Author Archives: Darian Murillo

Final Essay

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Darian Murillo

ECL 522

Professor Pressman

December 10, 2025

Psychological, obsession and depression

In Melville’s Moby Dick, madness is not a distant presentation, but mostly a storm that’s brewing in their mind. Herman Melville demonstrates the characters in the Pequod who are fighting their inner demons during their time sailing at sea they start to reveal their obsession, grief and isolation can wrap someone’s brain in a turmoil. Herman Melville uses Ahab’s obsessive monomania, Pip’s traumatic experience psychological break, and Ishmael’s existential crisis to explore how unaddressed mental health struggles not only shape that person’s inner conflict. Melville illustrates three different psychological responses to suffering, eventually suggesting that psychological struggles form the moral and narrative course of Moby Dick. 

In Chapter 1, “Loomings”, Ishmael reveals the emotional crisis he’s going through, that pushes him into joining the sailing crew and Melville uses vivid imagery for his depression. In the quote, “ Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street…”(4), when Ishamel describes a “damp, drizzly November” in his soul, the cold weather becomes a metaphor for his inner life, such as cold and heavy clouded. What I noticed was the repetition of the word “whenever” creates a rhythm that mirrors the nature of his depressive state and how it returns during these random episodes of despair like a cycle over and over again. One thing I found noticeable in the quotes was Ishmael’s fascination with death: the coffin warehouses, follows funerals, saying his mind goes into the darkness even when he doesn’t want to. Melville mentions the word “hypo” defining down which meant how Ishamel had his moments of despair and downfall that was taking such control of him that “it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street..” (4) its almost like a reference to suicidal thoughts. The whole paragraph of the chapter, not only shows us Ishmael, the protagonist, but the whole theme of the story just by hearing the first couple of sentences and Melville demonstrating us Ishmael’s journey as a task to survival from the storm inside his head.

In chapter 44, Ishmael explains how obsessed Captain Ahab has become on planning his hunt for Moby Dick. Melville writes,” God help thee, old man, thy thoughts have created a creature in thee; and whose intense thinking thus makes him a Prometheus; a vulture feeds upon that heart for ever; that vulture the very creature he creates”,(220), in this passage Melville explores how obsession can transform the human mind into its own tormentor and how easy it is to lose yourself to madness when the thoughts come too deeply to torment the human mind. He transforms Ahab as a victim and the creator of his own madness. The phrase,” God help thee” is recognizing that Ahab is suffering and no one can save him, but Him. When he says the “creature” it represents the madness being born inside of him from his obsession with Moby Dick, while comparing him to Prometheus due to both being defiant and both being punished for not fulfilling their duties. Melville uses imagery to warn us, the audience, about the conception of madness of the human mind, becoming too much of a delusion of something we can’t let go.

I recently read in my rhetoric writing class Terry Eagleton’s, “Literary Theory: An Introduction,” one of his chapter, psychoanalysis, in this quote, “ Every human being has to undergo this repression of what Freud named the ‘pleasure principle’ by the ‘reality principle’, but for some of us, and arguably for whole societies, the repression may become excessive and make us ill,” (Eagleton, 131) ,Eagleton discusses that psychoanalysis views that humans are driven by unconscious desires and compulsions that they don’t comprehend, which comes as a clear example: Ahab’s obsession with Moby Dick. 

In chapter 93 of Moby Dick, Ishmael reflects, ” So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weak or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God,”(454) the quote transforms the idea of madness from being known as weak into a form of divine understanding. We see Pip, a young cabin boy who is left adrift in the vast ocean, who experiences trauma so badly, he loses touch with humanity itself. I think Melville often uses and questions the human definitions of sanity and reason, like in this chapter, he demonstrates in a tragic and spiritual way. Melville shows, in Pip’s point of view, explores how the moments of extreme isolation and suffering can lead to a person’s beyond reasoning of humanity. What’s the whole obsession with the sanity of the human mind that peaks Melville’s interest towards it?

Pip’s experience reminds me of Annie Cresta from The Hunger Games. Just like Pip, Annie endures the overwhelming trauma from not just witnessing her tribute member being decapitated in front of her, but also from drowning after the whole arena malfunctioned. Her being from District Four (known to be a district of water and fishing) she knew how to swim and was the only survivor hence made her the winner. But at what cost though? She’s considered unstable by the Capitol due to her losing her mind and going insane after her traumatic experience; she was found basically useless, but that also shows her fragility and how cruel the world can be. Both of these characters embody how innocence collides with inhumanity, such as sensitivity, being mistaken for madness, and is their true response to their suffering. Both Pip and Annie challenge society’s discrimination of sanity being called mad for no good reason at all. Both characters are gentle souls who have endured enough trauma that it transforms their sanity into understanding.

In conclusion, Melville presents psychological suffering as an inescapable condition of human existence. In my opinion, I think the book is mostly about survival both physically and mentally. Throughout the book, Melville demonstrates psychological problems in power, obsessions and control with his characters, especially with Ahab slowly becoming consumed by the darkness and self-destruction.  Psychological or now, in the modern era, mental health struggles is an unavoidable part of human existence, even in such a time where it wasn’t recognized properly. Melville uses survival as a coping mechanism for his characters in order for them to recognize their inner darkness which can be the only way to endure it.

Work Cited

Eagleton, Terry. Literary Theory: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing, 1983.

‌ Melville , Herman, et al. Or, the Whale. Or, the Whale. London, Penguin Classics, 2003.

‌

Final Takeaway

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This class was challenging and overwhelming to me. I was really REALLY intimated by everybody in this class which made me feel stupid when it came to discussing about the book because everybody had an understanding about the chapters, characters and the book in general. So it made me question myself a lot during the semester. I never knew what close reading meant and taking this class made me gain a skill and hopefully improve it when I’m reading for class or for myself. While my skills are still improving and gaining knowledge on certain aspects in my education, it was an okay and good class.

Final Project Proposal

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For my final project, I will be discussing about the psychological tension, obsession, trauma, and inner conflict, specifically, in these three characters: Ahab, Pip, and Ishmael who go through massive evolutions of trauma and psychological problems in the story. I have always being interested on how the mind works in mysterious ways and just discovering on how mental health was back centuries ago and not fully understanding it makes me astonished.

Thesis: Herman Melville uses Ahab’s obsessive monomania, Pip’s traumatic experience psychological break, and Ishmael’s existential crisis to explore how unaddressed mental health struggles not only shape that person’s inner conflict. Melville illustrates three different psychological responses to suffering, eventually suggesting that mental health struggles form the moral and narrative course of Moby Dick. 

Week 13: What’s next….

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What do you need to do/learn for your final project?

I feel like I still need to learn more and understand a bit more about close reading certain things. I’ve been to overwhelmed with the class and by all the information that I have zero idea on what I’m going to do. I’m not much of a creative artsy type of person, so I’m just bee doing an essay. For my final project, I will be discussing about mental health, alcoholism, obsession and more into the mental health part of the chapters, I’ll mostly be focusing on Ahab, Pip and Ishmael depending on how it goes and the subject. Close reading has become such an experience to do in my life and still need practice on it too. I still need to do research and find some examples from the chapters of the book and see where this goes.

Chapter 135: The end of it all…

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First of all, what the fudge!? How can it just end like that!? As I am happy that this journey of reading Moby Dick is over, I’ll kind of miss it. The ending of obsession for the whale and rage he filled up in his system for years caused it to be his doom. In Moby Dick’s final chapter, Melville transforms the Pequod into a tragedy, revealing on how Ahab’s obsession becomes a force that destroys not only himself, but his entire crew too. The quote, ” And his whole captive force, folded in the flag of Ahab, went down with his ship, which, like Satan, would not sink to hell till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her, and helmeted herself with it”, (624) captures the intensity of this destructive power with such intensity. It demonstrates on how Ahab “captive force” suggest that the sailors are no longer in control of themselves, but of Ahab’s consuming will. Melville, also, compares the Pequod as Satan, a figure whose associated with rebellion and pride, just like in his own story on how he fell from the heavens through defiance, Ahab’s ship refuses to sink “till she had dragged a living part of heaven along with her,” suggest that his downfall is so intense that it contaminates everything that’s innocent and pure.

Melville’s fascination for using biblical and mythological imagery to portray obsession as a spiritual catastrophe amazes me every time I would read a chapter. I’ll probably (maybe no, maybe so) miss this weird, quirky book.

Essay 2: Short essay

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In chapter 113,” The Forge”, Melville transforms Ahab’s pursuit towards Moby Dick into a haunting, obsessive and desire of defying the divine. In this chapter, Ahab’s newly forged harpoon is his last solution to everything that’s become of his obsession, he makes it a symbol of both his vengeance and doom. In the quote, “ This done, pole, iron, and rope-like the Three Fates-…” Melville depicts the harpoon with the myth of “The Three Fates” who represent life and death, but also Ahab’s demise. Through the mythic imagery, sound, tone, and madness, Melville reveals Ahab’s madness and defiance against the divine and transforms him into the victim, but also the pursuer of his own consequences of his actions towards desire of wanting to control something that is beyond the realism of human nature. Melville wants us, the audience, to know the obsession and the definition of rage.

The connection towards the “pole, iron, and rope” to “the Three Fates” connects Ahab’s weapon to Greek Mythology, the story of the three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, who are known as the deciders of the past, present, and future, they cut the thread of life, the human life they decide on how long you get to live. The pole is the beginning that holds everything together, this is the moment where Ahab’s journey begins. The iron represents giving the weapon its shape, length, and the purpose of the weapon’s destination. And the rope presents us the connection between the whale and the ship, which it also demonstrates on how rope kills whalers like snapping, entangles and drags men under the sea. It represents the thread of life and how it easily can snap you in an instant. This whole thing is a cycle for Ahab, his destiny has been already fulfilled and he sealed his doom and the crew’s.

“Ivory log, and the sound of the hickory pole, both hollowly ringing along every plank,”(533),  the sounds of the leg echoing through the ship creates an eerie, echoing soundscape. His presence is eerie and hollow like a ghost roaming the ship he’s pavemented to. Its sounds symbolize emptiness and death. Ahab’s movements are dominant and doom which gives us a reminder on who he is and his whole concept of revenge in the story. He makes the ship feel melancholic, empty and dark. Melville is already giving us hints, “ piteous” “wretched” and “melancholy” using a tone of tone which it obviously gives us a foreshadowing of the ship’s doom. It slowly becomes the sound of destruction of the ship and of Ahab too. Melville demonstrates in this quote,” Oh Pip! Thy wretched laugh ….”, it shows how the laugh of Pip is a mockery towards everything around mimicking Ahab like a mirror reflecting on his doom and slowly uncontrollable madness. 

Ultimately, Melville’s portrayal of Ahab in Chapter 113, reveals about a man who’s beyond the limits of reality and seeking the imagery of a realm beyond the human limits, by sealing his destiny long before the final battle between him and Moby Dick. Through these images, Melville demonstrates Ahab’s attempt of command by taking the role of a God, who’s untouchable and in control of everything around him. Melville demonstrates to us the consequences of men who pursue the urge of power, control and rage.

Chapter 113: The Forge: I’m Crazy, Your Crazy, We’re Crazy!

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The more and more and more I read this book and Melville’s obsession with sanity and insanity for his characters is quite strategic since he wants us to understand, but explore the truth, obsession and limits if human understanding. In chapter 113, ” The Forge”, Melville transforms a simple craftmanship to more of a symbolic ritual of obsession and sacrilege. Ahab commands the blacksmith to forge him a new harpoon, that he swears will actually kill Moby Dick. When the forge of the harpoon is done, he asked for his three harpooners-Tashtego, Queequeg, and Daggoo to offer some of their blood as a symbol of baptism.

“Ego non baptizo te in nomine patris, sed in nomine diaboli!” (532), meaning ” I do not baptize you you in the name of the Father, but in the name of the Devil,” Ahab reverses the role of a sacred baptism, not to God, but to his own rage and obsession. This demonstrates Ahab’s rebellion towards Christianity and his hellish transformation of pure revenge. In this scene, he kind of acts like an anti-priest who performs a dark sacrament and using blood from his “disciples” as a sacrifice for the “sake” of revenge. It gave me the chills, just imagining what’s going through Ahab’s mind and how slowly and cruel he’s becoming, demonstrating his way of thinking and how he craves revenge like a man thirsting for water. Melville deepens the atmosphere in the lines of this quote, “This done, pole, iron, and rope-like the Three Fates- remained inseparable, and Ahab moodily stalked away with the weapon; the sound of the hickory pole, both hollowly ringing along every plank. But ere he entered his cabin, a light, unnatural. half-bantering, yet most piteous sound was was heard. Oh Pip! thy wretched laugh, thy idle but unresting eye; all thy strange mummeries not unmeaningly blended with the black tragedy of the melancholy ship, and mocked it!” (533) in the quote, Melville invokes the usage of the Greek mythology the myth of the Three Fates who are goddesses who control the destiny of every living being from their birth to death, it demonstrates on how Ahab’s destiny is now sealed with a weapon and as his creator, he’s now set for what’s coming to him by fate and death. This moment reflects Melville’s warning towards the use of the destructive power of man’s obsession and man’s defiance against religion.

The only thing I like about this book so far is about how Melville uses metaphors, imagery, and philosophical moments, but also the bashing of religion that intrigues me. Even the mythology references.

Chapter 93: The Castaway, ” The Castaway”,

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In chapter 93 of Moby Dick, Ishmael reflects, ” So man’s insanity is heaven’s sense; and wandering from all mortal reason, man comes at last to that celestial thought, which to reason, is absurd and frantic; and weak or woe, feels then uncompromised, indifferent as his God,”(454) the quote transforms the idea of madness from being known as weak into a form of divine understanding. We see Pip, a young cabin boy who is left adrift at in the vast ocean, who experiences trauma, so badly, he loses touch with humanity itself. I think Melville often uses and questions the human definitions of sanity and reason, like in this chapter, he demonstrates in a tragic and spiritual way. Melville shows, in Pip’s point of view, explores on how the moments of extreme isolations and suffering can lead to a persons beyond reasoning of humanity. What’s the whole obsession with the sanity of the human mind that peaks Melville’s interest towards it?

Pip’s experience reminds me of Annie Cresta from The Hunger Games. Just like Pip, Annie endures the overwhelming trauma from not just witnessing her tribute member being decapitated in front of her, but also from drowning after the whole arena malfunctioned. Her being from District Four (known to be a district of water and fishing) she knew how to swim and was the only survivor hence made her the winner. But at what cost though? She’s considered unstable by the Capitol due to her losing her mind and going insane after her traumatic experience she was found basically useless, but that also shows her fragility and how cruel the world can be. Both of these characters embody on how innocence collides with inhumanity, such as, sensitivity, being mistaken for madness, and is their true respond to their suffering. Both Pip and Annie challenge society’s discrimination of sanity being called mad for no good reason at all. Both characters are gentle souls who have endured enough trauma that it transforms their sanity into understanding.

The more I read into the book it just makes me question and overwhelms me with so much context that Melville wants us to understand, it makes me go insane sometimes and question my own sanity lmaooooo!

Gods, Heroes, and Demi-gods (Chapter 82)

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In Chapter 82, Ishmael starts to defend whaling profession in a passionately way and argues on how it deserves a great honor and respect. He starts to compare whalers to noble heroes, gods, demi-gods, and legendary figures like: Perseus, St. George, and Hercules who in their own stories fought monsters and other creatures. Ishmael also mentions that kings and noblemen have been connected to whaling throughout history demonstrating how it’s not a lowly job, but an act of courage and importance to society, hence being the source of the economy: oil, lamps, etc. Melville wants us to recognizes and defends whaling as an honorable glorifying job. In the quote,” The more I dive into this matter of whaling, and push my researches up to the very spring-head of it, so much the more am I impressed with its great honorableness and antiquity; and especially when I find so many great demi-gods and heroes, prophets of all sorts, who one way or other have shed distinction upon it, I am transported with the reflection that I myself belong, though but subordinately, to so emblazoned a fraternity.”(195), Melville uses this tone of admiration, he not only challenges class hierarchies that look down on manual labor, but he also changed the meaning of heroism by placing whalers next to divine heroes! This passage transforms whaling as a symbol of heroism, adventure, discovery and belonging.

Short essay: Close reading #1

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When it comes to isolating yourself from others and being in the most strenuous environment, we humans tend to seek out ways to tap into our unconscious ( incomoda) state and be able to feel that sense of dopamine and pursue that freedom, which allows us to step outside ourselves and feel alive. Alone at the top of the ship’s mast surrounded by nothing, but sea and sky, Ishmael ascends himself into a dream-like trance. Herman Melville’s, “Moby Dick”, this accurate moment transforms a simple task of whale-watching into an intense reflection of the human mind. As Melville describes in this quote on Chapter 35, “ “but lulled into such such an opium-like listlessness of vacant, unconscious reverie is this absent-minded youth by the blending cadence of waves with thought, that at last he loses his identity; takes the mystic ocean at his feet for the visible image of that deep, blue, bottomless soul, pervading mankind and nature….” (172) Melville demonstrates the beauty and rhythm of the ocean can disintegrate the boundaries of thought and reality. Melville uses philosophical imagery and hypnotic language in this quote to explore the meaning of isolation and nature can be blurred by the line of self-awareness and self-loss. The passage becomes more about daydreaming, it slowly becomes a meditation form to Ishmael and how easy it is the dangers of transcending and the fragile nature of the human identity.

We describe the ocean as a marvelous one of a kind part of our existence as human beings and planet earth. We try to connect ourselves with the sea in the phrase, “..blending cadence of waves”(172), Melville starts to incorporate the language tone with rhythm and imagery in the passage mirrors of the sea; it makes you feel like you’re in a hypnotic state. He merges the sound and the mind together and creates this melodic tone of repetition and softness, just like the waves of the ocean. It makes both the reader and Ishmael be in a trance-like state. The sea’s rhythm becomes like a lullaby, almost like a natural feeling of comfort and safety, imagine like a rocking chair where your mother would carry and sing to you to fall asleep, it soothes you and forget about everything around you. Through this sensory and mental imagery, Melville uses these effects because he suggests that the power of nature can weaken the human consciousness, which I find credible, hence why some people tend to connect more and live in areas surrounded by trees and nature. We can see in the chapter how Ishmael is starting to slowly dissociate himself from everything around him and his mind starts to synchronize with something bigger and dangerous, the ocean. The more he surrounded himself  with the ocean itself, the more he started to lose himself mentally wise.

One of my preferred parts of the phrase in the chapter, “ opium-like listlessness” (172) Melville reveals both the pleasure and the danger of losing oneself in their own thoughts. The word “opium”, which defines an actual narcotic, is like an escape and intoxication and having freedom from the pain and reality. I think for Ishamel the ocean became a drug for him, and starts to seduce him into a state of numbness and forgetfulness, obviously being under the influence of a drug, which is why he uses the imagery of the word, “ opium”. Melville demonstrates to us in this scene of the chapter, that transcendency is not a part of an understanding, but more of an erasure. He demonstrates to us how Ishamel starts to lose his identity and experiences both the pleasure and terror. The sea is giving Ishamel the freedom he wanted from the beginning, but it will also consume him entirely spiritually and mentally.

The most philosophical part of the chapter to me was Ishamel being on the mast-head of the ship. The mast-head represents a place between heaven and earth, Ishamel is among the sky and sea. The higher he rises, the more he isolates himself from reality. Melville uses this metaphor for the mast-head as a separation from reality due to the fact he is up in the mast-head, which disconnects Ishamel from bottom, obviously the human world (earth). The scene reflects the balance between self-knowledge and self-loss through the unlimited whether is nature or knowledge or even faith. We see Ishmael’s identity start to fade due to the immenses of existence he confronts which makes the human thought be diminished.

Herman Melville portrays the conflict of human consciousness with a perception of wanting to transcend to a sense of freedom, even if it costs us into disappearing into a state of the unknown. Just has how Ishmael’s trance in the mast-head becomes more of a distraction for him from reality, we as humans tend to seek the same way to escape the reality of existence. It’s what makes us feel human at one point in our lives, even if it make us feel has if we are losing and have that feeling of discomfort with ourselves, it makes us be who we are.