The Great White Whale

Herman Melville's Moby Dick questions on several elements, such as fate vs free will vs. chance and who is good and who is evil. But the question for Melville is, why the biblical allegories? The novel starts off as, "Call Me Ishmael." This quote is a clear reference to Abraham's son Ishmael. Perhaps Melville was attempting to to set a sympathetic mood, or he was conveying that man is inferior by referring to the bible, because God is the big guy here, and man is not. These biblical references created excellent points in Melville's work, but he has exhausted the text with religion, pulling the reader away from the key concepts.

Call me Ishmael.

Brilliant and memorable, to those who have not even read Moby Dick should have already known Melville's famous line,"Call me Ishmael." "Call me Ishmael" invites the reader into the story and it is as if the narrator is speaking directly to the reader. This makes the reader interested and somewhat curious, or at least it made me curious. I was curious at the fact why Melville and the narrator, Ishmael, chose to use the two words "Call me" rather that "I am." This gives a curiosity into thinking if Ishmael's name really "Ishmael." Or if it's a name he would rather prefer over his real name. The reader never knows since the book never mentions it, nor has it ever even mentioned Ishmael's name by other characters. Perhaps Melville and the narrator chose this name to create an introductory to the story as being biblical, since the story contains an excessive use of unnecessary biblical allusions in Moby Dick. In biblical terms, "Ishmael," is the son of Abraham and his wife's servant, Hagar. Abraham is promised by God that he and his sons will be the father of many nations, and to carry this on, there would need to be descendants of Abraham. There is only one problem, Sarah, Abraham's wife, had difficulties being able to reproduce, so they turned to Hagar. Abraham and Hagar created a child named Ishmael who was going to be 'the father of many nations' until Abraham and Sarah finally had a son named Isaac. Since Isaac was born, Ishmael and his mother were banned. This relates to Moby Dick by giving the narrator, Ishmael, a sympathetic feeling from the reader, since he was an outcast, as the biblical Ishmael was. Moby Dick's Ishmael is new to whaling and does not exactly fit in with the shipmates and has no importance in the story as well. Although he is the narrator of the novel, he is not the protagonist. 

Captain Ahab.

The name Captain Ahab, is also an allegorical name to the biblical King Ahab. King Ahab is perceived as evil, and this trait is shown through Moby Dick's Captain Ahab. Captain Ahab's malevolent point of view derives from his determination to avenge his lost leg which was crushed by Moby Dick. This determination turns into an obsession, giving him an evil aspect, but that is just his tragic flaw, because every tragic hero has a tragic flaw. His heroic side holds determination, courage, and strength to be willing to go after a gigantic sperm whale with only one leg, making him not realize how inferior he is to the whale, but once again, he is obsessed. This obsession makes Ahab the antagonist of the book, but in an interesting way, Ahab is also the protagonist to the story. Melville's clever twist on the plot gives Ahab two different characteristics.

The Crew.

Starbuck: He is the Chief mate of the Pequod under

Captain Ahab. He is an opposing force of Captain Ahab

and holds a suspicious curiosity of Ahab's actions.

  

Stubb: He is the second mate of the ship. Kind,

outgoing, and fun would be the words to describe him.

Flask: He is the Third mate of the ship. Flask

holds a sort of pride in killing whales.

Queequeg: He is a close friend of Ishmael, which is

ironic considering Ishmael was afraid of him

because he is a cannibal. Queequeg is also a harpooner

on the Pequod under Starbuck.

                      

The Pequod.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

Moby Dick sets off in New York City, then continues on to New Bedford, Masachusetts, and then moves to Nantucket, which is where the voyage beings, on the whaling ship, the Pequod. The voyage of which Ishmael signed up for was to just typically go whaling and for others, to make some 'booty', but once the whalers aborded the ship, they were in for a real call. The voyage turned out to be a quest for Captain Ahab's vengeance for his lost leg on Moby Dick. The journey was quite the adventure, although, there were obstacles by the fighting forces of the sea, and of course, Moby Dick. This is where Melville puts a twist on the plot. Ahab is the bad guy yet the good guy. Moby Dick is the bad guy yet the good guy too. So does this mean Ahab and Moby Dick are both the antagonist and protagonist? Yes, yes it does, but through the epic sea battle only one hero can be victorious, and that hero is the Great White Whale. Due to Ahab's tragic flaw and obsession of revenge on Moby Dick he is sunken down into the sea with the Pequod itself. Moby Dick is a heroic tale yet a tragedy.

Plot.

Exposition

Ishmael and Queequeg are introduced and met at the Spouter Inn.

Conflict

Ishmael and Queequeg aboard the Pequod and finds out they are on a
journey to assist Captain Ahab on his revenge on Moby Dick,
the Great White Whale.

Climax

Captain Ahab sees Moby Dick, and the chase is on.

Falling Action

The chase has been going on for three days, Moby Dick destroys the Pequod.

Resolution

Ishmael is the only survivor.

Herman Melville

     In the mid-1830's Herman Melville started writing poetry, short stories, and essays and studying literature at the Albany Classical school. He then later left the school for a teaching job in Massachusetts, but eventually left Massachusetts too and went to Lansingburgh and enrolled at the Lansingburgh Academy to study 'surveying' for a chance to be employed in the Erie Canal project. Melville did not receive the position, so instead, he was sent on a merchant ship, St. Lawrence, to work as a crew member. This is where the experience begins and is the beginning of his inspiration to writing Moby Dick. His second voyage was on a whaling ship, where he was later capture by cannibals on his journey.
     So in other words, Moby Dick was Melville's life story and a journal of his experience on his voyages out at sea. It made perfect sense of how Moby Dick could somewhat be based on Melville's personal experience since his style of writing expresses much detail and vivid descriptions. Melville also has a gift for the usage of rhetoric devices. He could take two different elements and contrast them in an eloquent metaphor. His rhetoric skills are admirable and at times give the text depth, but he tends to linger on and on, providing pointless knowledge throughout most of his work.

So why the book, Melville?

     Mankind believe they are superior, especially to other beings, or in Melville's case, whales. Melville's novel Moby Dick was written in the history of time where whaling was popular in culture. Yes, whaling, where men go out to sea and hunt whales. Although Melville was an expertise on whales and had a heart at being at sea, he was not a fan of whale hunting. Moby Dick is his way of presenting man's ego and that they are in all honestly small compared to nature, or in other words whales are superior to man, but people in society are too dim-witted to realize it. Ishmael, although, is the only one in the novel that is afraid of Moby Dick, for he described the whale as 'ghostly.' 

     Through the death of Captain Ahab due to his battle with the Great White Whale, Melville conveys to his audience the phenomenon of nature and that in nature man is tiny. Captain Ahab, a man with one leg versus Moby Dick, a great white whale. Who is going to win? Moby Dick of course, but Ahab's ego of being superior to Moby Dick leads Ahab to believing he can take the whale down... on his own...with one leg. 

     Melville's many chapters of useless and pointless zoology reports on whales had no relation to the concept of the text, although one of them finally did, where he speaks of the dangers of whales. His point in humans being too brainless to realize the harmful elements of which they are not strong enough to handle is an excellent interpretation on society. In this time period of society, whaling is currently illegal in America, maybe people finally understood this concept Melville portrayed, or they are just looking out for the whales.
     This authorial purpose of man being inferior in nature can also be portrayed through Melville's biblical references. In chapter 42, "The Whiteness of the Whale," Melville describes the white color of Moby Dick, which in biblical in terms, the color whiteness would also describe God. So to narrow it all down, Melville also points out the relationship of man and God. Through his religious knowledge in the novel that Melville provides, there is an understanding that man is inferior to God, as they are to the whale, for the whale symbolized a superior figure.

Whale vs. Man

The Great White Whale, Moby Dick.

As can be inferred, man is small compared

to nature, especially the Great White Whale.

Swimming Deeper. 

     "I say so strange a dreaminess did there then reign all over the ship and all over the sea, only broken by the intermitting dull sound of the sword, that it seemed as if this were the Loom of Time, and I myself were a shuttle mechanically weaving and weaving away at the Fates. There lay the fixed threads of the ward subject to but one single, ever returning, unchanging vibration, and that vibration merely enough to admit of the crosswise interblending of other threads with its own. This warp seemed necessity; and here, thought I, with my own hand I ply my own shuttle and weave my own destiny into these unalterable threads. Meantime, Queequeg's impulsive, indifferent sword, sometimes hitting the woof slantingly, or crookedly, or strongly or weakly, as the case might be; and by this difference in the concluding blow producing a corresponding contrast in the final aspect of the completed fabric; this savage's sword, thought I, which thus finally shapes and fashions both warp and woof; this easy indifferent sword must be chance–aye, chance, free-will, and necessity–nowise incompatible–all interweavingly working together. The straight warp of necessity, not to be swerved from its ultimate course–its ever alternating vibration, indeed, only tending to that; free-will still free to ply her shuttle between given threads; and chance, though restrained in its play within the right lines of necessity, and sideways in its motions directed by free-will, though thus prescribed to by both, chance by turns rules either, and has the last featuring blow at events." (Melville 259-260)

     Aside from Melville's obtuse chapters on Whales 101 and futile biblical references, his language and use of rhetorical devices is superb. The quote above said by Ishmael is a metaphor in portraying the intertwining of fate, free will, and chance and is also one of the many themes in Moby Dick. Melville's skilled rhetorics and vivid description provides the reader with an impressive way of binding fate, free will, and chance, by the warp being as fate because it has been already fixed in position. Ishmael's shuttle as free will for he could roam about in. Queequeg's sword as chance since the usage of it is not planned yet there is a choice in choosing to use it or not.
    Fate vs. free will vs. chance in the larger context of the novel is portrayed throughout the story. It is fate when Ishmael misses the ferry to Nantucket in New Bedford, Massachusetts forcing him to stay at an inn over night, which is how he met Queequeg and going on a voyage together. Fate also plays a role in Captain Ahab's death, yet free will could be argued to led to his downfall. Then there's chance, chance takes place when the Pequod is approached by other whales and whaling ships by random means.
 
    Another theme is Religion. Religion is a theme in Moby Dick that cannot be missed, considering the fact that Melville overworked the story with his religious knowledge. A mass of biblical references are found in Moby Dick. One being the names of the characters–Ishmael and Ahab– and their allegoric roles. Referring to the Story of Ishmael, that name 'Ishmael' develops a sympathetic mood in the novel, and 'Ahab' referring to King Ahab establishes a malicious mood. Also, through the biblical allegoric role of Ishmael, it could be said that the theme is also between man nature, or in this case God. In the Story of Ishmael, God is said to have given Abraham the power to be the father of many nations. God is the almighty here, he has the ability to grant man their wishes, and man is inferior to God, but in Moby Dick, Captain Ahab does not realize that he is inferior to the Great White Whale.
     The second biblical reference is when Elijah warns Queequeg about Captain Ahab, which links to the prophet Elijah. Then the third reference is Melville's entire chapter of the whiteness of Moby Dick, chapter 42. Chapter 42 describes how the whiteness of Moby Dick, which in biblical senses, represent purity and righteousness.
   
    

Publish Date

What was happening when Melville was writing Moby Dick?

Moby Dick takes place in the 1840's and starts out in New York City, then continues on to New Bedford, Massachusetts, and then moves to Nantucket, which is where the voyage starts. Then later it is out to sea on the whaling ship, the Pequod.

1840's

-The first successful telegraph was developed by Samuel Morse. This invention sped up communication overseas.

-A women right's program, the Seneca Falls Convention was led by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott and the Declaration of Sentiments was created.

-There was high use of whale oil. This is why whale hunting was big around this era, many were dependent on the oil of the sperm whale.

-The Industrial Revolution was taking place. 

The Industrial Revolution in America (1820-1870)

What is the Industrial Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution was a period of time where manufacturing was rapidly developing. It was a great importance on the economic development in America. The transition from hand and home productions to machine and factory production changed American society and economy into a modern urban industrial state.

How did it start?

The Industrial Revolution first began in England then slowly developed in America due to the War of 1812 and the Embrago Act. The Embrago Act stated that American ships were banned from foreign ports and ships from other nations could not enter American ports. This act was passed by Thomas Jefferson in response to the British impressing deserted U.S. sailors as U.K. navy men. The act was a failure, and instead of solving problems it caused issues with Britain leading to the War of 1812. The War of 1812 ended the trade with Britain making America realize that they needed better manufacturing, and so the Industrial Revolution in America begins.

Samuel Morse's Telegraph

The Steam Engine

The Sewing Machine

                                                             

The Cotton Gin

The History of Whaling in the 1800's

Early 1800's: With the discovery of the whale-rich "onshore grounds" off the coast of South America, the Pacific Ocean is an increasingly popular destination for American whaling vessels.

1812-1815: War of 1812: As during the Revolution, American whaling vessels are preyed upon by the British Navy; several dozen are either seized or destroyed, and among American whaling ports only Nantucket continues to send out voyages.

1818: After the War of 1812, the whaling industry enters its "Golden Age." Among the investors attracted to the industry is novelist James Fenimore Cooper, who, while visiting a relative in Sag Harbor, Long Island, invests in a whaling firm.

1820: The Nantucket whaleship Essex is stove by a sperm whale in the middle of the Pacific. Fearing cannibals in the nearby Marquesas Islands, the majority of the crew members crowd into three small whaling boats and head east on a 3,000 mile journey towards the coast of Peru. When two of the boats are recovered nearly three months later (the third boat is lost), the surviving crew members admit to sustaining themselves with the bodies of their shipmates.

1840: A 21-year-old Herman Melville signs aboard the whaler Acushnet out of Fairhaven. He will remain at sea for more than three years.

Shall we critique?

     Moby Dick displays Melville's rhetorical skills, but it also presents running chapters of ennui. He may have the ability to create an eloquent metaphor, but that will not keep the reader to continue reading his six hundred paged novel. At some points in the book I develop a high level of interests and enjoy the purpose Melville conveys, but other times, I'm am exhausted from reading the lingering nonsense about religion and the whole encyclopedia about whales. 
     There are some agreements and partial disagreements I have on one of Melville's critic, Charles Olson's critique on Moby Dick. Olsen stated, "The man made a mess of things. He got all balled up with Christ. He made a white marriage... Melville took an awful licking. He was bound to. He was an original, aboriginal. A beginner. It happened that way to the dreaming men it takes to discover America." I understand Olson is describing Melville as a dreamer and a beginner, and I, in all honesty agree with that statement. Moby Dick is obviously a novel inspired by Melville's voyages of finally going out to sea of which he always wanted to do, considering that he wrote the novel a couple years after his journey, but his infinite details of futile information about the see has no relation to the concept of the text, making him just a dreamer who is writing in his diary. Now, I partially agree and disagree on Olsen's statement of Melville making a mess of things and being too tied up with religion. Melville included unnecessary information about religious topics and strained his novel with biblical terms, which made the book too long and too dull, but although the numerous amounts of biblical allusions were not necessarily needed in every aspect of the book, Melville did not "make a mess of things" by using them. It is what gives the novel a significant theme and an understandable authorial purpose as well by Ishmael being a body for sympathy, Ahab a symbol of evil, and the Great White Whale symbol of superiority and God as superior, making man seem inferior in nature.

     Melville's mistake was writing Moby Dick from a dreamer's view and included irrelevant information relating to religion, but his biblical allusions did have a fair role in the novel by developing the significant theme and tone of the novel. I admire the interesting themes and points Melville conveys in Moby Dick, but his rambling of meaningless knowledge screams 'beginner', as Olson has mentioned. Melville strives to behold an eloquent and rhetorical language throughout his novel with the usage of metaphors, referring to religion and facts on whales, but his constant and incessant speeches bore the reader and depletes the main idea, hauling them away from the concept of the novel.