Information About ™Moby-dick |
|
''Moby-Dick'' — the hyphen in the title is present in the original edition — is a -hunting, the adventure, and the narrator's reflections interweave the story's themes with a huge swath of Western Literature , History , Religion , Mythology , Philosophy , and Science . Although its initial reception was unfavorable, ''Moby-Dick'' is now considered to be one of the Canonical Novels in the English Language , and has secured Melville's reputation in the first rank of American writers. The novel is dedicated to Nathaniel Hawthorne . Uniquely, the titles of many of the chapters listed in the table of contents differ slightly from the corresponding chapter-titles as they appear in the text. One overwhelming feature of this novel is the large sections — probably comprising over half the length of the text — that on the surface appear to be non-fictional digressions on (among other things) whales, whaling, the color white, and the "crotch" (the forked support holding the harpoon in a whale boat). BACKGROUND The plot was inspired in part by the November 20 , 1820 , sinking of the Whaleship ''Essex'' (a small boat from Nantucket, Massachusetts ). The ship went down 2,000 miles (3,700 km) from the western coast of South America after it was attacked by an 80-ton Sperm Whale . The story was recounted by several of the eight survivors, including first mate Owen Chase in his '' Narrative Of The Most Extraordinary And Distressing Shipwreck Of The Whale-Ship Essex ''. ''Moby-Dick'' also undoubtedly draws on Melville's experiences as a sailor, and in particular on his voyage on the whaler ''Acushnet'' in 1841–1842. Melville left no other account of his career as a whaler, so we can only guess as to the extent to which ''Moby-Dick'' is a Roman à Clef (like his previous novels '' Typee '', '' Omoo '', '' Redburn '', and '' White-Jacket ''), and how much is wholly invented. However, it is known that there was a real-life albino sperm whale, known as Mocha Dick that lived near the island of Mocha off Chile 's southern coast, several decades before Melville wrote his book. Mocha Dick, like Moby Dick in Melville's story, had escaped countless times from the attacks of whalers, whom he would often attack with premeditated ferocity, and consequently had dozens of harpoons in his back. Mocha Dick was eventually killed in the 1830s. No one knows what prompted Melville to change the name "Mocha" to "Moby", but given that Mocha Dick was an albino sperm whale, it seems highly probable that Melville used him as a basis for his book. CHARACTERS The crew-members of the ''Pequod'' are carefully drawn stylizations of human types and habits; critics have often described them as a "self-enclosed universe". Ishmael Ishmael is the name the narrator takes for himself, it is unclear whether or not this is his actual name. "Call me Ishmael" is one of the best-known opening sentences in English language literature. A newcomer to whaling, Ishmael serves as our eyes and ears aboard the ''Pequod''. He is, at the end, the only witness alive to tell the tale. Ishmael was the name of the first son of Abraham in the Old Testament . The Biblical Ishmael was born to a slave woman because Abraham believed his wife, Sarah , to be infertile; when God granted her a son, named Isaac , Ishmael and his mother were turned out of Abraham's household. The name has come to symbolize orphans and social outcasts. From the beginning, Ishmael tells us that he turns to the sea out of a sense of alienation from human society. Ishmael, like Melville, has a rich literary background that he brings to bear on his shipmates and their adventure. Ishmael resembles Melville himself in many ways, as well as the narrator of Melville's ''White-Jacket: The World in a Man-of-War''. All are literary, reflective types who see their shipmates as exemplars of human nature and the universe, and tell their stories with a wealth of philosophical reflection. Ishmael himself sometimes completely vanishes into ''Moby Dick'': toward the end of the novel it can be easy to forget that it is being told by a first-person narrator and not simply an omniscient narrator. In many ways the ''Pequod'' is a ship of outcasts that manage to form a complete society among them. Ishmael is perhaps its voice, or its self-consciousness. Ahab Ahab is the captain of the whaling ship ''Pequod''. Having lost a leg to Moby Dick on their last meeting, Captain Ahab is consumed with the desire for revenge. He has a peg leg made of whalebone, and a livid white scar that runs from head to toe and looks like the mark which a bolt of lightning leaves in the bark of a tree. Contrary to what many readers believe, the scar down Ahab's side was not given to him by Moby Dick, it was actually caused by a lightning strike ("''clear spirit of clear fire''", see Chapter 119). There are two Ahab s named in the Bible, one a King of Israel, the other a Blasphemous Prophet delivered by God to be killed by Nebuchadnezzar , King of Babylon . The captain is named after the king, who is described in the novel as "bloodthirsty". Moby Dick Moby Dick is a livid white Sperm Whale that has been attacked by multiple whaling ships, but has been able to destroy its attackers. Melville spelled the whale's name without a hyphen, but used a hyphen in the title of the book. The color white is explored in the chapter "The Whiteness of the Whale". It calls into question the meaning of the chapters on Cetology . They seem on the surface to give straight facts, but more profoundly show how difficult it is to define the whale, which has multiple interpretations and meanings as Melville intended. Mates Starbuck, the young First Mate of the ''Pequod'', is a thoughtful and intellectual Quaker . "Uncommonly conscientious for a seaman, and endued with a deep natural reverence, the wild watery loneliness of his life did therefore strongly incline him to superstition; but to that sort of superstition, which in some organization seems rather to spring, somehow, from intelligence than from ignorance... far-away domestic memories of his young Cape wife and child, tend[ed to bend him ... from the original ruggedness of his nature, and open him still further to those latent influences which, in some honest-hearted men, restrain the gush of dare-devil daring, so often evinced by others in the more perilous vicissitudes of the fishery. "I will have no man in my boat," said Starbuck, "who is not afraid of a whale." By this, he seemed to mean, not only that the most reliable and useful courage was that which arises from the fair estimation of the encountered peril, but that an utterly fearless man is a far more dangerous comrade than a coward." Starbuck is alone among the crew in objecting to Ahab's quest, declaring it madness to want revenge on an animal that lacks the capacity to understand such human concepts. Starbuck advocates continuing the more mundane pursuit of whales for their oil. He lacks the support of the crew in his opposition to Ahab, and is unable to persuade them to turn back. Despite his misgivings, he feels himself bound by his obligations to obey the captain. Starbucks Coffee is partly named after him; see {Link without Title} . Stubb is the second mate of the ''Pequod'', who always seems to have a pipe in his mouth and a smile on his face. ''"Good-humored, easy, and careless, he presided over his whaleboat as if the most deadly encounter were but a dinner, and his crew all invited guests."''--''Moby-Dick'' Ch. 27 Flask is the third mate of the ''Pequod''. ''"A short, stout, ruddy young fellow, very pugnacious concerning whales, who somehow seemed to think that the great Leviathans had personally and hereditarily affronted him; and therefore it was a sort of point of honor with him, to destroy them whenever encountered."''--''Moby-Dick'' Ch. 27 Harpooners Queequeg the harpooner is a "savage" Cannibal from a fictional island in the south seas. The son of the chief of his tribe, he befriends Ishmael in Nantucket before they leave port. Queequeg is a skilled Harpoon er on Starbuck's boat. His behaviour is both civilized and savage. Tashtego is described as a "savage" -- a Native American harpooner. The personification of the hunter, he has turned from hunting land animals to hunting whales. Tashtego is the harpooner on Stubb's harpoon boat. Daggoo is a gigantic "savage" African harpooner with a noble bearing and grace. Daggoo is the harpooner on Flask's harpoon boat. Fedallah is the sinister leader of Ahab's secret harpoon boat crew. He is of Persian descent (" Parsee "). ''" {Link without Title} all and swart, with one white tooth evilly protruding from its steel-like lips. A rumpled Chinese jacket of black cotton funereally invested him, with wide black trowsers of the same dark stuff. But strangely crowning this ebonness was a glistening white plaited turban, the living hair braided and coiled round and round upon his head."'' ''Moby-Dick'' Ch.48 SYMBOLISM All of the members of the ''Pequod's'' crew have biblical-sounding, improbable or descriptive names, and the narrator deliberately avoids specifying the exact time of the events and some other similar details. These together suggest that perhaps we should understand the narrator--and not just Melville--to be deliberately casting his tale in an epic and Allegory mode. Ahab's desire to pursue Moby Dick is contrasted with Starbuck's desire to run a normal commercial whaling ship. It can be seen as the clash of Idealism and Pragmatism . The white whale itself, for example, has been read as symbolically representative of good and evil, as has Ahab. The white whale has also been seen as a Metaphor for the elements of life that are out of our control. The Pequod's quest to hunt down Moby Dick itself is also widely viewed as allegorical. To Ahab, killing the whale becomes the ultimate goal in his life, and this observation can also be expanded allegorically so that the whale represents everyone's goals. The only escape from Ahab's vision is seen through the Pequod's occasional encounters with other ships, called Gam s. Readers could consider what exactly Ahab will do if he, in fact, succeeds in his quest: having accomplished his ultimate goal, what else is there left for him to do? Thus, the outcome of the quest is irrelevant, and actually completing the journey is not the goal - it's the "thrill of the chase" that's important. Similarly, Melville may be implying that people in general need something to reach for in life, or contrariwise that such a goal can destroy one if allowed to overtake all other concerns. Ahab's pipe is widely looked upon as the riddance of happiness in Ahab's life. By throwing the pipe overboard, Ahab signifies that he no longer can enjoy simple pleasures in life; instead, he dedicates his entire life to the pursuit of his obsession, the killing of the White Whale, Moby Dick. SELECTED ADAPTATIONS AND REFERENCES
REFERENCES
EXTERNAL LINKS
|