It’s so interesting to me how much comes from the whale and how we use its parts up when it comes to whaling. This chapter was so good to me. The idea of this thing coming from a whale is used for perfume. Melville is showing us all the aspects of the whale and the whale’s beauty, but at the same time showing us how we get all these products that are used to sell on land. “I say that motion of a Sperm Whale’s flukes above water dispenses a perfume, as when a musk-scented lady rustles her dress in a warm parlor.” (449) Melville is showing us that what people think of whales, whales all smell bad and they’re scary, but then shows us that the things people think of whales are not far from humans, and what whale’s store inside of them are the reasons for the goods that humans use, such as perfume that is sometimes made with Ambergris. Not only are humans so judgmental of this world/life of the sea, but they don’t even know where and how their goods are made and where they come from. Melville is showing us where and how these goods that humans use all the time, but also what humans think of whales when they don’t know the whale, one doesn’t know a whale until going whaling.
Moby-Dick
ECL 522: Fall 2025. Professor Pressman
I think you make a very good point as to the criticism towards the upper class and human ignorance over all. Ambergris is not a chapter I really paid much mind too, but the comment towards the idea that most people do not tend to think about where their goods are coming from even rings true today in 2025 despite the book audience being from 174 years ago. The idea of a “musk-scented lady” doesn’t sound initially appealing, but realizing that these creatures had multiple purposes puts into the idea that these whales have plenty of uses that aren’t considered by those who are not within the work force. It is true that one doesn’t know a whale until going whaling as you put, but I do believe that there’s more than just ignorance at play. I even had to search up ambergris to get a better idea as to what it was, and it really makes the reader wonder how much is unknown about whaling now that the practice is obsolete now.
Hi Sam,
I also enjoyed this chapter. I especially found it interesting that this substance comes from a sick whale. The idea that something of such high value comes from something unsuspecting. But also that our ideas of what we value are very subjective and constructed–would this be held in such high regard if the people of society knew where it came from?