on the deck and the whale. The deck is a symbol of captain Ahab in the way that they both have dents, the deck physically has dents from Ahab’s peg, while Ahab himself has dents in the way that he lost his leg to Moby-Dick and now has to have a peg to walk on because of Moby-Dick biting his leg off. ”But on the occasion in question, those dents looked deeper, even as his nervous step that morning left a deeper mark. And, so full of his thought was Ahab, that at every uniform turn that he made, now at the mainmast and now binnacle, you could almost see that thought turn in him as he turned, and pace in him as he paced; so completely possessing him, indeed, that

In order to compare and contrast Ahab and Ishmael’s visions of Moby Dick, it is necessary to understand each man’s vision of the quest. Captain Ahab’s understanding of Moby Dick is multifaceted, including conceptions both personal and wide-thinking, both emotional and intellectual. It is appropriate, therefore, to examine this conception from the two sources Melville provides the reader: that from Ishmael, and that from Ahab’s own lips. From Ahab’s own

In 1851, after reading the information from Owen Chase’s diary and selecting information from his own experience, Herman Melville wrote Moby-Dick, a story about a one-legged captain in search of the whale responsible for devouring his leg, which is considered one of the greatest novels in American literature. Herman Melville, born on August 1, 1819, admired every aspect of literature from a young age. Having lost his father when he was only 13, he was forced to go to work to provide for his family. Writing wasn’t a priority for the young Melville but it was definitely inspiring to him. Herman was influenced by many authors such as: William Shakespeare, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and more. However, because he had to work rather than write, he held many positions such as: teacher, bank clerk, cabin boy, whaler, and finally, in 1846, author. While he was a whaler for three years, encountering many personal events on the sea and on strange islands, he heard a story about events from a whaling ship during 1819, the Essex, which influenced his writing of Moby-Dick. His novel wasn’t highly regarded initially, especially in England, where it was originally published. It failed to include the epilogue in the first edition, therefore making it a target of great criticism. Future editions, including the American, did include the epilogue. Although critics admired Melville’s diction, style, and plot, the story didn’t appeal to

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

Similar to Ahab, the Samuel Enderbys’ captain has donated a limb to Moby-Dick, but unlike the Pequod’s leader, the Englishman wants to keep away from the White Whale, arguing, “ain’t one limb enough? What should I do without this other arm? … He’s best left alone” (368). The one-armed captain, head of a ship named for a wealthy British merchants, describes his experience to the one-legged monomaniac, who is overly excited, but the Englishman does not approach the experience as a spiritual battle like Ahab. Interrupting the captain, Ahab exclaims his highlights of his effect on the whale, claiming credit for the harpoons and scars decorating that wild beast. The Samuel Enderby’s captain continues “good-humoredly” (365). The Englishman did not know that he had lost his arm to the Moby-Dick for some time after the attack, but when he found out the identity of his opponent, he forfeited two chances to repeat his attempt at capturing oil from the White Whale. To the Englishman’s sage like attitude, Moby-Dick was nothing more than a remarkably profitable catch, while to