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.