Prior to setting off on his 3 year long voyage, Ishmael is tasked with the important decision of choosing between the three whaling ships docked in Nantucket. His decision to choose the Pequod, is entirely based on his admiration and romanticized notions of the whaling ship which he describes as: “a thing of trophies. A cannibal of a craft, tricking herself forth in the chased bones of her enemies(78).”
After having gotten to know Ishmael in the past 16-19 chapters, it is no surprise that he is inclined to court death, evidenced by the quick friendship he began with the intimidating Queequeg. However, he seems determined to board the ship despite any protest or challenge, even after the prophetic and ominous warnings by Elijah, who equates signing onto the ship as signing away your soul. Elijah seems to know more than anyone is capable of divulging about Captain Ahab, but does not go into depth:
“But nothing about that thing that happened to him off Cape Horn, long ago, when he lay like dead for three days and nights; nothing about that deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa?—heard nothing about that, eh? Nothing about the silver calabash he spat into? And nothing about his losing his leg last voyage, according to the prophecy. Didn’t ye hear a word about them matters and something more, eh?(101)”
His name, based on the biblical reference to the prophet Elijah and King Ahab, is either an attempt to scare Ishmael, or his way of hinting that this prophecy (of biblical scale), which even Captain Peleg seems forbidden to mention in Ahab’s presence, is already on its path of being concluded. It seems even captain peleg is incapable of forming a concrete opinion on Captain Ahab who is both “a grand, ungodly, godlike man(88),” as well as “a good man– not a pious, good man, like Bildad, but a swearing good man–(89).” I wouldn’t say that the chances of this voyage ending on a good note are high for Ishmael and Queequeg, but I would say, based on Elijah’s warnings that they are inevitable or otherwise fated.
There is a certain quality to these chapters, that make everything feel like it’s clicking into place, not in the usual narrative sense, but like seeing a prophecy play out. Ishmael decides almost at once to join the Pequod based on a feeling of rightness, and even Elijah tells him “you are just the man for him– the likes of ye. Morning to ye, shipmates, morning! Oh! When ye get there, tell’em i’ve concluded not to make myself one of ‘em.” I take this to mean that in Elijah’s journey, he has decided, upon meeting Ishmael, to resist the magnetic pull of the Pequod and of the infamous Captain Ahab. It seems, unfortunately, that Elijah has bequeathed this burden of knowing to Ishmael. Only time and the progression of reading this book will tell us if this is true.
Good interpretive close reading here. You’re taking on the clues and biblical illusions and asking what they are doing and why. Keep at it!
Hi Angelina, I really like how you connected Elijah’s warning to the sense of fate that begins to surround the Pequod in these chapters. I also noticed that moment where Ishmael feels an almost instinctive pull toward the ship, as if he’s not choosing it but being chosen by it. It’s interesting how Elijah seems both unhinged and prophetic at once, which makes his words even more unsettling. When he calls Ishmael “just the man for him,” it feels less like a compliment and more like a confirmation that Ishmael is already caught in something he can’t escape. I think Melville uses this encounter to blur the line between destiny and decision, suggesting that by the time Ishmael signs his name, the voyage and its doom have already begun.