Romanticism has been a key theme and subject within American classics for roughly two-hundred years now. As a literary, artistic, and intellectual movement, it promotes the basis of exploring human thoughts on nature, emotion, individualism, and the depths of the imagination. This movement had occurred as a response to the Age of Enlightenment, alongside mass industrialization. Herman Melville’s Moby Dick is one key staple within the American literary canon, and is an example that explores a potentially darker side to Romanticism through his characters upon the Pequod, most notably the narrator Ishmael. Chapter 35 has Ishmael diving into the experience of being upon the Mast Head, and the way it impacts sailors. With the use of “you” and intense imagery, Ishmael describes his perspective on taking a high position above the sea atop the Pequod. As the audience designated narrator of the novel, his thought process attacks his own character and is highly philosophical. Melville here is documenting the romantic movement through Ishmael as a way to demonstrate humanity’s innate pull towards it.

Ishmael as our narrator describes, “There you stand, a hundred feet above the silent decks, striding along the deep, as if the masts were gigantic stilts, while beneath you and between your legs, as it were, swim the hugest monsters of the sea, even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous colossus at old Rhodes. There you stand lost in the infinite series of the sea, with nothing ruffled but the waves. The tranced ship indolently rolls; the drowsy trade winds blow; everything resolves you into languor.” (169) Not only does this promote the image of imagining ourself upon the ship alongside him, but the idle yet active task on being above the mast head sounds just as boring as the languor Ishmael mentions. It is reflective of how romanticism is viewed, and how natural it comes to Ishmael. Melville shows how merely being surrounded by nature in and on its own drags this pensive and provocative emotion out of the narrator. He himself states how he is not focused on his job of spotting whales, breaking a bit of a fourth wall to describe how he is in the midst of daydreaming to give the readers a means of envisioning how all encompassing the sea is. There is a calm that lulls him, the “languor” and the rocking sensation of the ship take over his rational senses to scout for Moby-Dick.  

Ishmael chooses to over complicate how he falls into this philosophical bout of romantic feelings. Humanizing and characterizing the inanimate objects around him, such as the Pequod itself, is a means for Ishmael to connect to a larger perspective. The ship is mostly subject to this phenomenon, as it is the only thing that keeps Ishmael relatively grounded and terrestrial on a sea that refuses to remain the same. He has to be attached to what keeps him afloat, even saying how “The tranced ship indolently rolls…” (169) The ship has become tranced and hypnotized by the ocean, not Ishmael until he climbs up for his shift upon the mast-head. Connecting to the Pequod drags him into his own thoughts. This vast ocean of “the hugest monsters of the sea,” (169) this large blue mystery that houses the very thing that will pay him for his trouble, it is all he can see or talk about within this chapter dedicated solely to the mast-head. Melville here implies within this passage that Ishmael is being pushed into a state of reflection, rather than specifically choosing to reach into the depths of his mind on his own. It is indicative of a darker side to romanticism, but nonetheless does it break down Ishmael’s defenses on the job as he is “resolved into languor.” (169)

Melville’s language throughout Moby Dick holds purpose in the chapter it serves. Ishmael’s words within chapter 35 read as deeply rooted in mythology itself, “even as ships once sailed between the boots of the famous colossus at old Rhodes…” (169) This is a common trend within romanticism, in which the movement utilizes mythology to explore the wonders of the imagination. Working alongside the metaphor of “as if the masts were gigantic stilts…” (169) readers connect the idea of being a colossus, a tall statue that matches, or even surpasses the height of the mast-head Ishmael stands upon. While the statue itself no longer stands in its original location thanks to an earthquake, it puts readers into picturing sailing under its massive size. Even if the mast-head proves to be a high location in which someone is able to look down at the sea as nothing but a spectator, the position on the Pequod lulls the individual to view the sea in a romantic lens. Just as the colossus at old Rhodes stares off at the same scene everyday, Ishmael similarly can only see the grand ocean. 

Addressing the readers, “There you stand lost in the infinite series of the sea…” (169) is an honest viewpoint to how romanticism focuses on individualism as well. Readers are capable of being solitary within the situation presented upon the Pequod. While being in Ishmael’s shoes, there is a dreadful and dull sense of loneliness atop the mast-head. Even if he is not necessarily alone on the ship, he is expressing the individual thought that criticizes his capability to do his job properly. An individual perspective allows for both imperfection and flaws, something wholly human while in the expanse of nature. 

With the romantic movement having been a response and product of fast industrialization, it is no surprise that it was killing whaling as a business. Even though whaling had been considered a first within American trade, the introduction of new fuel sources had begun to make it all obsolete. Industrialization itself had drawn people away from nature, away from the ocean, away and off of the Pequod in the search for Moby-Dick. Romanticism puts a clear yet muddled focus upon the natural world, emotion winning over reason. As the novel’s narrator, Ishmael himself is a flawed yet observant person. “The Mast-Head” as a chapter demonstrates the lack of excitement for any sailor who would find himself paralyzingly high. Using religious, mythological, and natural allegories, Ishmael is Melville’s direct conduit into what readers can analyze as romanticism. Moreover, the crew of the Pequod eventually show a much darker side of the movement. Whether or not it is a central key theme to Moby Dick, it is unmistakably shown through the language describing the sea.